New Angels Plan Prohibits Massive Online Ticket Resale

Angels To Place Restrictions On Resale Of Tickets In ‘07

With ticket demand “at record levels,” the Angels unveiled a policy effective next season under which fans “cannot resell tickets to more than 20 games and must limit the resale price to three times face value,” according to Bill Shaikin of the L.A. TIMES. The Angels “also have barred customers from resale via any means other than the ticket exchange featured on the team website, where the team collects a fee for each transaction.” Angels Dir of Marketing & Ticket Sales Robert Alvarado said that the Angels “aren’t yet sure how to enforce that restriction,” but he added that the team “would target significant numbers of sales.” Alvarado: “Are we going after the occasional user? No.” Shaikin notes the Angels are also “reviewing large accounts, asking customers to explain why they need so many tickets and how often they might use them all.” Alvarado said that the team “might not renew some of those tickets ... in an effort to free seats for the 1,700 people on the waiting list for season tickets.” The Angels sold a record 32,000 season tickets this year, and are on pace for a fourth-straight attendance record (L.A. TIMES, 8/28).

FOR RESALE: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Eric Fisher notes more than 60 teams throughout the four major pro team sports currently have deals with secondary ticketing companies. The Eagles directed fans to RazorGator after tickets sold out within hours. The arrangement “created howls of protest from fans,” generated “several days of negative local media coverage and even prompted accusations of the Eagles improperly funneling tickets out of the primary market to RazorGator.” But Eagles President Joe Banner said, “Once the initial furor died down, I became convinced we had done the right thing. ... This is unquestionably going to be part of all ticketing going forward” (SBJ, 8/28 issue).

MASTER OF THEIR DOMAIN: BUSINESSWEEK’s Sarah Lacy reports Ticketmaster “has expanded its fledgling TicketExchange resale site to include concerts and other events,” and the company in the spring began a lobbying campaign in some states “to get legislation making online ticket buying and selling for even $1 over face value illegal unless the team or venue controls it and gets a cut of the proceeds.” Such legislation would benefit Ticketmaster, which already has “exclusive agreements with some 44 pro teams to resell season seats on TicketExchange.” Ticketmaster has even attempted to “‘turn off’ tickets that were resold on sites like eBay and StubHub by invalidating the bar code” (BUSINESSWEEK, 9/4 issue).