Sports Ticket Stories

The UEFA Cup Final was held in Manchester, England, this week, and over one hundred thousand fans traveled to the city to see the game, despite the City of Manchester Stadium holding just 50,000. Greater Manchester Police warned fans last week that no big screens or other catered events would be laid on for ticketless fans, and that fans without soccer tickets should not travel to the city.

Part of the problem was that Glasgow Rangers were participating in the UEFA Cup Final, and the short journey from Scotland ensured a massive turn-out from their faithful. The opposing finalists, FC Zenit St. Petersburg had a longer journey from Russia, and the overwhelming majority of their supporters were carrying tickets. More than 100,000 Rangers supporters meant a huge police security operation, as the ticket-carrying Scots can only have numbered a maximum of 25,000. This meant that nearly 80,000 ticketless soccer fans were roaming loose in a city long renowned for its love of drinking and hedonism.

The Harlem Globetrotters' 2008 Magic As Ever Tour broke North American records with a nearly 5 percent increase in gross tour revenue, set all-time levels for merchandise sales, hit television ratings highs and exponentially increased online traffic, re-establishing the Globetrotters as a worldwide entertainment powerhouse. The Globetrotters’ storied arch rivals, the Washington Generals, returned after a 12-year hiatus to compete in an exciting new show.

The 241-game tour attracted close to 2 million people in 203 cities in 45 states, Washington, D.C. and four Canadian provinces. They set records for gross ticket sales at New York’s Madison Square Garden and in several other venues in major cities, including Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Minneapolis, Kansas City, Orlando and Charlotte.

The final phase of ticket sales for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China did not go much smoother than the first phase last October when its ticketing system crashed on the first day of sales.

As the final 1.38 million tickets went on sale May 5, buyers complained about waiting for several hours at Bank of China branches and about long delays trying to purchase tickets online and in difficulty to trying to complete the online transaction.

Soccer match tickets achieved unprecedented status this week on the international travel scene. In a first, fans traveling to Moscow for the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) Champions League final on May 21 will be permitted to substitute their match ticket for a visa, the Russian government announced Monday. The game tickets will be good for entry into the Russian Federation for a 72-hour period, beginning May 19 and expiring May 23.

The announcement puts an end to a week-long period of confusion for English soccer fans, after Manchester United and Chelsea qualified for the first ever all-English Champions League Final. English soccer supporters spent last week hounding the Russian embassy in a relentless quest to determine what exactly the entry requirements would be for the Eastern Bloc country. Visits to Russia require a visa, and with a very short time in which to obtain them, it looked doubtful that tens of thousands of traveling fans could possibly be catered to in time.

"WWE® Reports 2008 First Quarter Results"

STAMFORD, Conn. (World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.) May 6, 2008 - World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWE) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2008. Revenues totaled $162.6 million as compared to $107.4 million in the comparable prior year quarter. Operating income was $27.1 million as compared to $20.6 million in the prior year quarter. Net income was $19.5 million, or $0.27 per share, as compared to $15.1 million, or $0.21 per share, in the prior year quarter.

“Our first quarter results reflect the power of our premiere event, WrestleMania® XXIV. Our WrestleMania brand provides us with a unique opportunity to showcase our creative content and marketing talents across a multitude of media outlets,” stated Linda McMahon, Chief Executive Officer.

Tickets for Saturday's Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY, have always been a hot commodity, and even in a sluggish economy ticket prices continue to go through the roof. Known as "the most exciting two minutes in sports," the racing event typically draws about 155,000 fans.

Last year on TicketsNow.com, Derby tickets were the 10th hottest ticket, averaging $817.06. This year, prices range from a $38 general admission ticket to $31,030 for a two-day VIP package that includes eight seats in a covered box on the finish line. The same package is going for $28,000 on TicketLiquidator.com, where single tickets were starting at $156.

Student tickets have already sold out for the upcoming University of Alabama football season, but those students won’t be holding printed tickets for entry into those games.

