Oregon Considering Scalping Sunshine Law

As ticket scalping completes its transition from shadowy enterprise to legitimate business venture promoted by Major League Baseball, and as etickets make it possible for anyone with a high speed internet connection and a little luck to get tickets to any event, we all have to accept that ticket reselling is here to stay.

Once a ticket has been sold by the team/promoter/theater, it is no longer worth face value; it is now worth whatever the market will bear.  A key to an efficient market is information.  That is, the more information is out there, the better the market functions.  Professional ticket resellers have an advantage in the secondary ticket market in that they have an idea how many tickets are out there, where as customers often do not.  That imbalance of information gives sellers a distinct advantage in setting prices.

Some Oregon state legislators are looking to help out consumers a little bit with their new “Hannah Montana bill,” a piece of legislation introduced last March after parents all over the state were outraged over the amount of tickets scalpers had and what they were charging for seats to a Hannah Montana concert.

The bull requires that ticket resellers publicize:

SECTION 3. (1) …

(a) The total number of unsold tickets the reseller or operator has for resale at the time the reseller or operator advertises or solicits the resale;

(b) Every class, tier or level of admission ticket that the reseller or operator has available for resale, together with a description of the type of entry, seating location, services or other privileges associated with each class, tier or level; and

(c) The total number of admission tickets in each class, tier or level that the reseller or operator has available for resale.

Given that a buyer can easily do a search on Stubhub and eBay to get a good idea of what’s out there, there is actually plenty of information out there as to what tickets are available.  Where sellers have a real advantage is at the venue where the event is taking place in the hours before the event starts.  Bills like this do nothing to alleviate the imbalance in information.  Still, I appreciate the sentiment and hope the bill passes.

The Recession Has Hit the Red Sox

The Boston Globe has a great article on parts of the current economic state of the Red Sox, who have been one of, if not the most successful teams in recent years.

Ticket sales are down.  The Red Sox are currently riding a 469 consecutive game sellout streak that could end this month.  There are still seats available for most April home games and for about 30 games this season.  Sales of the premium hospitality suites are also down this year.

Sponsorships also took a hit.  The Red Sox lost a six and seven figure deals with PC Connection and Nikon respectively.  Local sponsors Filene’s Basement and Cambridge Eye Center also pulled out, while DHL and Bano America scaled down their deals.

The slump has also affected neighborhood businesses.  The secondary ticket market has taken a huge hit.  Local broker, Ace Tickets, reports about a 40% drop in ticket prices for Opening Day (the Red Sox held ticket prices steady this year).  The Howard Johnson Inn, which sits across the street from Fenway, usually sells out for Opening Day, but is only about 60% filled this year.

I think that the worst news for the Red Sox is actually the fact that their television ratings dropped 20% from 2007 to 2008, and the pregame show on NESN dropped by 33%.  That tells me that in addition to the economy, which should turn around, the Red Sox are facing a decline in passion among the fan base.  Watching TV is free so the declining ratings can’t be blamed on the economy.  The Red Sox had a good team last year – they made it to within a game of the World Series and they were the defending champions.

The Red Sox have been the best run team in baseball in the past few years on and off the field.   And even as that has been the case, fan interest waned significantly last year and seems to be down even more this year.

All that said, the Red Sox are still in much better financial shape than most teams and their ticket sales still dwarf most teams.  It’s far from panic time in Boston, but you can be sure the team is aware of the current trends and is at least a little worried.

Values Abound for Baseball Tickets This Season

Ticket brokers lie about the ticket market.  They will tell you that tickets get more expensive as game day approaches when that it patently untrue.  they will tell you a game is sold out when that is patently untrue.  And they routinely overinflate the value of tickets on the secondary market when talking to the press.

So you know things are going to be bad when brokers are already, a month before the regular season opens, acknowledging that the secondary market is going to be soft this year.  In this article, representatives from both Stubhub and Acetickets both acknowledge that prices are lower than last year.  They also claim that far more tickets are being sold, which I believe.  Season ticket holders have laid out a lot of money that, in these times, many of them would like back.  That’s not going to change any time soon and the increased supply is going to help deflate prices even further.

More on the St. Louis Police Stole From Scalpers Story

Kristen Hinman at the Riverfront Times, St. Louis’ free weekly paper, continues her quest to get access to all the records related to the ticket scandal from the 2004 World Series.   Long story short, police officers allegedly arrested a scalper selling World Series tickets and the either used the tickets themselves or gave them to friends to use.  Since the tickets were scanned at the gate and not torn, they thought they would be able to return them to evidence without anyone noticing.  They were wrong.

The other part of the allegations come from the scalper himself, who claims the officers stole some of his money.

Colorado Refuses to Limit Scalping

The Colorado Senate Business Affairs Committee unanimously rejected a measure that would have put a cap on ticket scalping.   The proposed legislation would have prohibited anyone from selling tickets for more than 25% over face value.

Since anti-scalping legislation is largely unenforced (not to mention unenforceable), this isn’t a huge deal in terms of the ticket market.  But the fact that not a single Colorado State Senator on the committee felt a political need to vote for the bill is indicative of what I think is a growing acceptance of ticket scalping.

More Info Coming Soon St. Louis Police Officers Who Stole World Series Tickets

During the 2006 World Series, 8 police officers decided to keep some of the tickets they confiscated from scalpers and give them out to family and friends.  After the tickets were used, they were returned to the cops who put them back into evidence.  This was a crime that could not have happened in the past when tickets were torn at the gate.  Thanks to scanning technology, it was pretty easy to do.

But when scalpers overheards cops talking about what they’d done, the scalpers reported the cops and an investigation followed.  The officers were suspended and demoted, but not charged with criminal wrongdoing.  The police department did not want to release their findings.

John Chasnoff, a member of the Coalition Against Police Crimes and Repression, sued the department in July 2007 and the Court just ordered that the report be released.

Yankees to Give Away Tickets; Scalpers Look to Profit

The first games at the new Yankee Stadium are a pair of exhibition games against the Cubs on April 3 and 4.  The Yankees just announced that season ticket holders are going to get free tickets to both games, with the remainder of seats selling for 25 cents to $50.

People already have 314 listings on Stubhub for the first game with prices ranging from $90 to $14,118.  378 sets of tickets are on sale for the second game at $75 to $14118.

Denver City Councilman Looking to Legalize Online Scalping

On December 15,  Councilman Michael Hancock introduced a bill that would allow people to resell tickets above face value online.  The proposal would keep Denver’s ban on scalping tickets in public areas.  Hancock tried legalizing that in August, but the Denver Police Department’s complaints that scalping in public areas is dangerous was enough to end that bill’s chance of passage.

Ticket scalping is legal in Colorado outside of Denver.

Vancouver Olympic Committee Tries To Stop Ticket Scalping

Last Thursday, December 11, people who won the right to buy tickets to the 2010 Winter Olmypics were notified which tickets they could get.  By Friday, tickets were listed on multiple ticket reselling websites.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee is taking a hard-line stance against scalping, even saying they they are going to hire secret shoppers to identify which tickets are being resold.  Once those tickets are identified, they will be invalidated.

Given that Major League Baseball has a formal business relationship with Stubhub, I can’t imagine any baseball teams doing something similar, though it would be nice if they would at least crack down on the scalpers who have hoarded season tickets.