As you may know, I am planning a trip from Philadelphia to Kansas City with stops in between to watch baseball games at various cities along the way. This trip is planned for the week of June 14. I knew the toughest ticket to get would be for a Cubs game as they are playing their crosstown rivals the White Sox during that time. The game, I was planning to go to, was either June 16 or 17. June 16 was my preferred date as it is a night game and was somewhat easier to get to. But, I would have settled for a day game on June 17 but a little bit tougher to get to as I would have had to leave Cincinnati early in the morning to make the afternoon game.
Well, today was the first day of single game tickets for Cubs home games at Wrigley Field. And, I was ready. I signed in a half hour before the tickets went on sale and waited in the internet waiting area. And waited. And waited. For three hours. Until the screen refreshed and told me that the tickets for the June 16 were sold out. 15 minutes later the tickets for the June 17 game were sold out. Errr.
Just for the heck of it I checked stubhub.com, which is the legal way to re-sell 'extra' tickets you have for a ballgame. So, for instance, Aunt Minnie came to visit you at the last minute and was going to stay with you for a month. Well, you have to sit at home and entertain Aunt Minnie during her visit so you can't make it to the game that you bought tickets for. You put the tickets on stubhub.com and try to sell your tickets because you don't want them to go to waste.
However, they shouldn't be allowed to appear minutes after the ticket booth opened this morning!!!!!! As of this writing, there are 671 tickets available in prices ranging from $78 to $1000 per ticket on stubhub.com for the June 16 game. Or 2 to 5 times the price of the face value of the ticket. So, people are buying tickets in order to sell them.
I'm sorry but I have a big problem with ticket resellers. For Christmas one year, my wife went to one and wound up paying $140 for two $20 seats for a Sixers game. The game wasn't even sold out. She didn't know any better because she doesn't usually buy tickets.
The only thing I will say about stubhub.com is that you are at least guaranteed there is a valid ticket waiting for you. If you ask me, this situation where, tickets are available minutes after the tickets go on sale officially, is highway robbery.
2 comments:
I have to agree. I have tried to get tickets to events, only find out they are sold out minutes after they go on sale. I know people are buying tickets just to resale them.......I think this practice should be illegal and prosecuted.....did you get your Cardinal's tickets yet?
Eric:
I think they don't go on sale until early March. Right now, we would be going to the Cardinals' game on June 18. I suspect a weeknight game wouldn't be too hard to get tickets?
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