A good article about scalping sports tickets today included this little Rockets-specific bit: "Then there's James Wells, a software engineer who doesn't even use scalpers to see Houston Rockets games for big discounts. His technique: Find any corporate types outside the arena and chances are they're sitting on a stack of extra seats from the office. How much do they usually want for a $112 ticket near the floor? "I never pay more than $20," says Mr. Wells. "Most of these guys are just looking for a little beer money." certainly worth a shot, although I seem to remember, at least a couple of years ago, that the cops were pretty active around the arena in shutting down these kinds of ticket sales. guess not. ------------------
Happened to me once... Last season, I was waiting at the box office buy a ticket for a friend, and a "corporate looking" guy walks up to me and offers to sell me tickets. I saw that they were $110 tix, so I say "No way man, I'm looking for cheap ones". But he says he wants to sell em cheap. So I offer him $20 and he gives em to me. Two $110 seats for $20. Unbelievable. The people using corporate seats never have to pay for their seats. That's why they can show up in the 3rd. That's why they can sell 2 $110 seats for $20.
Ticket scalping is great. I love that it is legal in Texas. Pure capitalism. How can you shut down pure supply vs demand. I can buy tickets for FL vs FSU in TX cheaper than in Gainesville. Anyone that complains is just too lazy to buy tickets at 8 am. "Drugs are the last form of pure capitalism left in America, and we plan to shut it down." - Up in Smoke. ------------------ "Chucky who? I thought we were talking about basketball?" Charles Barkley
Why is it that there are cops looking out for scalping at the CC if it's legal? At Enron, they don't give a damn... ------------------ Check out my homepage! Loads of sports pics! http://www.public.asu.edu/~sykim/
if i remember correctly - its illegal to sell tickets on the grounds of the arena (either illegal or at least against compaq center policy)... but the other thing i remember vaguely is that it is only scalping if you sell for greater than the face value. but i can't remember if that applies in texas or another state i've lived in.... ------------------
It's only illegal if you don't own a business. In other words you have to have a tax id number and charge sales tax on the tickets. That is it. ------------------
Rockbox hit the nail on the head, the government wants its money. Its crazy what you can do in this country as long as you pay taxes. It is against Mavs policy to sell on Reunion grounds. I guess its the same at Compaq. ------------------ "Chucky who? I thought we were talking about basketball?" Charles Barkley
The whole article is actually quite relevant to much of the discussion that has been going on around here with respect to attendance, suits and tickets prices. Houston is not alone in these regards, and I'm afraid the new arena (likely with higher ticket prices) will only help attendance temporarily. I wish they had interviewed whoever that was from the Rockets who told heyp that they had to raise ticket prices because of declining attendance. ------------------
I don't know why but I always assumed that the new arena would mean ticket prices would go down or at least stay the same. Is it true that the prices will go up? ------------------ Rarely has one player outplayed another the way Olajuwon outplayed David Robinson in their famed playoff series in the same season that Robinson was the league's most valuable player. That for me, was the performance of a truly great player. -Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam
that was a total guess on my part. Not sure why they wouldn't, as demand should be higher simply because of the new arena (for a certain amount of time). ------------------
The idea with tickets in a new arena is this: 2500 more tickets available that weren't available at Compaq. The vast majority of those (maybe even all of them) will be luxury suites and club seats leaving the rest (about what is available in Compaq now) available for non-corporate buyers. The larger number of luxury suites and high-dollar club seats allows the team to expand the number of cheaper seats available. The seats near the floor will most certainly go up but, a study was done not to long ago that found the average ticket price in new arenas came down because of the increase in the number of seats available and the increase in expensive luxury suites. So, instead of only X number of seats at $10 or $13, that number increases while the number of expensive seats also increases. When you add seats, that happens. ------------------ fArt don't pay the rent.
