Tickets on StubHub

[Tau Ceti]

I'm wondering if anyone knows whether the CFL has made any statement regarding resold tickets on StubHub (www.stubhub.com)? Is there an agreement between them at all?

There's an absolutely fantastic deal up there right now for platinum seats to the Blue Bomber game on the 24th but I'm torn because I feel like I'm not supporting the team giving my money to a giant scalping operation. Or perhaps a team like the Argos actually benefits from a secondary market like this? Not sure.

[Tau Ceti]

Well, apparently no one round here cares about this topic but let the record show that the Argos have no agreement with Stubhub and would obviously prefer their fans not use the service. I spoke with them about it today.

[argos1873]

Is it still scalping if they are reselling tickets below the tickets face value? I thought it was the other way around.

[Tau Ceti]

Yes, in common usage scalping refers to selling tickets at greater than face value. But of course scalpers will sell both above and below depending on demand. There are Grey Cup tickets on StubHub posted in the thousands of dollars right now. It's actually a healthy sign for your organization when the secondary market can inflate prices like that. The tickets below face value are what worry teams. It deprecates the value of the product; casual fans come to expect the discounted rate and won't pay more.

If you're curious what ticket deal I did wind up going with, it's here: http://greedygiver.com/DealDetails.php?DealID=148. Flafson tipped us off to this one about a week ago.

[argos1873]

Yes, in common usage scalping refers to selling tickets at greater than face value. But of course scalpers will sell both above and below depending on demand. There are Grey Cup tickets on StubHub posted in the thousands of dollars right now. It's actually a healthy sign for your organization when the secondary market can inflate prices like that. The tickets below face value are what worry teams. It deprecates the value of the product; casual fans come to expect the discounted rate and won't pay more.If you're curious what ticket deal I did wind up going with, it's here: http://greedygiver.com/DealDetails.php?DealID=148. Flafson tipped us off to this one about a week ago.

Of course its a healthy sign, but its also illegal. Selling under is not. Of course the Argos disagree with it, because they would rather you buy a new ticket rather than a resell. And while I wish the Argos weren't in the spot they are, there's nothing they can do about it. Besides they got the money for the ticket you bought already. If I understand scalping laws correctly, they are to protect the consumer from unscrupulous entities who will buy bulk amounts of high demand tickets to resell them for a higher price. There are no such rules to protect event owners that have low demand to prevent resellers from selling at a lower price. As far as the law is concerned it sucks to be the Argos.

[T-Bone]

Sorry, missed this thread yesterday. StubHub is sort of weird considering it appears to violet Ontario law. The truth is the Ticket Speculation Act isn't worth much more than the paper it is written on. All a police officer in Ontario can do to a person scalping tickets is give them a ticket, just like a parking ticket, etc. as it is a provincial act. If that person decides to challenge the ticket they can go to court and do so. Police officers have other more important court appearances they need to make that adding to that load is not worth it. As well, I wouldn't be surprised is wasting court resources on this is unofficially frowned upon. Like argos1873 has said though because in this case tickets are on sale from less than face value I don't think there is any violation of the law either. It does suck for the Argos because with all the ticket deals you can pretty much go to all the games for cheaper than buying season tickets in most cases.