Any luck on Ticket Exchange?

[Bill Lee]

Why is it that scalping tickets is anything the Commonwealth of MA gives one tiny **** about? There shouldn't be a single minute in any year wasted on any police investigations/stings/whatever of scalping.

If Kraft and the Patriots care that much about the alleged evils of scalping, let them deal with it themselves. They could deal with it if they actually cared: For starters, completely stop issuing "hard" tickets and make everything print-at-home PDFs (and mail out tickets printed on plain 8.5x11 paper for those who want/needed something physical sent to them). And they could monitor Ace, Stubhub, and void any tickets they see there. (Of course, that would put them in the embarrassing situation of voiding some tickets they threw the scalpers' way themselves.)

As your post suggests, they don't actually care. In fact the aftermarket is their ally.

People might want to listen to:

Nathan Hubbard on Zombie Bands, Ticket Trends, and Twitter Comebacks​

around the 46:00 mark. It's the former CEO of Ticketmaster saying that (at least in basketball, probably true to a good degree with football and other sports too) the majority of the season ticket holders are the aftermarket entities (not fans), and the teams are OK with that because the tickets are all bought and paid for months before the season starts, whether or not the team is any good. It's basically an insurance policy for the clubs -- the aftermarket is taking the risk that the team might not be good at all, or might fall out of contention later in the season. The aftermarket is happy to do this because they make a lot of money if the team is good all season long and/or (especially) if the team makes the playoffs (where huge profits can be made). The teams take in less overall money in a good year but they get paid months in advance and they shed their risk, the aftermarket has done the math and has decided that it's worth paying the vig and taking that risk, and everyone who matters is happy. Think of the additional money you pay for a scalped ticket as paying for the owner's insurance policy that protects them against a ****ty season.

Also the teams typically have one and only one official ticketing partner (who pays a fee for that right), yet customers of course use more than that one partner's services. Allowing the aftermarket to own season tickets (either directly or via shell agents) allows the clubs to gain the use of those other agencies to sell their product yet obey their agreement with their official ticket partner. So the team gets to keep the fee they get from their official ticket partner yet also get access to countless other unofficial ticket partners!

So, season tickets are not about the fans, they're a vehicle that clubs use to offload risk onto the aftermarket and to broaden their market footprint. If they shut down scalping (i.e. the aftermarket), they are just hurting themselves, so it will never happen.

 

[QuantumMechanic]

How many people are currently on the list?

They won't say.

Only thing they'll say is when the people currently getting season tix for the first time joined the waiting list. I believe they are up to people who joined in early 2003. I'm sure the seats they've destroyed to make those two idiotic lounges hasn't helped matters.

 

[Bourne Patriot]

I'm based in England so rarely can attend games, but a few years ago I went to the home opener vs Bengals and also the AFCCG win over the Ravens. I sat in some of the cheapest seats available, and I'm convinced I paid around $100 for each game.

I'm looking on stubhub now and the cheapest seats are over $300 for a regular season game vs the Panthers.

Is this because I'm buying at the wrong time or has the demand gone way up, as some here have mentioned?

 

[kerm7807]

We've been on the waiting list for 8 years at least. Starting last year it was almost impossible to get tickets. The only ones we could get were Thursday night games. So far this year, no luck. It's discouraging and the only way we can get them now is pay 3 to 4 times face value. That's insane. Guess we'll be watching more from home.

 

[1960Pats]

We've been on the waiting list for 8 years at least. Starting last year it was almost impossible to get tickets. The only ones we could get were Thursday night games. So far this year, no luck. It's discouraging and the only way we can get them now is pay 3 to 4 times face value. That's insane. Guess we'll be watching more from home.

Soon I won't be watching at all.

Kraft and the band of 32 are playing us all for fools.

Maybe because we are.

 

[1960Pats]

I have a question about the cost of seats along the sideline. I was looking at tics on SH in section #106 (at about the 10yl on the home side). The seats in row 32 are 40% higher than those in row 6. Does that mean that the front rows are obstructed by the players on the sideline?

 

[Darrone]

Issues with Ticket Exchange this Year?


To any of my waitlist friends, or frequent ticket exchange users, have you been having issues this year? I've been on the list for almost 10 years, and I've used the exchange to get tickets 3-4 times a year, including for a dozen playoff games.

This year has been different. Every time I try to access, I get the below:
"An unusually large number of visitors are accessing our site. You've been placed in line and will be granted access to the site in the order in which you arrived. "

And it doesn't go away, i've let it run for 3-4 days, and it keeps reloading, giving the same message. I've emailed the Gilette ticket address, and gotten the boilerplate "there's a lot of interest in the KC game", but its still happening today, even at 7am. I haven't seen this happen even with AFC championship games, big grudge games, etc.

SO, tldr, anyone else having this issue?

 

[FCB02062]

If they lay another egg in new Orleans I suspect there'll be plenty of tickets available for Houston...

 

[king_ejd]

Bob Jensen, the tollbooth operator from the jets newsgroups?

 

[bresna]

To any of my waitlist friends, or frequent ticket exchange users, have you been having issues this year? I've been on the list for almost 10 years, and I've used the exchange to get tickets 3-4 times a year, including for a dozen playoff games.

