Wallabies fans forced to change plans

[Moses]

The problem with making scalping illegal is exactly what BLT just posted. Unscroupulous types selling fake inflated tickets and the punter misses out.

Legalise, regulate and collect tax is the way forward. There was a really good article on it in Inside Sport a few months ago that I'll try and dig up..

[oxleymoron]

Next time stick to official tours
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Do the INNForcers have "official tour" status from the ARU?

[jargan83]

if not we should

"official binge drinkers of the ARU"

Please do moses, sounds like it will be a good read my statement/opinion was more a general statement on scalpers. Just because they make it illegal to do it won't stop the practice
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[Swee_82]

I don't see a problem with scalping because it provides fans with an option to see games that are otherwise sold out, and provides fans who have had people pull out of tickets with a way to recoup some money from their seats.

If the games are sold out because a stadium's worth of fans have already bought their tickets, then too bad. At high-demand events though these things are getting sold out due to scalpers buying the tickets and re-selling them immediately at inflated prices, in all likelihood the same people will end up at the game, they'll just have to pay more for the privilage. If in the end everyone's paying extra for thier tickets, I'd rather see that money go back to the sporting bodies, there's a chance at least some of it will trickle back down to the community (yep, I'm putting my naive hat on for a minute)

If there were a legal mechanism for individuals to offload tickets for a game they can't make or whatever, then I wouldn't have a problem with that, the difficulty is writing it so there wouldn't be a loophole for people who buy tickets for the sole purpose of reselling them.

If you can afford it.

And a big if you can't. Too bad if you budgeted enough to buy the tickets at face value to have them bought by someone who's interest in the sport don't extend beyond naked profiteering instead.

Edit: Thanks for the info Jargs, wasn't sure about that.

[jargan83]

there is a legal mechanism to re-sell tickets to a game you can't make. Sell them at face value
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[BLR]

The problem with making scalping illegal is exactly what BLT just posted. Unscroupulous types selling fake inflated tickets and the punter misses out.

Legalise, regulate and collect tax is the way forward. There was a really good article on it in Inside Sport a few months ago that I'll try and dig up..

I think Falls Festival had the best way to reduce scalping, personalised tickets, plus when I went to Mars Volta they needed me to show my ID with my ticket to make sure I was the person on the ticket. So I think you are going to the opposite direction to the way events are going.

[Moses]

One thing they could do is put the name of the credit card holder on the ticket, then make them show the credit card or id when they enter the game. Would take a bit more time to enter, but completely wipe out scalping.

I'd like to see an auction system for events. Put the whole freaking stadium online and let people bid for blocks of seats. Would be interesting to see how the revenue and bums on seats compares to the usual way.

[Moses]

Good story here.

All told, 42 states have decided that the heavens won't collapse if people who own tickets to games and shows are free to sell them for whatever the market will bear -- as free as people who own real estate, shares of stock, Beanie Babies, or just about anything else.

[BLR]

That article sounds like it was written by Grumbles Growdens long lost brother, he states in the first sentence that he is not a sports fan, so his experience with scalping is from a purely economical sense, and in a purely economical sense the free market exploits people to make others richer. He curiously doesn't mention any abuse to the system and his line which brings it home, to do with tickets only being raised to $26 via a registered re-seller, is largely incorrect. For example re-sellers for the November tests are selling the tickets for at LEAST 80 pounds more, for the cheapest seats, and this rises expondentially so the best seats cost close to 1,000 pounds, where the actual tickets would be a fraction of that cost. That is not the free market system, that is exploitation.

The credit card idea is similar to ideas out there atm, to ID the buyer. The auction idea would only work on re-seller, starting from FACE value however, not bumping up the face value by 500% like they do now, that is not how a free market system works. Ideally however personalised tickets should be created and if a customer cannot go they will have to cancel thier tickets, maybe for a small fee, and from there the ticketseller will put the tickets back on market so that other people can buy them.

[Moses]

Maybe read it again, but with an open mind.

The authors not just talking about sports, but other events also. The fact that the author is not a sports fan is irrelevant to the discussion.

[AndyS]

Wouldn't deregulation be interesting - you'd have to think it would end up with the ARU auctioning all the tickets for a fixed return, then letting the purchaser pillage the market for whatever they can get. No chance they would sell it to mates of board members or anything, and I wonder what you'd pay for a Bledisloe game then?

[BLR]

Maybe read it again, but with an open mind.

The authors not just talking about sports, but other events also. The fact that the author is not a sports fan is irrelevant to the discussion.

I study finance and have done many economics courses, I know the arguments that he is putting forward, and they are not practical. Seeing as he is not a 'sports fan', and he states as much, he is distancing himself from any criticism, speaking on it in a theoretical sense, so that if his work is criticised he can stand back and defend himself.

[Moses]

very interesting, my model would be for the ARU to run the auction themselves through a website.

If third parties want to buy blocks of tickets and resell them, go nuts, but why would people pay more through a third party when they could bid directly on the ARU auction themselves.

The tickets would sell for whatever the market decides to bear. Rather than Gold/Silver/Bronze groups, you'd have a true price scale over the stadium. If you want a specific seat, bid on it! If the seat three to the right is cheaper, get that one instead.

[BLR]

very interesting, my model would be for the ARU to run the auction themselves through a website.

If third parties want to buy blocks of tickets and resell them, go nuts, but why would people pay more through a third party when they could bid directly on the ARU auction themselves.

The tickets would sell for whatever the market decides to bear. Rather than Gold/Silver/Bronze groups, you'd have a true price scale over the stadium. If you want a specific seat, bid on it! If the seat three to the right is cheaper, get that one instead.

And if the tickets sell out because the large re-sellers brought up all the tickets?

That's the biggest flaw, it will effectively force people to buy thier tickets at hugely inflated prices.

This in turn will price many people out of the market and can only help to harm the growth of rugby.

[gustafsl]

Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to kinda sorta maybe agree with Moses on this one.

And the people who should be blamed for scalping are the people who set the ticket prices in the first place.

Scalpers only benefit if they are able to sell the ticket for more than what they paid. If someone is willing to buy it from a scalper for an inflated price, then they must have been willing to buy it from the original seller for that price.

I guess if the Bledisloe is sold out real quick the price was set too low. If organisations like the ARU and Australian Cricket etc...had any brains they would release the tickets in batches. IE release 5000 at a certain price, if they sell out raise the price and sell another 5000 grand. If they go quick raise the price and sell another 5000 etc...and go on until tickets don't sell out that quick. Then they know they have probably reached the maximum price. This would stop scalpers from making much money and the ARU would be the ones collecting the extra cash.