Sounders handled the ticket sale very poorly. They allowed season ticket holders to buy up to six extra seats each (not sure whether this is per account or per ticket), resulting in virtually no tickets being available for the public sale. And then although the public sale was listed as starting at 10:00am, they allowed people to virtually queue up beforehand (without telling anybody that this was possible). I got in the queue at 9:58, and tickets were long since gone by the time I got to the front at 10:42.
While I agree that letting people queue up early without letting people know beforehand was poor form, I'm not sure I agree with allowing STH to buy additional seats is that big of an issue. From what I understand, the Sounders have pretty much gotten rid of people that have STH primarily for scalping purposes. So most of the tickets should be getting used by the person that bought the tickets, or friend/family/etc that paid the STH face value for the tickets. There are obviously going to be STH that bought additional tickets specifically for scalping purposes, but, so far, it appears to be relatively minor. Another thing to consider is that it wasn't just STH that got access to the pre-sale. I got my tickets because my employer is a business partner of the Sounders and there are a lot of big companies in Seattle that are business partners of the Sounders. That being said, I'd be curious how many of the admittedly limited number of tickets that went on sale today were actually bought by people. I'm sure there were a lot of bots in the front of the queue that got tickets over humans.
If scalping for this game is so easy, that just means the Sounders/MLS left revenue on the table. The Galaxy learned this eventually - first two home MLS Cups sold for almost regular season prices, followed by 3x inflation on the second hand market. The third time was the charm for AEG - they priced their tickets 3x more themselves, and lo and behold - much less scalping.
Perhaps? But there is also the chance that the teams STH are pissed off and don't renew their ST the next year...
Here in Atlanta, both last year and this year, we were told by the team that the ticket sales are managed by MLS. The only thing the STHs are granted is early access, as far as I know, and everything else about the policy comes from the league. Personally I'd be happy to forego buying extra tix if I had the chance to buy my usual seat first.
I mean most first hand tickets are variable priced based on demand now too, so “retail” price whatever the market says it is at any given moment in most cases.
I have no problem with capitalism and ticket prices going up as demand goes up but as a buyer I should clearly be told if I am buying a first-hand or secondhand ticket.
Honestly, what is wrong with a company adjusting its prices based on demand? Almost every retail or retail experience (sports) has sales, promotions, discounts to groups etc. It's just business. I got into Six Flags this summer for free because they had a military promotion. The retail price is like $65 which I'm sure some people paid that day, but if you had a specially marked Coke can you paid $40, AAA had some discount, local college students get discounts, employees at certain local companies got discounts, season pass holders had bring-a-friend vouchers etc. So the people there spent anywhere from $0-65 to get in that day.
Because it used to feel good to snag a ticket at retail price. Get a steal so to speak. No more steals though.
The teams with Ticketmaster systems clearly show the difference between direct and resale tickets. They are color-coded, and you can search for both together or one at a time. I don't know how it goes with other companies.
no problem with a company adjusting its prices to supply/demand. But when a team basically sells all its ticket to the same company (ej. ticketmaster) they are in charge of the supply and demand because they have both the regular price and the resale price markets through their platform. do you really don't se a problem with this?? not saying this happens, but they could easilly anounce sold out 3 minutes after regular ticket sales opened, and then control the resale market, from which they get a % comission, which means the higher the price the higher their revenue are you really that blind to not see the conflict of interest?
easy way out? I see. Yes, I finished school and I know how to read. If the company in charge of your regular ticket sales is in charge of your resale ticket business it is a big open door to shady things. Not saying those companies do it, but I can't blame consumers if they think about it. And the conflict of interest is clear. By the way, comparing Six Flags (open basically everyday) to a one-date-a-year event... well I don't know what to tell you.