NFL Ticket Exchange & The New England Patriots

[Slackker]

Tonight I decided I'd look into open seats for the Vikings @ Patriots game on Halloween. My father is from South Dakota, and loves his Vikes. My mother is a Patriots fan, as is my wife. I'm a Broncos fan, but it's always nice to go see a game. I figured the four of us could go, since Sunday is usually a family dinner / football day anyway, and my mother hates Halloween.

So, after debating on if I felt like coughing up the $185 x 4 for nice seats I checked to see if there were any available - or I should say.. I tried to check. It appears that now the Patriots require you to be a member of "The List" (waiting list) in order to buy tickets off of TicketExchange, or be a season ticket holder. It even mentions on the patriots.com website that NO other team has such restrictions in place!

To top it off.. there's a deposit to join the "The List" - $100, per seat.

So for all these years I've shelled out my money to this team. I always at least attempt to go to the Broncos games when they're playing in Foxboro. I've bought quite a bit of merchandise for friends and family, almost all of which at Patriots fans. This just seems amazing to me, and not in a good way. More like sitting in the stands last year in the playoffs, watching Brady and the Patriots fall apart against the Ravens. Back when they cared about fans who only were able to go to games once in awhile, and didn't require you to make a commitment to them.

Does anyone else think this is a crappy move, or is it just me?

[ukhotstove]

Don't want to sound nasty but like most if not all pro teams they couldn't care less about you, as long as there's another guy down the road willing to stump up the money they aren't bothered if you don't.

[Erik W.]

It is a crappy move. I'm not a big fan of personal seat licenses, and this strikes me as even worse.

Have you tried StubHub?

[Green & Gold Heart]

Or Craigslist, or eBay.

[reds1869]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

Don't want to sound nasty but like most if not all pro teams they couldn't care less about you, as long as there's another guy down the road willing to stump up the money they aren't bothered if you don't.

Treating your fans poorly only works if you are winning. The Cincinnati Bengals have treated their fans like garbage during their post "Lost Decade" resurgence. Now that the economy is bad and the team is mediocre, selling seats is tough. The only way they are moving seats is by having local corporations like P&G, Kroger and 5/3 Bank purchase large blocks. Loyalty begets loyalty and what goes around comes around.

[WillieMaysHayes]

The whole NFL is in it to rip you off. Just wait for the next round here of negotiations. I gaurantee you the players will want nothing to do with losing out on money, and the owners will not want to give way either. Who does that leave? That's right, you and me.

The 4 game preseason is a joke because fans hate paying for those stupid games. Instead of decreasing the ticket prices for the 4 games (i.e. owner loses money), they decided to make 2 of them regular season games. They couldn't keep the 16 game schedule intact and just cut the preseason games to 2...because who does that shortchange? That's right, the owner (and the players because the owners would say they only needed to pay you for 18 games instead of 20).

I firmly believe the NFL Network is in place in anticipation of cable channels becoming on-demand. In the future, you will at some point probably come to a technological "advance" where you can choose only the channels that you want to see. Instead of paying $40 a month for 180 channels you can pay $40 for the channels you watch. Trust me, ESPN and the NFL network are already sticking it to the cable conglomerates charging them $2-$5 bucks for every subscriber (i.e. cutting into that $40 you already pay today). The cable guy is going to get squeezed out eventually, and that's when all the NFL football is going to move to the NFL Network.

Every single decision they make is to get more mulah from you. It's starting to become such an evil monster that I'm getting a little turned off by it.

[Skipaway]

The problem is that too many people want to buy these tickets. There are just so many games a year and the stadium can just hold so many fans per game. With such a limited supply and huge demand, how do you expect them to treat ticket buyers "nicely"?

Popular restaurants with long reservation lists don't treat customers "nicely" either.

[reds1869]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

Popular restaurants with long reservation lists don't treat customers "nicely" either.

They do if they want to stay in business long. There is always another option, and if the experience at one place is decidedly better folks will jump ship.

[Skipaway]

Originally Posted by reds1869

They do if they want to stay in business long. There is always another option, and if the experience at one place is decidedly better folks will jump ship.

