Robert Kraft, Owner
Patriots win court order granting team the names of people reselling tickets online | KOMO-TV – Seattle, Washington | Technology Another fine use of the courts. To heck with violent crime. Bust fans of a team. They must have gotten their cue from the RIAA.
The New England Patriots have won a bid to get the names of all the fans who bought or sold – or tried to buy or sell – tickets to home games through online ticket reseller StubHub Inc., a move one technology group sees as an invasion of privacy.
In a lawsuit against San Francisco-based StubHub, a subsidiary of eBay Inc., claiming that the Web site encourages fans to break state law and violate team policies, The Patriots said they could seek to revoke season tickets of people who use StubHub.
Found by Aric Mackey
come on, ticket master is a huge rip off and ticket scalpers are gaming the system to make it nearly impossible to get tickets to good shows. I’d much rather see the artist/team/venue sell direct over the internet. If it turns out that $1300 is a fair market price for a Hanna Montana seat, then so be it, that is capitalism. But the $1300 should go to the act, not some geek/hacker/organized criminal that is gaming the system or hacking into it.
Stubhub sucks, trying to get tickets for games now is just useless, unless you want to pay 150% or more over face value. These guys go out, buy a ton of tickets, and then immediately go to stubhub and sell all of them, I have been forced to buy tickets to Red Sox games on Stubhub, and it seems like its always the same person’s name on the ticket. I am not saying Ticketmaster is any better, but Stubhub is just taking the tickets out of the everyday fan’s hands, and making money for these scum bags, but hey it is Capitalism at its best.
Suing your biggest fans. Mmm… are the New England Patriots run by the RIAA nowadays?!
After buying playoff tickets from Stub Hub, never again. The game never got played, and to get my money back they require you send back the useless ticket by Fedex or UPS, cost of $15. They don’t want you to return them, so they make it as expensive as possible. Worse then the rebate scams. RIP-OFF!
How is this the biggest fans if they are selling tickets? They should be buying tickets, not selling them. I don’t like the idea of these scalpers going out and buying tickets in bulk and then reselling them.
I guess you guys will be upset if they started asking for ID with tickets.
Many of the online ticket brokers like StubHub buy up as many season tickets as possible. I did some work for one of these online brokers (who shall remain nameless) and one of the execs told me that in the very near future there won’t be any season tickets. That all tickets will have to go through a broker because they will own them all.
To be honest, I’m not really sure what to think. I have bought tickets in the past via EBay (in fact pretty much all of my game tickets) and never had a problem and have gotten good prices. But I know that there is a great pressure by brokers to consolidate and control everything.
There are two fundamental problems. First, is that season ticket holders have to eat the ticket even if they do not go. If the teams would allow season ticket holders to get a full refund on any unused ticket before the event, then the team could introduce those back into the pool of available tickets and sell them online legitimately. Another solution, is to allow season ticket holders the option to buy tickets as they want them but within say a week or two of the event. That way if they do not pick up the option on them, the teams can resell them.
The second problem is that all of the good tickets are sucked up by season tickets. So, the only way to get a great seat is to buy one off a season ticket holder that cannot use all of their tickets.
5. “How is this the biggest fans if they are selling tickets?”
God read the article:
Actually, i think this is very reasonable. I think the Patriots are trying to head off the situation you find with trying to get Red Sox tickets in Boston–regular season games (against whatever opponent) -start- at 80 because scalpers buy up 50% of the available non-season ticket tickets. Check out http://www.bostondirtdogs.com in the early spring and you’ll see articles about this. It is a well known practice in Boston and one which really ends up screwing the fan with ridiculous prices.
Heading this off early is both needed and commendable and it is something fans have lobbied the Sox to do for years.
I would, however, disagree with taking the names of fans who bought the tickets. Yes they were supporting the ticket scalping industry (and it IS an industry and big business) but unless you are willing to wait on the phone at a specific time in the spring or summer, it’s generally the only way to get tics to the Pats or Sox because every home game is sold out.
The solution is Wednesday Night Football. Instead of teams playing only once a week, they should place twice a week thereby doubling the supply of tickets.
SN try putting some thought into it first. Yes the article and the poster said fans. I point out that if they were really fans, they wouldn’t be selling the tickets, they would be going to the games. I think it’s reasonable to go after ticketholders who are selling their tickets. I’ve had a season ticket before, and I sold one of the tickets on ebay at face value.
There’s a solution to this. Don’t go. Don’t watch it on TV. Don’t read about it the next day. The market will disappear in about 30 days.
