Snub Stub?
Spurs News 24/7Thoughts on this?
StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace and the official secondary ticketing partner of Tottenham Hotspur, is proud to provide a safe and easy way for supporters to buy and sell seats to home matches*. This is a true exchange for all Spurs supporters to buy and sell freely and safely amongst each other.
One Hotspur Season Ticket Members can list their seats for matches they cannot attend, and set the price they want. Other Spurs supporters can then purchase these tickets and watch matches they may otherwise have missed.
The Club will not dictate pricing and StubHub never sells tickets or sets any prices themselves. Listing your spare seat for sale on StubHub.co.uk is easy, and you’ll be walked through each step of the process.
*Seats can only be listed once the match has sold out.
Full announcement from THFC here (yes, this isn't new news, but it passed me by when first announced and haven't had the chance to share).
Opinions from the DML Facebook page:
Si Twining - It's touting endorsed by Ticketmaster (of which it is a subsidiary). I've just come back from New York where Madison Square Garden was taking a public stand against Stubhub, and working to discourage people from using it.
Phil Bennett - Legalized touting.
Koonal K Shah - The club should allow fans to sell their tickets back if they cannot make it to the match (particularly when the match is rearranged at relatively short notice). But the maximum price should be no higher than face value, or else you're giving fans the incentive to screw each other over. I can see the temptation in selling tickets to the United and Chelsea games for hundreds of pounds. Not a good idea.
Dan Gire - The club is sponsoring fans mugging each other off!! People lucky enough to have a season ticket are going to make a killing. This is a MASSIVE step backwards!
Paul Hugill - It's a great idea. Often hard to sell one ticket to mates as I go on my own. I wouldn't necessarily want to cash in but get what the ticket is worth (after commission) but if I was pissed off and couldn't do the NLD then I would definitely want to be compensated for it.
Tom Fry - I didn't like the idea of this when it was first announced and nothing has changed. Personally I believe the club should take back seats and reimburse money from season tickets as long as it's not a Sat 3pm kick off and you give a reasonable amount of notice, which I would say could coincide with when the tickets go on sale to members or general sale.
This system makes it easier for ST holders to sell their tickets but if it becomes popular I can see a lot actually making money from this. For example, let's say your ST costs £1000 a year. It's not inconceivable you'd be able to sell all CatA games and a couple of Cat B one's and you've got yourself a free ST and therefore a seat to about 12 home games a season, all the while still getting LPs so you can pop along to the cup final (or semi final as is more likely) whenever you want.
Kevin Bilton - Be better if was just club members who could buy tickets. Te current system means I lose loads of money if I have to sell any spare seats through the club. At least I can get my money back this way.
So, what gives? Tottenham have made touting perfectly acceptable within a controlled environment even if there's little difference between how it works now (outside of any third party online middle man) and how it will work through StubHub i.e. selling for profit to an open market and potentially making more money by doing so than taking the route of facilitating members (who you would perhaps expect to be perceived a touch more important than anyone out there with money burning holes in their pocket).
Selling tickets through StubHub rather than directly back to the club or even to 'a mate down the pub' will be a far more profitable option for a fair few, so this is basically all about greed - from those that want to earn more than face value and the club and their third party marriage to a legalised ticket tout. There's a market and Spurs want a piece of it.
Not really a complaint or a rant from me. Just a knowing shrug of acceptance that this is more or less standard practice for most major sports teams (in the US). One sentiment that has been discussed by a fair few Spurs fans (like the above examples from Facebook) is that this might be abused by those that buy a season ticket then seek to sell their tickets for profit whilst bulking up loyalty points. Which you have to admit is quite a tasty slice of irony on how the recent points cull was meant to award 'new' and 'current' loyal supporters.
It's all about the £ and maximising those margins. At any cost. Welcome to the brave new world.