Patriots sue StubHub

[PatsWickedPissah]

I stand corrected on the responsibility issue.

I know about the Pats reselling of ST tix as you describe.

However, my point was to let the tix be sold at market value as I stated.
After all, the Pats knowingly let Ticketmaster and other re-sellers sell tickets at market value. Why not the ST holders?

 

[fgssand]

Phase one....effectively shut down Stubhub / Craigslist / Ebay from reselling Patriots tickets.

Phase two - watch a new ticket consortium evolve, led by the Kraft family. You will see Red Sox, Bruin, Celtic organizations along with major colleges get into the highly lucrative ticket aftermarket. I do believe they will throw a bone to season ticket holders that are willing to sell unused tickets back to the club in the form of some kind of a credit percentage on the dollar gain.

Think about how much money is available for these owners to snare away from the aforementioned "legal" ticket resellers. Those profits will find their way back to ownership, sooner rather than later. Mark my words.

Al least, by doing it this way - I still have the ability to pay a ridiculous $400 dollars for a seat if I so choose (or $3,000 for a Superbowl seat) and know that it is sanctioned by the various clubs.

 

[PatsFan37]

I stand corrected on the responsibility issue.

I know about the Pats reselling of ST tix as you describe.

However, my point was to let the tix be sold at market value as I stated.
After all, the Pats knowingly let Ticketmaster and other re-sellers sell tickets at market value. Why not the ST holders?

My turn to apologize, in retrospect my tone was far too harsh and you have a good point about letting the ticketholder reap some of the benefits.

OTOH, I think the Pats have the better point. They are selling tickets at well below market value in order to (1) sell out the stadium so the local broadcast isn't blacked out and (2) allow folks to go to the games who don't have lots of money but got in line before the Superbowl years.

The question is this: who owns the unrealized gain on those tickets, originally sold at below market prices and now being resold at scalpers prices?

To me, the season ticket holder gets the lower prices as a benefit of promising to go to the game. If he does not, all he deserves is to get his original money back. The Patriots, who are producing the entertainment, have first rights to any additional money.

In suing StubHub, the Pats are helping may be helping themselves, but they're also preserving access to the games for ordinary fans, by cutting off an easy market for STH's to sell tickets at very high prices. Remember, the same number of tickets will still be sold. Keeping the prices down makes it more likely that ordinary folks will be at the games. And less likely that STH's will succumb to temptation and sell their tickets for the money.

It's December 17th and 20 degrees out and you could go to the game or you could sell your two tickets to StubHub for $1000 to a Texans fan. The Pats cut off that market and its more likely either you'll be there, or you'll have sold your ticket to another Pats fan through TicketExchange.

That seems right to me. What the Dolphins do is their business.

 

[QuiGon]

Secondly, Kraft should do what the Phins and others do. Set up a public website where ST holders can sell their unused seats to the public at whatever price the market would support. That would help ST holders who could not attend certain games. If brokers bought some of these seats, c'est la vie. Note that the ST holder assumes risk of losing their seats should the buyer misbehave.

This is something that more and more franchises in all sports are doing. They see a marketplace and they want a piece of the action, so they provide the ticket re-selling services on their website and take a cut.

 

[robd54]

As a waiting list member who is anxiously awaiting to get my season tickets, I am very happy to see something finally happen. Just the other day I was telling my wife that the team should do something about season ticket holders selling for such a profit. By having so many people ONLY have season tickets to sell them for such a mark up, makes legitimate fans like myself have to wait twice as long to get my seats. I frequently use the ticketExchange, which I think is a GREAT idea and benefit for all of us on the waiting list, but to free up all the seats that are on craigslist, ebay, stubhub, etc, would definately make my waiting period decrease. I hope they continue to pursue this and if they see season ticket holder seats being sold for hundreds of dollars, those people should lose their seats, period. Just my $0.02. GO PATS!

 

[PATSNUTme]

I won't buy a ticket from any ticket agency. I will buy a ticket from an individual holder for a reasonable markup.

If you read the article in the paper you would see that the Patriots do not have to honor tickets tha have been resold. So, if you buy tickets from a broker or Ebay for 3,4 X's face,and show up for the game, how will you feel if you get to your seat and then are asked to leave? Not, saying that they would go that far, but they could ask you the name of the ticket holder that you got the ticket from. don't know? bye- bye!

 

[patchick]

At the risk of getting stampeded by the rush to judgment, it seems the Patriots are trying to keep season's tickets as a way to see the game rather than a way to make money.

Ownership of season's tickets is a kind of 'economic rent' but it's a pretty strained analogy. The Patriots want to spend this 'factor of production' in two ways: (1) to make lots of money on a few expensive seats so they can (2) keep other seats inexpensive for the phalanx of loyal fans who help create a home-team advantage and an atmosphere of appreciation for the team.

When season ticket holders can't use their tickets, the Patriots want the tickets to go to fans at face value, in the interest of fairness. Will people continue to scam tickets? Sure. But the actions of the organization to control scamming means people who invest time (waiting in line, watching the websites) are more likely to get the tickets than those with money. By trying to limit sales to 4 tickets per game and 8 tickets per season, they're trying to get rid of the people who buy in quantity so they can scalp.

The key word is trying. It might not always work, but they're willing to spend money and go to court to make it happen. That all seems reasonable to me.

By encouraging STH's to circumvent the rules, StubHub destroys the atmosphere the Patriots are trying to create.

For all the things the Pats do that pisses off a few of you (not enough bathrooms, parking is expensive, etc.) you'd be making a mistake to miss their overall goals.

Great food for thought. I'd also like to suggest that organized scalping is NOT an example of the glorious free market operating at peak efficiency. It's an example of hoarding and profiteering. The Arizona stadium example was an excellent one...a group of well-funded businesses hoards a resource to create artificial scarcity, then charges vast sums for it to the people whom they successfully locked out of the initial purchase process.

 

[PatsFan-NH]

I think your friend's dad is telling some pretty tall tales, because the mathematics behind that are infinite improbability. Unless he's a club seat holder - they have guaranteed Super Bowl tickets.

Don't know if they are club seats or not. Before the last SB, when we didn't know if we were even going to get to the last one, he was making plans to go. Besides the obvious need for the team to win the game, I asked how he knew his dad would get tickets again, and he said - oh he'll get them. And he did.

No I never believed in the lottery story, but that was what he said.

 

[HEY BRO! WHAT UP?]

This thread is TIGHT.

Your mom is tight. ooooooooohhhh.