Ticket Scalping

[Chris '03]

I'm not sure where this topic is appropriate...

NY looks to ease scalping laws and make it legal to sell tickets at whatever price the market will bear.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=2887957&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

[Rosey]

Finally, some sanity.  Who'dathunkit?

This may be just the incentive venues need to actually go to the trouble of charging market prices for tickets.  IMO, the best way to handle ticket sales with an eye toward benefiting the venue and act/team is with a Dutch auction: have everyone bid the maximum they'd pay for a ticket, and then choose the highest price at which all tickets are sold.  (This is how Google shares were priced, for instance.)

You can even combine this with other strata---e.g., section, student vs. townie, early vs. late purchase---to deliver tickets at lower prices to demographics that have less money but more of something else (student status, risk tolerance, etc.).

Kyle

[CowbellGuy]

Now what will Beeeej do with his spare time?

[KeithK]

[quote krose]Finally, some sanity.  Who'dathunkit?

This may be just the incentive venues need to actually go to the trouble of charging market prices for tickets.  IMO, the best way to handle ticket sales with an eye toward benefiting the venue and act/team is with a Dutch auction: have everyone bid the maximum they'd pay for a ticket, and then choose the highest price at which all tickets are sold.  (This is how Google shares were priced, for instance.)

You can even combine this with other strata---e.g., section, student vs. townie, early vs. late purchase---to deliver tickets at lower prices to demographics that have less money but more of something else (student status, risk tolerance, etc.).

Kyle[/quote]
Your Dutch auction idea may be feasible with current technology, but it would be a royal pain in the ass for a sports team to implement.  It's a lot easier and maybe more cost efficient for a team to guess the market price and just seel tickets (which is what they do today).  Also keep in mind that not every sports team sells out every game.  For some the price point where all tickets sell won't necessarily be the maximum revenue point.

As for discrimination between sections, demographics, etc. that's already done by many professional teams.

[French Rage]

Awesome, I can't wait for the first freshmen n00b asking $300 for Section D seats.

[Beeeej]

Continue reminding posters that if you want people to be able to contact you, you should, y'know, include some kind of contact information in your post.  ::smashfreak::

Or just spend more time in France.

[ugarte]

[quote KeithK]For some the price point where all tickets sell won't necessarily be the maximum revenue point.[/quote]
The maximum revenue point is almost, by definition, not a sellout (in all but the most theoretical cases). In a sellout*, every ticket purchased for a game (by definition) was sold for a price someone was willing to pay but almost nobody will have paid the absolute maximum that they were willing to pay.

As for the team maximizing value by charging strict market rates: this is almost certainly never going to happen. In exchange for tax breaks and other public benefits, teams have to act like the responsible corporate citizens / quasi-public trust that they pretend to be, artificially holding down prices a little (and creating an aftermarket).

* I only make this qualification because in non-sellout games, many of the tickets will be bought by speculators and go unused or turn out to be worth less than the face value.

[KeithK]

[quote ugarte]The maximum revenue point is almost, by definition, not a sellout (in all but the most theoretical cases). In a sellout*, every ticket purchased for a game (by definition) was sold for a price someone was willing to pay but almost nobody will have paid the absolute maximum that they were willing to pay.[/quote]
You're right.  But Kyle said "choose the highest price at which all tickets are sold" so I thought it was reasonable to point out that this wouldn't necessarily be aan optimal price point.