Ticket resellers win at fans' expense

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THE RED Sox used to have a slogan that declared, "Being there is twice the fun." It still is, of course. But being there now costs outrageously more than the vast majority of fans can afford.

As a Red Sox fan since the days of Teddy Ballgame, I understand that time marches on and things change. But the prices we fans have to pay nowadays to go watch the Red Sox and our other pro teams have gotten absurdly out of hand. Sox bleacher seats, for instance, with a face value of $26 are now selling for as much as $440 apiece, in clear violation of our state's antiscalping law, which allows ticket brokers to resell their tickets for $2 above face value plus certain expenses.

Last October, the Globe lamented, "With the lowest-priced ticket at $20 and almost all sold out in advance, youngsters and people of modest means find it difficult to attend a game at Fenway Park." And the reason these fans, and even those with deeper pockets, find it so difficult is because the ticket resellers - both the greedy ones who are licensed and the lowlifes who skulk around on game day - hoard much of the available tickets, and, as a result, are able to resell them at exorbitant prices.

Using multiple credit cards and e-mail addresses, many ticket brokers get their tickets by using sophisticated software that lets them circumvent security programs, thus allowing them to buy tickets in rapid-fire succession and in significantly greater quantities than the general public. The result? Tickets are on sale at 10 a.m. They're all gone by 10:01 a.m. Minutes later, they show up on eBay and StubHub for many times their face value.

Last year, there was draft legislation that would have changed the state law to allow a ticket resale price cap of three times face value. At the same time, it would have put some teeth in the law: 5 cents from every ticket sold in the primary market was to go to enforcement. But the bill that came out of committee dropped the price cap. In other words, the sky's the limit on ticket prices. The bill also dropped the 5-cent enforcement provision. High-priced lobbyists for ticket resellers had their way.

The bill that was left did require Internet entities like eBay and StubHub to be licensed and made it illegal to bribe people at the box office to obtain tickets and to use "runners" to buy up blocks of tickets. But even these provisions miraculously disappeared from the bill that sailed right through the House of Representatives. The bill is now in the hands of the Senate.

A change in the law is warranted, but with a reasonable cap of two times face value. That's a fair profit in anyone's playbook. Some have argued that the scalping law is unenforceable. It is not. All that is needed is one high-profile prosecution to get other offenders to fall into line.

Others have argued that doing away with the antiscalping law would make more tickets available. That is illogical. Consider, for example, Fenway Park, where the seating capacity for night games is 36,107. Whether or not there is an antiscalping statute in place will not increase that number.

Still others have argued that scalping is a victimless crime. It is not. There is tax evasion and bribery on a grand scale going on all over the place. Consider for example, the season-ticket-holders who resell all their tickets instead of attending games. These individuals are now in the business of reselling tickets, although they're not licensed, and like the scalping thugs in the street, you can be sure they don't pay a dime of taxes on their substantial profits. Add to that the lost sales tax. And then there is all the bribery to stir into the illicit mix. So clearly, scalping is not a victimless crime.

Sports are part of our cultural and social fabric, and nowhere is that more evident than here in Massachusetts. So as our legislators ponder what to do, they should remember what being a fan is all about: a day at the ballpark with the family you love watching the team you love - at a reasonable price.

Colman Herman is a consumer activist from Dorchester.