Red Sox snub StubHub for ticket resales

The Boston Red Sox have inked a deal with Ace Ticket to serve as the official "offline" ticket resale agency for season ticket holders.

Previously, the Sox operated the "Replay" system on redsox.com which allowed season ticket holders to directly resell their tickets for games they were unable to attend. But a deal signed last fall between Major League Baseball and StubHub Inc. to handle all of the league's online ticket resales bars clubs who do not participate from reselling tickets online.

So the Red Sox's snub of StubHub means that season ticket holders no longer have an official way to resell tickets online.

"We have reached the conclusion that it is incumbent upon us to identify and endorse a secure and reputable secondary market option for our customers. This decision is reflective of an irreversible marketplace shift and came only after careful thought and deliberation," Sam Kennedy, the Red Sox's chief sales and marketing officer, wrote in a March 7 letter that is being mailed today to season ticket holders.

Under the Replay system, subject to the Massachusetts antiscalping law, resale prices were limited to $2 above face value plus some business and service charges, including a 24 percent fee for handling the resale. There is currently proposed legislation the Massachusetts State House that would change the antiscalping law.

With Ace, as with other ticket resellers such as StubHub, season ticket holders are free to sell the tickets for whatever the buyer will pay. Though such sales are technically illegal in Massachusetts, the law is rarely enforced.
(By Jenn Abelson, Globe staff)