Those restaurants, just like NFL games, definitely give you a great experience when you are in there.

The point is that once the demand is hot enough, they got to manipulate you in all kind of ways if you want to find a way to get in for the experience.

And the fact it's hard to get in actually would mentally hype up the experience when people do get in. People feel the food to be more tasty when they pay $100 for it instead of $10 for it.

Being expensive and hard to get is actually the recipe for some business to stay in business and prosper long term. It's how must luxury brand works.

[WillieMaysHayes]

Originally Posted by Skipaway

The problem is that too many people want to buy these tickets. There are just so many games a year and the stadium can just hold so many fans per game. With such a limited supply and huge demand, how do you expect them to treat ticket buyers "nicely"?

Actually their attendance has been going down lately.

And although there's no specific numbers probably out there that can be verified, I would guess at least 25-50% of the seats are owned by corporations that give tickets away to their clients.

[Slackker]

Originally Posted by ukhotstove

Don't want to sound nasty but like most if not all pro teams they couldn't care less about you, as long as there's another guy down the road willing to stump up the money they aren't bothered if you don't.

The Patriots already gotten their money for the tickets. TicketExchange simply provides a place for season ticket and gamepak holders to offset a little cost by selling tickets to games they can't attend.

So not only are they saying 'screw you' to everyone who doesn't feel like forking over the money to be on a waiting list for season tickets they have no interest in purchasing.. they're screwing their season ticket holders as well.

The Patriots always sell out, that's not in question.

I know all the other ways to go about getting tickets, but if I buy off another site I'm somewhat condoning the action. I just won't be going to any games in Foxboro. There are two other NFL teams in the area I can buy tickets from freely, with whichever method I like best. A bit more pricey, but that's fine.

Edit to ask: Am I wrong on the function of TicketExchange?

[rudel.dietrich]

I am not cynical about most things, but ticket prices are getting out of control. I renewed by season tickets with Hamburg St. Pauli. They finished 2nd the 2 Bundesliga last season and got promoted to the top league.
Equal pretty much to a AAA team. They got promoted this season. The players got a raise. The team however raised season ticket prices 66%

Hamburg season tickets who are in the top level have almost reached 1,000 Euros for a season ticket. There is a waiting list for those as well. There is a 25% deposit to even get on the waiting list.

I guess I can understand the waiting list but I don't really understand needing to join a club.
Do the Patriots sell out every game like the Red Sox?
I imagine even single game tickets can be really had to get.

[Slackker]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

Hamburg season tickets who are in the top level have almost reached 1,000 Euros for a season ticket. There is a waiting list for those as well. There is a 25% deposit to even get on the waiting list.

Yeah, a waiting list for season tickets I can understand. A waiting list to buy a ticket from a season ticket holder, in essence? Not really.

Do the Patriots sell out every game like the Red Sox?
I imagine even single game tickets can be really had to get.

They've sold out every game since 1994. However, there were routinely a couple hundred tickets on TicketExchange 10-14 days prior to nearly any Patriots game (Jets, Colts obviously excluded from that list).

See, I liked TicketExchange because it felt safe, and it kept the prices down. Stubhub sucks for ticket prices. TicketExchange charged $185 for the top level Patriots ticket ($167) available. Not bad at all. And yes, the Patriots ticket prices are extremely reasonable compared to the other good teams in the NFL.

[dsvitak]

Originally Posted by WillieMaysHayes

Actually their attendance has been going down lately.

And although there's no specific numbers probably out there that can be verified, I would guess at least 25-50% of the seats are owned by corporations that give tickets away to their clients.

I work for Coca Cola, and if I were to tell you how many tickets they get to EVERY St. Louis Cardinals' game, you probably wouldn't believe me.

[Green & Gold Heart]

So did you end up going to this game?

[Slackker]

Originally Posted by Green & Gold Heart

So did you end up going to this game?

Nah, I wound up working all weekend so that a co-worker could go get gay married. I thought that was the least likely answer to this question when I started this thread.