Less than a week after the team slashed prices for many of its premium tickets, hundreds of premium New York Yankees tickets are turning up on StubHub, and speculation is rising that the team or intermediaries may have posted them.

While there is no direct proof that the team is involved – as a policy, StubHub does not disclose seller information – large quantities of premium seats are not turning up on other broker Web sites or exchanges, only on StubHub, which gives the impression that the tickets are not coming from multiple sources.

Many of the Suite seats tickets began turning up on StubHub after the team cut prices for them last week, and began offered extra tickets to previous purchasers and season ticket holders.

The team’s primary ticketing contract is with Ticketmaster Entertainment, but Major League Baseball also has a secondary ticketing deal with StubHub, which was signed two years ago.

Buy Sell and Go with confidence at StubHub

Neither Ticketmaster nor Alice McGillion, who handles press questions concerning the team’s tickets, returned messages seeking comment.



With large numbers of premium seats suddenly turning up on the secondary market, prices are beginning to drop significantly, which is good for fans who may not have been able to afford premium tickets. But, the flood is bad for resellers who were hoping to turn profits from their tickets.

“An increase in listings is most likely due to increased activity by season ticket holders who have received complimentary tickets from the team to offset the price decreases in the selected sections,” StubHub spokesperson Sean Pate told TicketNews. “Our partnership with MLBAM [Major League Baseball Advanced Media] and the clubs themselves does not involve the listing of any primary inventory on the site. However, StubHub is an open marketplace which does allow any party to list tickets for sale.”

TicketNews spoke to several ticket brokers, who requested anonymity because they do not want their comments to affect future dealing with the team, who said that they believed the team was responsible for the glut of premium tickets on secondary market.
“They’re all doing it now,” said one Southern Connecticut broker. “Look at the Mets on StubHub. Row 1 and 2 in all the good sections for upcoming games. Not good.”

“I doubt it’s widespread but [they probably] figure [it’s] worth the shot,” said another Tri-State broker. “I would if I were them.”

One New Jersey-based broker believes that since the team did sell out significant numbers of the high-priced premium seats, even with the giveaways to prior purchasers, that still would not total the thousands of tickets that have turned up on StubHub in recent days.

“The people who were buying seasons at those prices, now they can’t resell them to recoup some of their costs,” he said. “The team doesn’t care what they sell the tickets for, they need to put bodies in the seats.”

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