A "growing concern for Seahawks fans in recent seasons was their inability to buy single-game tickets from anybody but resale brokers," but the team now is "selling those tickets for the same inflated prices brokers do," according to Geoff Baker of the SEATTLE TIMES. The club in some cases is "pricing seats even higher than secondary marketplaces like StubHub and Vivid Seats." The Seahawks last winter "pulled about 4,000 season-ticket accounts from known brokers under the guise of giving back to fans." The team "has a season-ticket waiting list of 12,000 and made 2,000 of the former broker-held seats available to those fans each week for $62 apiece." But the Seahawks "also earmarked 2,000 ticket accounts taken from brokers for their dynamic-pricing venture," and in some cases, the team is "now charging more than brokers for seats." The Seahawks "issued a statement that dynamic pricing has gone well and they expect to sell out every home game." They also "correctly noted that dynamic pricing is common in other sports," as the Mariners "have used it" since '12. But unlike the Seahawks, the Mariners "have 81 home games instead of eight, which limits demand." The Mariners also "aren’t keeping thousands of fans on waiting lists while they sell seats on the side for four or five times face value." Baker: "If this sounds like a cash grab, that’s because it is. The Seahawks have moved to squeeze out brokers and secure secondary-market money for themselves." But the Seahawks "no longer sell out instantly; their own prices are too high." Even loyal fans "are balking at the $464.40 the Seahawks want for two goal-line seats in the very last row of CenturyLink Field" to see the Browns in December (SEATTLE TIMES, 10/5).
