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Could regular fans get hurt by this move? The Canucks Ticket Exchange, which has around 11,000 members, is shutting down
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Published Jun 25, 2024 • Last updated 11 hours ago • 4 minute read
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Canucks fans cheer during the first period against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 2 of the Second Round of the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Rogers Arena on May 10, 2024. Photo by Derek Cain /Getty Images
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The Vancouver Canucks say they’re revoking season ticket accounts from some people they believe are professional ticket brokers but Derek Wright insists that common fans are winding up collateral damage.
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Wright, who’s from Mission, started up the Canucks Ticket Exchange on Facebook eight years ago. It had grown to have “almost 11,000 members,” Wright explained via email, and it “allowed blue-collar fans like myself to see more games because often fans were able to buy tickets for less money than Ticketmaster.”
A Canucks spokesperson said Tuesday morning that the team has been researching season ticket holder accounts. They looked at people they felt were reselling tickets too frequently, as well as people who had several accounts. Some of those had different addresses but a single billing address, for instance.
A written statement from the team explained that “our goal with season ticket memberships is to create a sense of community and allow fans to attend as many games as possible. Restricting ticket brokers from purchasing memberships and tickets will help create the best possible experience for our fans and protect the integrity of our season ticket members.”
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There’s no word from the team about a ticket reselling threshold or about how many tickets being sold to other parties leads to an account being questioned. Canucks season ticket holders can resell their tickets through Ticketmaster, according to the team website.
Wright has posted a closure statement on the Canucks Ticket Exchange page. He hasn’t had his season tickets revoked, but he told Postmedia that he’s heard that “almost 100 accounts” have lost their seats.
“A lot of season ticket holders aren’t able to attend every game. That leaves them trying to sell the rest to help recoup some of their costs. Remember, these are seat packages in the thousands of dollars,” Wright wrote to Postmedia.
“The Canucks organization has a deal with Ticketmaster, which I understand and they obviously want their cut. Unfortunately, the minimum amount that you’re able to sell tickets for is often high enough that the tickets would go unsold and, especially when the team wasn’t doing well or we were playing a team people didn’t care to see on a work night. What would happen then is basically the ticket holder would take a total loss on those games often in the hundreds of dollars.
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“Now that the team is doing well and ticket demand/prices are high again, the Canucks organization has made the decision to turn against those same season ticket members who kept them going through hard times by revoking season ticket members’ accounts for being ticket resellers on groups such as ours. The funny thing is, it didn’t seem to bother them when it was helping them move tickets that they themselves were having trouble moving.
“I understand that they are a for-profit organization, but by making the decision to revoke season ticket holders accounts for selling tickets, what they’ve really done is make tickets less accessible for the average Joe. Ticketmaster prices are often quite high, and even the Canucks themselves often sell their unsold tickets lower than Ticketmaster sells them for. But no tickets were as low as what you could buy directly from the season ticket holder.”
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Peter Wortman says that he’s been a season-ticket holder for 33 years. An email to him dated June 12 from the Canucks stated that his seats weren’t being renewed because “you have either resold 100 per cent of your tickets or forwarded them to known broker accounts.”
Wortman balks at that claim. He’s from Pemberton. He says that he can’t make every game. By his count, he made it to 17 of the 41 home games this past regular season.
He admits that he’s resold to ticket brokers, but maintains he resells mostly to family and friends and his goal is to break even on his tickets every season. He “lost a lot of money,” on his Canucks tickets when the team was struggling because it was hard for him to find people who wanted his seats.
“I know it’s a cash grab,” Wortman continued of this recent Canucks decision. “We’re not stupid.
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“They keep saying it’s about giving the average fan a better chance but they’re going to be charging more than we were.”
Tom Mayenknecht, who hosts The Sports Market on Sportsnet 650, believes the issue for the Canucks comes down to “restricting brokers without using a sledgehammer on the average season ticket holder.
“The irony is this all comes after the buzz in the marketplace that was generated by the Canucks’ playoff run to the second round, when many season ticket holders saw first hand the advantage of season ticket holder pricing and the upside of ticket reselling — often at two to three times face value — as part of the territory of being a season ticket subscriber,” he said. “That average season ticket holder has been trained to view reselling through the Ticketmaster Exchange and team portals as an intrinsic benefit of being such a subscriber.”
@SteveEwen
SEwen@postmedia.com
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/hockey/nhl/vancouver-canucks/season-tickets-revoked-brokers