Boston Red Sox fans who want to resell tickets no longer have an official online option. The team announced today that it would use Boston-based Ace Ticket, and its six storefront locations, as its authorized hub for fans to resell tickets.
In a letter, obtained by TicketNews, that was sent out today to season ticket holders from Sam Kennedy, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer for the Red Sox, team officials make it clear that they had studied the issue of ticket resale and the secondary market for Red Sox tickets and came to the conclusion that Ace Ticket presented a fair opportunity for fans.
“We have reached the conclusion that it is incumbent upon us to identify and endorse a secure and reputable secondary market option for our customers. This decision is reflective of an irreversible marketplace shift, and came only after careful thought and deliberation. Thus, commencing with the 2008 season, the Red Sox have entered into an offline sponsorship agreement with one of the oldest and most reliable secondary ticket providers in the New England region, Ace Ticket,” Kennedy wrote.
The move makes the Red Sox, the defending World Series champion and perennially one of the hottest tickets in baseball, if not all professional sports in the U.S., the only major league team not to participate in the deal between Major League Baseball and StubHub, under which StubHub is the league’s authorized ticket resale arm. By the team shunning the deal, Red Sox fans do not have an official online home for ticket resale, but as evidenced by the team’s popularity Red Sox are readily available from brokers all over the web. At press time, StubHub had not yet replied to a message from TicketNews seeking comment.
Ace Ticket has a location near Fenway Park on Brookline Avenue, and in the towns of Allston, Brookline, Framingham, Saugus and Chelmsford where Red Sox fans will be able to stop in to buy or sell tickets. The company also has an extensive courier service throughout the Boston area.
An elated Jim Holzman, owner of Ace Ticket, told TicketNews that the two sides had been working on a deal for more than a year, and that the move is a victory for local ticket brokers. He added that at least 40 percent of Ace Ticket’s business is from selling Red Sox tickets.
“I feel great about this. Not only are our customers using Ace Ticket, the Red Sox are, too. I’m proud we’re joining the Red Sox family, especially in a state where the issue of ticket resale hasn’t been entirely settled yet,” Holzman said, referring to the ongoing deliberations in the Massachusetts legislature over the possible repeal of the state’s anti-scalping laws.