League-run ticket exchanges will decrease fans’ future value

Anyone entering a professional sporting event in their lifetime has likely seen the same familiar sight – a person holding a sign proclaiming “I need tickets.”

For those of us in the know, those men and women can be a great source for inexpensive or last-minute tickets. They’re also a nice option for someone with an extra ticket who would like to exchange it for cash. While this transaction remains relatively ubiquitous – if you don’t believe me, check the corner of 22nd and Blake in Denver about two hours before the next Rockies home game – consumers are wary lest they run afoul of laws against the sale of tickets at a premium. The cops on traffic detail can also be on the lookout for possible scalping within the city limits.

Various online ticket brokers, StubHub, e-Bay, Craigslist, and the like, have allowed these same consumers to feel a bit more comfortable in the secondary ticket market, but they’re not without their own problems. While purchasers no longer have to endure the high-pressure sales tactics used outside of sporting venues, online services can be compromised. Few can forget the Distributed Denial of Service attacks that made Rockies’ 2007 World Series tickets nearly impossible to get, especially on the first day they were sold.

Tickets can be nearly impossible to get at face value any time when brokers operate software that snaps up tickets the moment they are available. The NFL has taken notice, and to get its piece of the pie, the league has implemented its own ticket exchange site.

League-run ticket exchanges also allow the NFL unprecedented access to data that will allow it to determine the actual market value of tickets sold on the secondary market – and set future prices according to whatever the market will bear.

Present prices are already astronomical. Personal seat licenses of $25,000 are becoming the norm at stadiums around the league. For two premium seats in the New Meadowlands Stadium, you’ll pay $50,000 for the right to buy the tickets, and another $14,000 a year for the actual tickets to watch the New York Jets play.

If the league sees that fans are willing to pay inflated prices to enjoy the game, that may quickly lead to larger annual increases in prices, not just for tickets but for concessions and stadium parking, too. That, in turn, will push out low-income ticket holders, as has already happened at the New Meadowlands and Cowboys’ Stadium in Dallas.

In other words, sports fans who want to maximize the value from their tickets now, and in the not-too-distant future, need to find the sign that says, “I need tickets.”

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