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Mayor Menino outraged at ticket scalping for Fenway skating event

E-mail|Link|Comments () December 22, 2009 03:39 PM

By Jack Nicas, Globe Staff

Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino expressed outrage today at "greedy" scalpers who scooped up bunches of free tickets on Saturday to skate at Fenway Park, effectively ruining the opportunity for a long waiting list of families.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino

"It's outrageous," Menino told the Globe. "This was done for the right reasons: to give someone who can't afford to go to the hockey games the opportunity to skate in Fenway Park. Now people are using it for their own personal gains. It's very, very sad."

Menino vowed to stop as many illegal scalpers as possible during the two Sundays of skating -- Jan. 3 and Jan. 10. Plans are to spot-check skaters; if the registered ticketholder is not present (four tickets are assigned to one holder) then the skaters will be turned away, he said.

"We're going to have checkers for people coming in with the tickets," Menino said.
I want to make sure that for those individuals who want to beat the system, we beat them before they get into the park."

But some city residents who waited hours in the cold Saturday morning, such as Jim Cloherty of Hyde Park, had plans to give the four-pack of tickets as a Christmas gift.

"I already gave them to my niece and nephew and brother and sister. I got in line for them, because I can't skate," said Cloherty, 59, explaining he didn't plan on going, but will if it means his godchildren will be turned away.

Menino said ticket checkers will make a "judgment call" before turning away gift recipients.

"We're not going to be the Gestapo," he said.