By Alfred Branch, Jr.
It’s no secret that the competition between primary and secondary ticketers is as fierce today as it’s ever been. The traditional lines between the two have blurred to the point that primary ticket sellers are muscling their way into the secondary market at every turn, while the secondary players are striking deals with sports leagues and teams to be their authorized resellers.
The reasons are varied but at the core is money, as more artists go on tour to offset slagging CD sales, and sports teams and venues look to control more of their own revenue streams. In the eye of the storm are the prices of tickets, but, for every uproar over Hannah Montana tickets, there are a surprising number of deals to be had for fans who are willing to shop around.
These are the often overlooked deals, but they can be found on the secondary market in less time than it takes to comparison shop online for a bargain airline ticket. Between Nov. 5 and Nov. 26, TicketNews looked at a random sampling of ticket prices for recent and upcoming NFL, NBA and NHL games, and found that in a surprising number of cases, the prices offered at the secondary level were less than what they seats were selling for from primary ticketers.
For example, a Club Level seat at Madison Square Garden for a New York Knicks/Golden State Warriors game on Nov. 20, was recently selling $204 on CheapPricedTickets.com, but carried a $240 face value from Ticketmaster. And, on the Knicks secondary exchange operated by Ticketmaster, that same seat was selling for $280.
Additional instances where secondary ticket prices are better than their primary counterparts:
A Lower Level Center Ice seat to Dec. 1 New York Islanders/Atlanta Thrashers game at Nassau Coliseum was recently selling for $120 face value on Ticketmaster, but was selling for $82 on CheapPricedTickets.com.
An Upper Level seat at Giants Stadium for a Dec. 9 game between the New York Jets and Cleveland Browns was selling for $31 on TicketLiquidator.com, but carried a $70 face value on Ticketmaster, and an $87.50 price tag on the Jets ticket exchange operated by Ticketmaster.
“There are great deals out there in the secondary market,” said Don Vaccaro, CEO of TicketNetwork. “All you have to do is look.”
CheapPricedTickets.com and TicketLiquidator.com are owned by TicketNetwork, the same parent company that owns TicketNews.
