Take nothing away from the biggest A-League game of the season, but ticket scalping is another preventable problem that no one will do anything about.
Football Federation Australia have been asleep at the wheel all season, but they’re starting to wake up to the realisation they have an image problem.
That’s why they tweeted about Fox Sports commentator Robbie Slater’s missing Dolan Warren Awards invite during the week.
That’s why they’ve just appointed noted football enthusiast Sam Christou to the role of General Manager of Commercial Development.
That’s why, as Ray Gatt revealed in The Australian, FFA accused the ten A-League clubs of being “unnecessarily antagonistic” in their approach to expansion.
Yet when grand final tickets went on sale to the general public on Monday, the FFA were caught out by another problem they’re unlikely to have foreseen.
That’s because everyone assumed the grand final would be played at Allianz Stadium in Sydney.
And had that been the case, the spectre of ticket scalping would never have been an issue – simply because the stadium holds enough seats to accommodate two sets of supporters, with some left over to account for any neutral fans.
But that was never going to be the case at McDonald Jones Stadium in Newcastle.
Not only is the city a renowned football stronghold, but it’s home to some of the most parochial supporters of any code in the country.
And they were always going to snap up the bulk of the 30,000 tickets on sale.
(AAP Image/Darren Pateman)
So suddenly the fact that FFA is fighting fires on so many fronts with so few resources becomes a problem.
Because it’s patently absurd that anyone at any time can purchase up to ten tickets in one transaction.
But that has rarely been a problem in an A-League sense – the 2015 grand final is one exception – because even if someone wanted to buy ten tickets to a game, there’s usually so many seats left over it’s never an obvious problem.
But it becomes a problem when everyone in town wants to attend the game.
And it’s one that ticket resellers like Ticketmaster Resale and Viagogo are happy to exploit.
If you followed them on Twitter, you might have noticed the @TMResaleAU_NZ account has gone quiet.
They last proactively tweeted back in August 2017, shortly after I pointed out to Ticketmaster that tickets for Amy Schumer’s Australian tour – which was subsequently cancelled – had appeared on Ticketmaster Resale only moments after being made available in an exclusive pre-sale.
Schumer’s tour was being promoted by Live Nation, which happens to own Ticketmaster Resale.
And many critics claim that bots – complex computer programs designed to automate the process of buying tickets online – make it impossible for regular punters to buy tickets to popular events.
The prevalence of bots in the Australian online marketplace is disputed, but even if you make a complaint, it’s unlikely anyone will care.
Register one with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission – which calls itself “Australia’s competition regulator and national consumer law champion” – and they’ll send back a form letter which reads in part: “The ACCC is not a complaint handling body”.
So it’s left to ticket buyers themselves to do the right thing.
It’s a shame, then, that a small minority of A-League grand final ticket buyers turned around and placed these tickets on resale sites for hugely inflated prices.
And it’s symptomatic of a society in which doing the right thing by yourself is often at the expense of someone else.
Kudos to Newcastle Jets chief executive Lawrie McKinna for actively trying to track down scalpers and have them banned.
FFA, meanwhile, have announced they will launch a full-scale review of every aspect of the A-League during the off-season. They should cap ticket sales to six per transaction while they’re at it.
And those who think the issue of scalping shouldn’t have been broached a day out from the decider should try putting themselves in someone else’s shoes.
Namely the Novocastrians who missed out on a ticket to watch their team host a grand final on home soil.
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
As for that "antagonistic" expansion article, I can actually see the clubs side of it, FFA only got 1 expansion team right (WSW) and that was only when they really had to go the community route and do it properly when forced to after Clive Palmer and GCUtd Outside of that there is a chance that as part of a power grab they want to bring in a few Club Yes Men with which to undermine existing club owners FFA have really alienated every stakeholder with their silly power politics
NUFCMVFC
Roar Guru
I would say 6 is right, in my own case I do remember getting a ticket for a casual sports fan I would occasionally go to some games with, so 1 member plus one friend as a marketing gimmick to encourage others to become engaged as Members Eg in your case if you could bring your partner and your kids could bring a friend each In this case while we are going into Bots etc, this seems to be the same issue as the AAMI Park GF, basically where you have teams with a largish membership base they aren't bots and they are going to snap up a fair few of the tickets which is what I think happened
punter
Guest
Great story JB.
