Monday, July 05, 2010

Hooray For Touts.

I can see why touts can be dangerous in football, where sometimes rival fans have to be segregated, but elsewhere I can't see any sensible reason to ban them. If the organisers of Wimbledon have undervalued their product then why shouldn't someone reallocate the tickets to the people who want them most?

Surely someone's willingness to pay is more important in determining their eagerness to see the event than how fast they can dial a hotline.

5 comments:

JuliaM said...

"If the organisers of Wimbledon have undervalued their product then why shouldn't someone reallocate the tickets to the people who want them most?"

Quite! I've never understood why any organisation wastes their time on ticket touting. As far as I'm concerned, it's buyer beware.

Matthew said...

I can think of one reason. A large proportion of Wimbledon's tickets are allocaetd to LTA members by ballot, and the idea is that if you don't want to go you should decline them and let another LTA member buy them. It seems OK to me that a club might want to prevent on-selling in these circumstances.

Chuckles said...

Matthew, They may indeed want to prevent on-selling under the circumstances, however it is they who are creating a market, and are then complaining about it being skewed.
Instead of banning things or attempting to ban things, should they not be refining their market?

And not to pick on the Lawn Tennis Assoc alone, extend that to all such markets, or accept that the one that has evolved is the correct one?

Ross said...

Matthew- as a private club the LTA ought to have the right to expel members who sell on their tickets, but I don't see why it should be a criminal offence.

Matthew said...

I didn't see the bit about it being made a criminal offence, I'm not of that view myself. However your post and the comments do extend to it being a silly idea for a private business to want to do, and I don't think that is correct.