The MLB, a longtime foe of ticket scalpers, has now decided that the ticket resale business is not so shady after all.
The league has inked a revenue-sharing agreement with StubHub, an online market owned by eBay that acts as a go-between in the resale of tickets to sports and entertainment events. Under a five-year deal, “The New York Times” reported that all 30 baseball team Web sites and MLB.com would direct fans who want to sell their tickets or buy tickets from other fans to Stubhub.com.
What team owners once painted as an illegal practice is now being seen as the secondary ticket market. Most of the league’s teams already participate in some kind ticket resale activity from their own Web sites. The deal, it said, not only fully embraces the activity, but also gives the MLB a share of the revenue from sales.
The changes are being driven by both online technology and changes in lifestyle. Fans considering the purchase of expensive season ticket packages are increasingly eager to know that they are going to be able to sell tickets to games they cannot attend, particularly if their lives are busy and schedules are tight.
The activity can be profitable. StubHub charges a combined 25 percent fee to buyers and sellers on the exchange of tickets. Under the new arrangement, baseball’s interactive company, Major League Baseball Advanced Media, which is partly owned by all of the baseball franchises, will get a share of revenues, plus a fee.
The deal is also expected to drive development of more refined technology. Greg Bettinelli, director of business development at StubHub, told the “Times” that his company would work on a new system to allow sellers to digitally transfer tickets to buyers. In the case of a last-minute sale, he said, sellers would be able to digitally send tickets to the ballpark box office in the name of the buyer.
