Per the New York Times, the Yankees will be revoking season tickets from fans who have been found selling some of their tickets on StubHub.com and other internet ticket sites. According to the Yankees, they have a long-standing policy against the resale of season tickets.
Lonn A. Trost, the Yankees' chief operating officer, said he was not sending a misleading message to season-ticket resellers, while at the same time considering a plan to make the Yankees their own authorized reseller.The real dispicable part of this whole thing is not that the Yankees don't want tickets resold; it's that they want to make sure they get another cut of the pie."It's a violation of our policy to resell tickets," Trost said. "It's in our contract. If you don't want to sign it, you don't have to buy tickets."
If the Yankees start their proposed site -- Pinstripe Marketplace is listed as "coming soon" on Yankees.com -- they would be able to earn money on both the first sale of the tickets and on their subsequent resale. If the plan proceeds, the Yankees would follow the lead of 27 other major league teams that are already in the secondary market, including the Mets.In principle, they don't seem to have a problem with the reselling of their season tickets as long as they get a taste of the action; they want to get their money coming and going.
Yankee operatives apparently troll sites like StubHub.com looking for sellers who list the actual seat numbers of the tickets being sold -- a unique handle on which season tickets they have to revoke. But what about those who don't post the seat numbers?
Fans who post tickets with resellers listing only the section and row numbers are more difficult to hunt down, but Trost said that stadium security will "flood the area" to try to learn who sold the ticket. He did not describe how guards find a ticket buyer sitting in a resold seat.Gah. As the article points out, what the Yankees are attempting to accomplish is tantamount to a witch hunt. Ostensbily, their intention is to prevent scalpers from pricing tickets beyond the reach of Joe Everyfan. What they're more likely to accomplish is to ostracize many long-time fans of the team who have bought season tickets but don't want to simply throw away (or give away) seats for games they can't otherwise attend.Pate said guards have stopped fans who visibly carry StubHub envelopes and questioned them about where they got their tickets, which would help to pursue the season-ticket holder. Trost confirmed the tactic.
The Mets have an online ticket marketplace accessible through their website on which they make a tidy profit on resold tickets: 10% from the seller and 11% from the buyer. However, they have no plans to attack those fans who choose to sell their tickets -- legally, that is -- elsewhere.
The Mets have resold about 6,000 tickets on their marketplace site, which opened this season. Dave Howard, the team's executive vice president of business operations, said, "We don't have a legal policy against reselling on other sites, but we will take action against scalping."The Yankees are the most popular sports franchise on the planet, though it's a wonder how they keep so many of their fans when they pull stunts like this, making clear their view of each fan as little more than a meal ticket. One fan may have had enough:
"I'm contemplating being a Mets fan. I'm really hurt. You feel like you're trying to fight City Hall, but this is worse."(Source = New York Times)