New York City Council members by and large came down on the side of fans’ rights at its hearing on ticketing issues last week. Manhattan City Councilman Dan Garodnick in particular cited fans’ frustrations when trying to purchase tickets to an event and called for greater transparency in the ticket market.
Much thanks to all of you who submitted your personal ticketing stories or wrote in about the issue to your council member. They heard you loud and clear. We’re hopeful the city will now propose and pass legislation that protects fans rights’ and creates a more fair, transparent ticketing industry.
In the meantime, one New York fan – 25-year Mets season ticket holder Mario Asaro – sent his own message about the need to protect fans’ rights through the pages of the New York Daily News:
As a Mets season ticket holder for more than 25 years, I know how hard this will hit fans. The cost of season tickets has skyrocketed in recent years. I go to as many games as I can, but I can t possibly attend every one. With some of these new ticket restrictions, if I couldn t attend a game, I could resell my tickets only on certain websites (like Ticketmaster or Flash Seats). Many of these sites don t allow you to sell your tickets below face value, but with the way the Mets played this year and no drastic turnaround in sight I m pretty sure no one is going to buy my tickets for face value. That means I would not be able to recoup any of my large investment in the team, and my seat stays empty on game day. I may even have to pay a transfer fee to give my tickets away to friends for free. [...]
Fans of all stripes would be hurt by efforts to restrict tickets, but season ticket holders would be hit most of all. We are the most loyal of fans, investing enormous amount of time and money to support our teams. I have stuck by my Mets through the good times and the bad, but I don t know if I can continue to do that if I am saddled with countless unused tickets every year. If team owners aren t careful, these policies will push fans like me right out of the stadium.
Read more on the Daily News website.