Angry fans count cost of ticket resale platforms
WOULD you spend £1,000 on 90 minutes of entertainment? That’s the figure Tottenham fans are charging each other for tickets to next month’s derby with Arsenal at White Hart Lane – and it’s all perfectly legal.
With demand outstripping supply in Tottenham’s relatively small 36,000-capacity stadium, many are forced to look to the club’s official secondary marketplace, StubHub.
The e-Bay-owned company has a three-year deal with Spurs until 2016 and allows season-ticket holders who cannot attend a match to resell seats online – once a fixture is sold out.
But with no restriction on prices, the cheapest of the 270-plus adult tickets available yesterday for the Arsenal game was £138.00 and the highest an eye-watering £1,058 – £293 more than a season ticket in the same area of the ground. That price includes a 15 per cent fee StubHub charges the buyer and a 12 per cent commission it charges the seller.
With the tickets’ face value between £48 to £81, disgruntled supporters of Spurs, Arsenal and Chelsea have dubbed the practice “legalised touting”. What’s more, the buyer of the ticket, who does not have to be a member, can then sell it on again for any price they want, a practice known as “flipping”.
Do this on Tottenham High Road on matchday, critics argue, and you risk criminal prosecution. Yet there is no barrier to selling for profit online.
The depth of ill-feeling has seen the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters Trust collect more than 3,000 signatures for its “stop StubHub” campaign, while co-chairman Darren Alexander has been invited to speak in Parliament. He says “Tottenham have given the opportunity for people to be greedy”, while secretary Katrina Law argues “ticket-exchange should be a service, not a money-making opportunity.”
Tottenham have pledged to keep StubHub activity under “constant review”. A club spokesperson added: “We always encourage our season ticket holders to price tickets sensibly when listing them for sale when they are unable to attend a match.”
These issues are not exclusive to the lilywhite half of north London. Everton and Sunderland also use StubHub, though reselling at inflated prices is less common at those clubs as ticket demand is slower.
Chelsea are one of five Premier League clubs to use Viagogo, which caps prices at face value but includes fees for both buyer and seller that supporters trust chairman Tim Rolls says results in most members being “uncomfortable” with the system.
The Blues’ deal with Viagogo expires in the summer and the club are understood to be reviewing their options. West Ham and Manchester United have moved away from Viagogo in recent years.
Arsenal – like Liverpool, Norwich, Cardiff and Hull – offer an in-house ticket exchange, although they still produce minor grumbles. Tim Payton of the Arsenal Supporters Trust argues that lengthening the resale window would ensure a fuller stadium.
Non-profit, fan-to-fan, live music ticket resale site Scarlet Mist has been in operation for 11 years, offering shows from Taylor Swift to the Arctic Monkeys. The THST believe a similar, centralised “ethical ticket exchange” for fans of all clubs to sell seats at face value with minimal administration fees could be run by the Premier League. It is understood, however, that top-flight chiefs do not intend to pursue such a platform.
£1058 Top price Spurs ticket currently listed for resale on StubHub
£765 Face value of season ticket for same seat