Newsdays’ Best: Secondary Ticket Market Now Favors Buyers
Via Neil Best -
For fans who initially said, “No, thanks,” the price of attending a game has dropped to the point of being downright reasonable. OK, perhaps just less unreasonable. But the point is, at this stage, especially for less attractive opponents on less attractive days, there is no sane reason to buy a ticket directly from a team.
“Effectively, it’s a new box office,” said Mike Janes, CEO of FanSnap.com, a site that aggregates offers from more than a dozen resellers. “There is a virtual box office that exists that is fan to fan.”
That box office has turned the resale market upside down, going from a place primarily to find tough-to-get tickets at a premium to one to find easy-to-get tickets at a discount. Nowhere is the trend more glaring, or under more scrutiny, than in the Bronx, where the Yankees generate by far the most active ticket market in sports.
A combination of the recession, inflated face values, the ease of Internet transactions and the increase in supply after New York legalized scalping in 2007 has led to more availability than ever at depressed prices – with as many as 10,000 tickets to any given Yankees game resold, 6,000 on StubHub alone.
StubHub spokesman Sean Pate said as of last week, the average resale price of a Yankees ticket was $79, down from $84 at this time last year despite the increase in face values.
[Pate said] “There is so much volume for Yankees and Mets tickets, the pressure to price down is incredible.”
Care to attend Monday’s Twins-Yankees game? As of Monday, you could choose from 14,495 tickets on FanSnap.
There are deals at all price levels. The Yankees host the Nationals June 16. You can sit in Row 3 of Section 20 behind home for $900 a ticket on the Yankees’ site, or in Row 4 for $500 via StubHub. (StubHub charges a 10-percent fee per ticket, with a $5 minimum, plus $4.95 per order for electronic ticketing.)
Section 428 against the Orioles next Tuesday? The Yankees charge $26, if you include Ticketmaster’s $4 fee. FanSnap had tickets for $9, $11, $12 and $14, including fees. Don’t cry for the Yankees, though. Like every big-league team except the Red Sox, they have a partnership with StubHub, and get a cut of resales.
If there are financial losers in all this, they are mainly season-ticket holders. “If somebody was buying to speculate this year, they’d take a bath,” Janes said.
So, a bunch of people bought 2009 season tickets from the Yankees at high prices. However, there are also many seats that the Yankees can’t sell – because of their high prices. This has brought cause for those with tickets and who need to sell them to list them on a secondary market at a price below cost…because no one will pay full-price or higher on the secondary market when they could buy the same seat directly from the Yankees at full-price.
As such, those selling tickets, outside of the team, need to offer a discount on their tickets, on the market, just to get something back – and avoid having the tickets become a sunk cost. Two things come to mind here:
1. How long until the teams, like the Yankees, start selling “can’t sell” tickets on the secondary market (directly) at reduced prices to also avoid sunk costs? And…
2. How long until those fans who bought tickets, this year, and who are now forced to sell them for pennies on the dollar, stop buying tickets from the team in the future – because of the loss risk on resale (when they can’t use the tickets)?
When both these things start to happen, in full force, will it back the teams – like the Yankees – into a corner where they will have to drop ticket prices in the future – rather than keep them where they are, or, raise them?
I’m not sure…as I spent most of my time in Economics I and II in college fussing with my Sony Walkman WM4 – listening to then somewhat new songs like Duran Duran’s Planet Earth and U2′s I Will Follow – and not spending enough time focusing on what they were trying to teach me. But, one can hope, right?
sounds great to me, i hope noone buys season tickets next year so I have a better oppurtunity down the line when i can actually afford it
When both these things start to happen, in full force, will it back the teams – like the Yankees – into a corner where they will have to drop ticket prices in the future – rather than keep them where they are, or, raise them?
Only the higher end, I don’t think the Yanks (or any other team for that matter) are having a problem selling out say the bleachers or upper deck…
But it’s good to see market forces at work. And I learned something new today, as I had no idea that scalping in NYS was legal.
Through StubHub, I paid about $110 total (tax and fee included) to sit in the 1st row of Terrace Dugout by 1st base for the 2nd game at the new Stadium. The Yanks won 6-5, and I enjoyed myself, though I spent about $160 total, including parking and food.
Last week, waited until Tuesday evening to buy a Main Dugout seat in front of the mound on the 1st base side for a little less than $70 total for Thursday night’s 8-6 loss to the Rays. I didn’t enjoy that as much. I got to the Stadium at 4:45, and as I was there early enough, used to extra $40 to buy a nice somewhat overpriced dinner at the Hard Rock. I spent about $140 total.
I still enjoyed myself, but not as much. After all, the Yanks lost.
That’s nice, Evan, but I’ve heard there are even better deals to be had. Like Field dugout and infield level seats for $60-$100/each. Now that seems like a deal to me. If anyone has tips for scoring a great deal…please share or send em my way. I’m trying to pick up seats to a weekend game this summer to take my newborn to his first Yankees game.