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reselling Patriots tickets
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kelkat
Double-A
Joined: 04 Aug 2006
Posts: 25
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 Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 10:27 am Post subject: reselling Patriots tickets |
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Okay, so the Pats don't want people scalping their tickets for huge profits. But now season ticket holders may be losing their tickets if their names appear on a list of 13,000 customers released by StubHub by court order (see LA Times article linked below). That seems like overkill to me. Reselling tickets is so widespread. How can the Patriots expect their fans not to do it? It seems like they're setting themselves up to really alienate their fan base.
LA Times: Patriots win bid to ID fans who used ticket resale site |
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cubfanindy
Major Leagues
Joined: 29 Jul 2006
Posts: 174
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 11:33 am Post subject: |
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I have some mixed feelings about this. On one hand, yes, scalping has gotten out of control. Because of it, the only way to get tickets for the most popular teams at face value is to add yourself to the season ticket waiting list and buy those as soon as your number comes up. However, it is a challenge to make it to all of your team's games, even in the NFL. In baseball, it's darn near impossible. I'd like to see scalping go away entirely. That being said, this move by the Patriots does not accomplish that. A quote from that article:
"StubHub argued that the Patriots' request violated its confidentiality agreement with its customers and said the team wanted to create a monopoly on the resale market for its own tickets.
"It is plain that the Patriots seek this highly confidential customer information to further their unlawful, anti-competitive campaign against StubHub and its customers," StubHub said in court documents."
I agree with this assessment. The Cubs have this at Wrigley. While scalping is illegal in Illinois, it is somehow legal to have these team sanctioned scalping booths just across the street from the ballpark. They charge the same, if not higher, exorbitant rates as scalpers, yet this is somehow legal??? I'd be curious to know more about how this works, so if there are any attorneys out there familiar with these laws, please chime in.
Make no mistake. This isn't the Patriots watching out for their fans and attempting to eliminate scalping, it's an effort to ensure that all scalping goes through their own resale market so they, rather than their fans, see the profit for this.
Another good quote from the article:
""I think there are probably a lot of good, loyal fans who for whatever reason can't make it to a game and obviously don't want to eat the ticket," said Tony Troilo, a season ticket holder from Mansfield, Mass. "
Granted, there is a big difference between eating the ticket and charging 10 times face value for it. |
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SportsDad
Double-A
Joined: 30 May 2007
Posts: 25
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| Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2007 1:44 pm Post subject: Illinois scalping regulations |
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I have not had time to review this entirely, but here's a link with states and their individual scalping laws. It looks like it's only illegal to scalp tickets "near the facility" in Chicago. I know some of those brokers you are talking about are right across the street from Wrigley, so I don't know how they are allowing that.
It also looks like some of the regulations actually favor the scalper in Illinois - "Prohibits an event sponsor from restricting purchaser's ability to resell a ticket if the reseller is registered." I have to believe that Stubhub is registered. If that restriction were in Massachusetts, the Patriots would not be able to harass season ticket holders who sold their seats.
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2006/rpt/2006-R-0761.htm |
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kelkat
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Joined: 04 Aug 2006
Posts: 25
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