Apparently realizing the two were at a legal stalemate, the New England Patriots and secondary ticket company Stubhub have settled their three-year-old dispute over Patriots tickets being scalped on the resale giant.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed, but essentially both sides will continue with their positions of brokers and fans listing Patriots tickets on the Web site, and the Patriots stressing that it prohibits the resale of tickets to the team’s home games. The Patriots sued StubHub to have the tickets removed, and the team is reportedly continuing separate lawsuits against individuals who are reselling tickets.

“The settlement does not change in any way the Patriots’ policies prohibiting the resale of tickets to Patriots home games, or the Patriots’ ability to enforce those policies,” team spokesperson Stacey James said in a statement, reported by Massachusetts Web site CommonWealth Unbound.

The three-year-old case had been closely watched by the secondary ticket industry because it potentially could have severely restricted the resale of popular tickets on exchanges such as StubHub. While other sports teams have embraced the secondary market, or at least turned a blind eye to it, the Patriots were one of the only ones to aggressively go after online scalpers and brokers who were reselling its tickets. The settlement came in the form of a stipulation of dismissal motion the two sides mutually filed in court earlier this month.

At one point, StubHub was forced to turn over the names and sale information of more than 13,000 people who bought or resold Patriots tickets through the Web site, but the team never disclosed what it intended to do with those names.

“The settlement will not change our business model. StubHub supports the independent marketplace for ticket sales,” said StubHub spokesperson Sean Pate in a statement.


Gametime ad touting concert tickets for 60% off prices at competing websites