Foxtelpfft
Guest
It's not the ticket scalper stat are the prob it's the dumb fk afl cricket suppprters who brought 20 tickets Nd resell then for 1k just to be asshles but hey that's then for ya also channel 1 are The real scalpels not showing game on 10 had bulance and rossane seriously even on hal site says broadcast one one hd wtf ffaout
j binnie
Guest
Waz - Just a matter of interest but "ticket sca[ping" is not new. Back in 1960 I had a ticket for the European Cup Final to be played at Hampden Park. Through circumstances my ticket was a "single" and well away from the other supporters I was going to the game with. A police inspector who was part of the group advised me to go to a certain gate behind the North Stand and speak to a policemen who would be there. This I did,mentioned "my" inspectors name and was asked to hand over my ticket . I was then offered a replacement from a whole bunch of tickets produced from an inside pocket. I was given an enclosure ticket.!!! After the game ,and having joined up with my "group" I asked the "inspector" where his contact had acquired the handful of tickets.?? Answer - Anyone caught "scalping' had their tickets taken by the police,who then distributed them to anyone who passed their scrutiny.. Can you start to imagine this happening in today's politically correct society? Cheers jb.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Usually the Jets member account has a primary and you can have secondaries (kids, other adults...) so I don’t know if others are managing more than 5 other accounts. I know some members - neighbours and friends - will try and buy a block of memberships and season tickets, so not certain that goes under the one account. I guess 10 is an upper limit for some who would try and buy in a big block so only one needs to buy, not 7 or so individuals... ...anyway I think there is suppose to be an anti-scalping law to come into effect in July in NSW so a bit if politics argy-bargy this week of why it has taken so long to activate (long lead time for the likes of Ticket Master to make necessary changes) but no one really expected a Newcastle hosted Grand Final.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Basically it’s a database driven site with rules so yes it could be created if your TM account has tickets, you put them up for resale (button) and get the cost refunded (they have your payment details on record anyway). You lose the transaction fee and I’m sure TM would have a resale fee (all done automatically via online fcs) so you are going to be out of pocket a little But the system as it is, putting up tickets for whatever nominated amount, is designed solely at the knowledge of TM. How much would they make of inflated prices? If they make a percentage as well, or the more worrying...
Griffo
Roar Guru
Yeah basically a countdown then the page refreshes automatically...you paste your code as soon as you click the box (rather than typing). Football Family codes worked the same way and basically had tickets in 30 seconds. What I think is wrong a bit is lining up in person - you had little chance but no real option if you didn’t have an Internet connection. Most of the people that lined up were very disappointed. Some were there for hours and didn’t get any.
Griffo
Roar Guru
Ha! Just read this.Well done Buddy! Enjoy the game tomorrow.
chris
Guest
There are free market practices and then there practices that are deemed unfair and illegal. A bot buying up tix because it can do it quicker and more efficiently than a human and then immediately re-selling at a 1,000% markup is NOT a free market. Thats what needs to stop. There are laws you can put in place to limit/eliminate this "business model". I'm saying it occurs across the entertainment industry and Im not blaming FFA.
elvis
Guest
Human greed? So if I buy fruit at the market, then that is the product of human greed because a middleman is making a profit? You work for free do you?
elvis
Guest
Why? And who is going to enforce it? Perhaps if there was a $5 levy on every ticket sold to an event that didn't want to be scalped that would be fair. It pays for all the extra police, courts, public servants and hangers on that go with every law trying to restrict free trade.
Nemesis
Guest
Dandenong/Casey are being gifted the land for their stadium, academy, etc. by the Dandenong Council. Not uncommon for Governments to do this in order to drive investment that will generate a decent ROI for the Government. Either the land is sitting idle, or the land is too important to sell. The Vic Government will have the land returned for $0 when in 30 years.
Grobbelaar
Roar Guru
Yes, but going back to the Melbourne HQ scenario, we're talking about prime CBD real estate, waterfront no less. Under what circumstances would any government give away such land to a wealthy foreigner? It might happen, but it's pretty hard to picture. Rightly or wrongly, the AFL sells itrself to government as a community-minded not-for-profit, owned by the community, etc, etc - your average A-League club would have trouble trying to make that same pitch (although the FFA could do it, and theoretically, should have some success).
marron
Guest
I became a football family member after I purchased a ticket (online) to the prior playoff at the SFS against the Solomons. Dukes with a cracker I seem to remember.
Redondo
Guest
I didn't realise he'd already made his century - I'll stop commenting now. Goodnight all - go the Jets!
Redondo
Guest
Thanks Mike - I've never been accused of crackpot conspiracy scandals before. Still no data on the alleged scalping scandal? I'm willing to be convinced but not until I see some evidence.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
Of course, Mushi! I absolutely reported the questionable ticketing practices around a cancelled comedy tour promoted by the same company that owns a ticket resale site last July because I knew Newcastle would host the grand final nine months later and it would make the perfect anecdote for my A-League column. Thank you for pointing this out!
Doc Disnick
Roar Guru
Mike must be singing for his supper with this effort. It's 5:30 and still no bonus for Mike. A day before the GF and this is all he could write about... I think that says it all really. Well, I'll help him get to that magical 100 comments.
Mike Tuckerman
Expert
I'd say it's more the fact I couldn't be bothered entertaining your crackpot conspiracy theories, Redondo.