This year has been different. Every time I try to access, I get the below:
"An unusually large number of visitors are accessing our site. You've been placed in line and will be granted access to the site in the order in which you arrived. "

And it doesn't go away, i've let it run for 3-4 days, and it keeps reloading, giving the same message. I've emailed the Gilette ticket address, and gotten the boilerplate "there's a lot of interest in the KC game", but its still happening today, even at 7am. I haven't seen this happen even with AFC championship games, big grudge games, etc.

SO, tldr, anyone else having this issue?

Yes, I was also unable to get the screen with the games listed quite a bit lately with the same error that you got. I never let it run for 3-4 days though!

 

[PatsDeb]

In the last two years the Exchange has been overrun by scalpers with computers posing as real fans. If you can get on, the tickets you try to get are gone before you can enter your info, and they appear on StubHub a few minutes later at triple the price. It has rendered the Exchange unusable. In order to fix it, the Pats have to ban anyone who buys tickets on the Exchange and then sells them for a profit, rather than going to the game. Not holding my breath.

 

[FireGooddell]

Issues with Ticket Exchange this Year?


To any of my waitlist friends, or frequent ticket exchange users, have you been having issues this year? I've been on the list for almost 10 years, and I've used the exchange to get tickets 3-4 times a year, including for a dozen playoff games.

This year has been different. Every time I try to access, I get the below:
"An unusually large number of visitors are accessing our site. You've been placed in line and will be granted access to the site in the order in which you arrived. "

And it doesn't go away, i've let it run for 3-4 days, and it keeps reloading, giving the same message. I've emailed the Gilette ticket address, and gotten the boilerplate "there's a lot of interest in the KC game", but its still happening today, even at 7am. I haven't seen this happen even with AFC championship games, big grudge games, etc.

SO, tldr, anyone else having this issue?

I've been dealing with the same thing. I've had a lot of luck the last few years on the exchange. This year has been brutal. I saw my first ticket just a little while ago (a single for the Texans game). Then shortly later I got booted and haven't been able to get back in.

 

[FireGooddell]

Just saw 2 for the Texans game. Wasn't able to snag them.

 

[Darrone]

Something is legit different this year compared to even the playoff games in January. It wasn't ever super easy, but I am legit locked out 99% of the time. I can't even get to the screen where I'm told there are no tickets. That hasn't happened to me before this year. Super frustrating.

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Something is legit different this year compared to even the playoff games in January. It wasn't ever super easy, but I am legit locked out 99% of the time. I can't even get to the screen where I'm told there are no tickets. That hasn't happened to me before this year. Super frustrating.

Same...95% of time can't get in...system is officially broken...sucks

 

[FCB02062]

Yup, locked out every time I try to get in...

 

[pats4life12]

I JUST GOT 2 TICKETS! I haven't got any tickets in the past 2 seasons on the exchange but got 2 for this Sunday. It was really all luck just kept checking. I thought it was going to timeout but it didn't.

 

[Tony2046]

Yeahhhh

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Yeahhhh

View attachment 18014

This picture is starting to haunt me in my dreams.

Luckily next year I get my season tix

 

[jbrite911]

Issues with Ticket Exchange this Year?


To any of my waitlist friends, or frequent ticket exchange users, have you been having issues this year? I've been on the list for almost 10 years, and I've used the exchange to get tickets 3-4 times a year, including for a dozen playoff games.

This year has been different. Every time I try to access, I get the below:
"An unusually large number of visitors are accessing our site. You've been placed in line and will be granted access to the site in the order in which you arrived. "

And it doesn't go away, i've let it run for 3-4 days, and it keeps reloading, giving the same message. I've emailed the Gilette ticket address, and gotten the boilerplate "there's a lot of interest in the KC game", but its still happening today, even at 7am. I haven't seen this happen even with AFC championship games, big grudge games, etc.

SO, tldr, anyone else having this issue?

OK. I have had access to season tickets for 21 years now. One friend actually owns them, but myself and another friend pay for them every year and attend the games. That being said, I have always been able to get extra tickets off the exchange up until a year to a year and a half ago.

It is total crap and trying to get tickets off the exchange is now a nightmare and nearly impossible. I am 100% convinced that bots are buying these tickets up faster than any human can make the purchase.

I can also tell you that the entire reason for the ticket exchange was for SEASON TICKET HOLDERS TO SELL THEIR TICKETS TO OTHER SEASON TICKET HOLDERS.

I feel as though this team is taking a giant **** on its season ticket holder base simply because it can and I can tell you unequivocally that I will NOT be paying a dime to come to Gillette post Brady BECAUSE of their greedy behavior.

We already get porked on ridiculously over priced tickets(2nd highest in the league atm) as well as ridiculously overpriced concession stand items as well as PARKING.

Now if I had no issues getting extra tickets for friends of mine so they can COME WITH US to the games, it would make me feel differently, but many times, it is myself and one other dude that go simply because we cant get tickets off the exchange for 2 to 4 of our OTHER friends to go with us and tailgate.

So what we have started to do, is to tailgate with our buddies at someones house and WATCH THE GAME ON TELEVISION.

We would RATHER be at the games though...WITH OUR FRIENDS, but its impossible to get extra tickets without spending 10-20 HOURS on the damn exchange.