eBay owned tickets marketplace Stubhub has struck a deal with the NFL – the National Football league – in the USA. It will become the NFL Authorized Ticket Resale Marketplace.
“We are thrilled that the NFL has chosen StubHub’s massive, industry-leading marketplace to give its fans a seamless and reliable ticketing experience,” said Perkins Miller, GM North America of StubHub. “We applaud the NFL for being among the first professional sports leagues to provide its fans more choices than ever when it comes to buying and selling tickets.”
“Our goal is to give our fans as many safe, secure options as possible to buy official NFL tickets and to simplify the purchasing process,” said Brian Lafemina, the NFL’s Senior Vice President of Club Business Development. “Partnering with StubHub, a site where many NFL fans buy and sell NFL tickets was a logical step for us and we look forward to working with them to continue to make the NFL ticketing process as seamless as possible.”
This is a tantalising deal in the controversial ticketing arena of ecommerce. Many people disapprove of ticket resales and accuse resellers of being touts and profiting at the expense of the ‘proper fans’. And there is often a fear about ticket fakes too. But deals such as this legitimatise resale and make it much safer.
It also raises the question as to whether a similar deal regarding football tickets in the UK with the FA could be a future possibility. The resale of soccer tickets in Britain is essentially banned because of problems with hooligans in the past.
StubHub also remains a vibrant part of the eBay stable and a vital profit centre for the group that continues to go from strength to strength. It seems that this deal will be a further spur for future growth.
One Response
Most Football clubs offer a ticket exchange service, so when a match sells out, you can put your season ticket up for sale for that game and if someone buys it, you get credited the % you paid for that game.