As part of a larger trend throughout the ticketing industry, tickets to University of Alabama football games have gone paperless. But, instead of using cell phones to hold the paperless tickets, students will be able to swipe their ID card to gain admission to games for which they paid for tickets.

When it comes to marketing and increasing revenue, few can match what the Boston Red Sox have been able to accomplish in only a few short years. Since the team was purchased by a group led by principal owner John Henry, the Red Sox have won two World Series titles and watched as its brand has rapidly grown internationally.

Much of the Red Sox revenue, like many other franchises in pro sports, comes from their ticket sales. The organization has done better than anyone at that having sold out every game since 2003. To increase revenue in that area they have raised their ticket prices almost annually, but fans don’t seem to mind because they see a winner on the field and know that the Red Sox play in the league's smallest ballpark (seating of about 37,000).

The much-awaited dream soccer match between Mexico and Argentina at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium really is going to happen on June 4, 2008. Tickets to the event go on presale Tuesday, April 22, and on public sale May 5. The presale comes with conditions, though; tickets are available on Ticketmaster’s website, and only then through use of a Visa credit card. The public sale will open things up considerably. Tickets will be generally available through numerous sources nationwide and in Mexico, online or by phone. Face values per ticket will vary from between $25 and $100.

Latin American soccer is more important than life or death, according to Uruguayan journalist Eduardo Galeano. “Like it or not, for better or worse, in these days of doubt and desperation, football-club colors are for many Latin Americans the only certainty worthy of absolute faith, the true source of the greatest jubilation and deepest sadness,” Galeano, who founded the Argentinean magazine Crisis, once wrote.

For the sports fan, there is really nothing more exciting than the playoffs, and with the NBA finalizing its post-season teams this week, both the NBA and NHL playoffs will soon be in full swing. The 2008 postseason for both leagues is set to be an exciting one, with the Larry O'Brien Trophy and Stanley Cup up for grabs.

With the NHL Playoffs a little over a week old, the Pittsburgh Penguins and "Sid the Kid" Sidney Crosby have already advanced to the second round with a first round sweep and according to the Pittsburgh Tribune Review the team sold out its next two home playoff games in 10 minutes. Even without their second round match-up set, tickets are already selling for as high as $606 on TicketNetwork.com, with the lowest priced upper balcony available at $167. But deals are available for hockey fans in other cities for the NHL's second round.

Eagles Select Ticketmaster as Team-Authorized Ticket Resale Provider

Ticketmaster TicketExchange Provides Eagles Fans with Online Access to Purchase and Resell Tickets

PHILADELPHIA, and WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. (PRNewswire) April 15, 2008 -- The Philadelphia Eagles have selected TicketExchange by Ticketmaster as the team's authorized ticket resale service. Season ticket holders will be able to use Eagles TicketExchange to post tickets for resale to other fans. This convenient and safe service will enable fans to find valid tickets for Eagles home games.

As soon as Super Bowl XLII ended, fans of the NFL were left starving for more and the only way to fulfill that hunger, the new football season. Well, on today, April 15, those fans just found out what the NFL will be serving up in 2008 as the full regular season schedule was announced.

The season kickoff game on Thursday September 4th, which annually features the defending champion, will showcase the Super Bowl XLII winner New York Giants as they play host to their NFC East rival Washington Redskins.

The Masters golf tournament is only a day old and already law enforcement officials have arrested a couple of people for ticket scalping, according to published reports. More arrests could be on the way.

Golf’s first major of the season, and one of the most prestigious sporting events in the world, the tournament has been a boon for ticket brokers and hospitality providers for years, partly because like the Kentucky Derby it takes place at the same location each year and breeds repeat business annually. But for every legitimate ticket reseller, the tournament also attracts many of the shadier scalpers who refuse to play by the rules.

Six employees from the Toronto Maple Leafs ticketing office, including director of sales and service, recently resigned or were fired following undisclosed problems with the team’s ticketing operation that it shares with the Raptors basketball team.