Well, they can’t really do anything to a fan who BOUGHT a ticket off of Stubhub. What are they going to do, revoke their privilege to overpay to see a game. That makes no sense. They were just covering every base in the lawsuit with that one.
But, if there are people who are selling tickets against the rules printed on the ticket, then they can very well enforce their rules. I have a feeling they won’t go after a fan for 1 or 2 weeks where they can’t attend a game, but if a “FAN” is selling every ticket at several times face value, then they should be in trouble.
They should let people sell tickets for a modest markup, like not less than 25% to cover costs. That way there is little incentive for brokers to try and get in on the internet marketing, and regular ticket holders who can’t attend a game aren’t left eating large portions of the ticket price if they are forced to sell at face value.
Ticket Master is run by the Devil, and should be avoided at any cost. I hate their outrageous service fees. They should be regulated as a monopoly by the goverment.
Don
Relax and think for a moment people. The scumbags here is eBay. This outfit is the prime outlet for counterfeits of any kind. I have bought Patriots home game tickets through StubHub. Learning upon arrival at the seat there was someone else sitting there with the same ticket seat number. Patriots security did a complete investigation with my full cooperation. What would you do? StubHub and eBay laughed in my face when I tried to make a refund claim. Right-on Mr. Kraft, nail these reseller scumbags to the cross.
Well, I’d like to counter some of the bashing against StubHub here. We are season ticket holders of a football team other than the Pats. Occassionally we can’t make it to the game for one reason or another and the usual friends can’t either. So we have sold tickets on StubHub with some success. StubHub has their share of problems and I agree that scumbags who buy all the tickets only to scalp them are the problem, but StubHub (and eBay) itself is a good service for the honest folk.
10. “I point out that if they were really fans, they wouldn’t be selling the tickets, they would be going to the games.”
God, since you refuse to read the article, I’ll summarize it for you. The owner of the Patriots sued StubHub to get access to all the FANS who bought tickets from StubHub.
Do you really think the owner of the Patriots wants that information so he can buy fruit baskets for the FANS who bought tickets from StubHub?!
No, he’s going to make those FANS miserable! Just like the RIAA is currently doing to the fans of music.
Nice try at a save. But it says bought or sold. OK, they shouldn’t go after people buying.
It would be better if the teams set up a box office to buy back unused season tickets to resell. Ticket prices are high enough already.
#17. Or do the next best thing – the Cubs (Tribune Co., for the time being) set up a shell company to scalp their own tickets! What a racket. But as long as people will pay it, it will go on.
The St. Louis Cardinals have a basically punitive setup for selling season ticket seats that people are not going to use – you have to go to the box office in person on gameday to buy them. So much for the tourist trade.
Fighting scalping is a futile effort (MO just repealed its anti-scalping law) and I for one find it offensive that a merchant can sell me something and claim that I do not have the right to resell it.
I do think if they are actually interested in fighting scalping they need to start with a technological solution – crippling the ability of scalpers to use software to hammer the TicketMaster web site and gobble up blocks of tickets as soon as they go on sale.
These “ticket brokers” are nothing short of criminals. This whole process should be illegal. These crooks are getting money for nothing. What if they did this with automobiles, homes or any other consumer product?
#18, doug,
I couldn’t agree more.
you are all dipshits!
These “ticket brokers” are nothing short of criminals. fuck it im tired you can all just kiss my ass fuck it your all gay man i tell you if you were any gayer i would have to slap some homo out of you. FOR REAL GET A LIFE YOU OLD FARTS HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO BUT TALK TO YOURSELFS ABOUT FAGGOT ASS TICKET BROKERS
SINCERELY
DR. FUCK YOU
Here’s the thing. I buy tickets, 4 seats per game, on my credit card as soon as they come out. I am a HUGE fan. I then take some of the tickets and sell them, using the proceeds to pay off my credit card bill from the beginning of the season when I bought them. Selling two per game lets me still go, and afford the outrageous ticket prices (up 680% since I’ve been on the waiting list- jan 1999) and the outrageous PARKING fees, and the Killer warm Beer prices. I sell the tickets for what they are going for on the open market. DOES THAT MAKE ME A BAD PERSON OR LESS OF A FAN? I think NOT. But the Pats will probably now throw me off the waiting list after patiently trying for NINE YEARS to get season tickets, for trying to mitigate some of the ENORMOUS EXPENSES involved in attending the Games. I don’t care what any of you say, THAT SUCKS !
Hi,
I work for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. Please email me your overly positive OR negative experiences with StubHub (naomi.marcus@hbo.com).
Thanks.