Details on what exactly led to the dismissals were not available, but published reports hinted at tickets and/or money potentially being siphoned off without the team being aware of it. The Leafs’ Chief Financial Officer Ian Clarke and the team’s human resources department are currently conducting an investigation into what the team described as ticketing “irregularities,” and the problems may result in the Toronto police examining the case.

As winter turns to spring, and spring turns to summer, there are few pleasures that sports fans love more than heading to the ballpark to see your favorite baseball team battle it out on a beautiful afternoon. In 2008, those sports fans are going to have reach a little deeper into their pockets.

According to a study by the company Team Marketing Report, the average ticket price for a Major League Baseball game increased 10.1 percent from last season to $25.43.

The New York Yankees may be raising ticket prices, but there are still plenty of deals to be found for those willing to look for them. The Bronx Bombers are hosting the newly christened Tampa Bay Rays this weekend and tickets to the games are still available at great prices.

Field Championship Level tickets for tonight’s game, boxes 1-52, are available on Ticketspot.com for $122, plus shipping and convenience charges. Today, the ticket would cost $400 on Yankees.com, plus additional charges. Seating in boxes 54-80 is available for $99, plus charges, whereas on Yankees.com it sells for $380, plus charges.

In a repeat of the legal fight four years ago between the ball club and rooftop operators, the Chicago Cubs are threatening to obstruct the views from two rooftops across the street from Wrigley Field if the operators don’t pony up 17 percent of gross ticket revenue from the seats.

Chicago ticket broker Max Waisvisz and partner Tom Gramatis own the two rooftops in question, located just beyond Right Field on North Sheffield Street. The duo also owns a third rooftop in the same area, and for the 2007 season, they paid the Cubs $420,000 for ticket sales from that one rooftop, Waisvisz told TicketNews.

Austria and Switzerland will host this summer’s 2008 European Championships soccer tournament, and the two countries have been busy arranging their ducks in a row as the opening day approaches. An army of online ticketers, souvenir sellers, bar and restaurant-owners, and soccer fans are looking forward to the tournament, which is second only to the FIFA World Cup in global importance. The last thing anyone needed was an online ticketing security disaster, but this week it was revealed that computer security firm Sophos has detected malicious code embedded in a secondary ticketing website, euroticketshop.com, which has the potential to hack the personal computers of customers using the site to buy Euro 2008 tickets.

The malware interacts with remote websites to download other malicious programs which obtain personal credit details from ticket buyers’ PCs, and uses their machines to send spam messages over the internet. This type of attack is known as a “drive-by download.” The Euro 2008 case is a symptom of current trends in cybercrime, according to computer security company Sophos, which discovered the site invasion. Sophos states that the company discovers similarly infected websites “every 14 seconds, 83 percent of which are hosted on legitimate sites that most surfers wouldn't think twice about visiting.”

What steroids controversy? Based on a report released Thursday from Major League Baseball, ticket sales for the 2008 season are off to a rousing start, topping 19 million sold so far through the league’s website MLB.com.

The 2007 season set a record with more than 27 million tickets sold online, and the 2008 season is already on pace to break that mark. Online ticket sales at the same point last year only totaled about 14.7 million. These numbers do not include secondary ticket sales through MLB’s deal with StubHub, the league’s authorized ticket reseller. StubHub has long said that baseball tickets were among its top markets.

It seems that over the past decade, every time you turn around there is a new, bigger and better stadium being built in the NFL. And each time the price tag for these state of the art stadiums seem to be getting bigger as well. Another trend in the NFL is how these teams are paying for these luxuries, and that is through personal seat licenses or PSLs. According to a report in the New York Times, the Jets and the Giants may be the next in line to charge their fans for the right to buy season tickets.

The PSLs would help the team’s finance their new $1.6 billion stadium they are building in New Jersey, and their use would be a first for the New York area. No decisions have been made by team officials on whether or not the licenses will be used; although it is widely viewed that the Jets and Giants will follow the lead of many teams across the NFL.