Should the Packers Start Revoking Season Tickets?

Firethorn1001

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I don't think anyone has the right to tell a person they can't sell their tickets for a given game to someone who can use them.

They don't. And the Packers aren't removing that ability. But the Packers have the right to refuse someone to be a season ticket holder that is just selling their tickets all the time year over year.
 

weeds

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I recall when the Pack first instituted their PSL after the BIG remodel - 2003? - and the hue and cry from some of these "season ticket holders" who had bought up blocks of seating over the years somehow ... for instance, I recall a tavern owner who had to cough up PSL money for 40 seats.

Still, I get it, if it's profiteering the Packers have every right to essentially protect their brand and it sounds as though they're targeting the habitual offenders. It doesn't sound as though they're going after John and Jane Smith who occasionally sell tix, or, sell some off to recover the costs of owning season tickets.
 

Voyageur

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They don't. And the Packers aren't removing that ability. But the Packers have the right to refuse someone to be a season ticket holder that is just selling their tickets all the time year over year.
Less than 1% of the ticket sales fall into the category of what you're indicating. With a capacity of 81,441 in the stadium, that's around 800 tickets per game that are at issue. I'd venture a guess that a huge percentage of those tickets are sold through tours that bring fans from other teams into Green Bay for games. These people are tourists, and they spend a little time in Green Bay and a lot of money. A lot more money than someone who is going to the home games regularly.

If the Packers did this, you could expect the national interest in the team to go down the tubes. It would also lead to us not being able to attend games at other venues because the fan reactions to our fans at those venues would be complete intolerance. They'd be hostile towards us.

Then there's the tour groups. The people who kept the team afloat back 50 years ago. They got their hands on a couple of thousand tickets in total year after year and kept us from being part of the league that plays before Covid sized crowds. In fact, back in those days, to get people to the games they'd black out the home games where the seats weren't full. The Packers found ways past that, but it wasn't by turning away people that would fill seats.

People need to think about all the ramifications and the true reasons seats end up in the hands of visitors. And realistically, there's more talk about it than reality when you figure only about 800 seats fit into that category.

Think about the waiting list for a moment. It's 30 to 50 years long. So, if you're put in for season tickets the day you were born by a Packer fan father, you're probably not going to see any seats available for you until you're anywhere from 30 to 50 years old. When you finally get them, you might be working in Los Angeles and can't fly into Green Bay to attend game, but you can afford to go back home and attend a game or two every year. So, you end up selling the rest of the game tickets. You're going to be one of the people singled out to lose those tickets, even though you might be in a position where in 3 or 4 years you'll be moving back to Green Bay to go to games.

This is a fact. It happens. One person whose name you'd recognize is among them. Tony Shaloub, the actor. He flies back to Green Bay to go to at the most, two or three games a year, and sometimes can't even make it back for an entire year. He has season tickets. But when he can't make it to games, he sells his tickets to someone else or gives them to family and old friends to attend the game. Are you taking those tickets away from him?

Getting too intense over this whole thing would be harmful to the Packers and the image. Quite frankly, if people are concerned about these tickets being sold like that, why don't they open up their purse strings and buy them for themselves. That would be a lot better option than crying about the visiting fans that you can actually hear cheering in the stadium. That seems so childish to me.

But this is just my opinion.
 

Firethorn1001

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??? You are bringing up arguments that aren't part of what the Packers are doing nor even what I've agreed with them doing and that is just the 100% sales year over year.

Case in point Tony Shaloub wouldn't be impacted regardless since he is going to a game a year. Even if he misses a year, not part of this. And if giving away the tickets or selling to someone once again, not part of this. And finally there is an appeal process so all these feel good scenarios would be covered.

Bottom line this is people that have sold 100% of their tickets year over year (assume on places like stubhub which is how they would know the 100% sales)

I guess I don't see how anyone has an issue with the Packers culling the season ticket list of people that appear to have no intention of going to games and allowing others to move up.
 

Voyageur

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??? You are bringing up arguments that aren't part of what the Packers are doing nor even what I've agreed with them doing and that is just the 100% sales year over year.

Case in point Tony Shaloub wouldn't be impacted regardless since he is going to a game a year. Even if he misses a year, not part of this. And if giving away the tickets or selling to someone once again, not part of this. And finally there is an appeal process so all these feel good scenarios would be covered.

Bottom line this is people that have sold 100% of their tickets year over year (assume on places like stubhub which is how they would know the 100% sales)

I guess I don't see how anyone has an issue with the Packers culling the season ticket list of people that appear to have no intention of going to games and allowing others to move up.

800 tickets. That's all that fit into that category. The majority of tickets sold on Stub Hub, and through travel groups are one-off game tickets where people can't attend the game and sell them in advance. I'd venture a guess that you couldn't go to Stub Hub and get a complete set of tickets for the entire season in the same seats, but could get tickets for every game in random locations. That should answer your question on that high volume of sales they have.

By the way. The majority of those tickets are part of the Gold Package which is tickets that were sold for the games in Milwaukee when the Packers played there. Nothing like kicking the people in the teeth after they bought lousy seats for football games to save the team from folding. Real good policy there. Makes a lot of fans along the way.

Nothing regarding this issue is cut and dried. It will sort itself out.
 

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After we moved to FL we were one of those season ticket holders who sold ours to a local broker just in case we decided FL wasn't for us and if we would moved back to GB we would still have our tickets. We didn't want to lose them. In the end we sold our ticket package to my hubby's brother and his grandsons use them. You can pass tickets in this manner to blood relatives. So not everyone sells their tickets just to make a buck. We did make a couple dollars per ticket but not as much as one would think.
 

Firethorn1001

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At this point agree to disagree and move on. Someone is losing their tickets because they have no desire to attend games now or in the future I'm not going to shed tears or be outraged. Oh well. 1st world problems.
 

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I still believe that the Packers should create their own exchange so that season ticket holders can sell individual tickets to fans on the waiting list.

I am fine with the Packers eliminating folks that are just re-selling to make a profit.
This would be a great idea. Fans who can't go to games (like us after we moved out of town) can sell them instead of eating them and Packers fans on the waiting list can go instead of opposing fans buying them from ticket brokers.
 

Pokerbrat2000

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Packers should find a mechanism to recycle such unused tickets to other Packer fans rather than leaving to other ticketing sites (or at least get into an arrangement with them). That way, they may get the differential money and holder gets to retain their season tickets.

I LOVE this idea!

The people getting really rich off of Packer tickets aren't necessarily the season ticket holders, but the resellers. Ticket resale at above face value (used to be known as "scalping") should be discouraged. Forcing season ticket holders to resell them at face value (or a bit above to cover sale costs) on a Packer ticket resell site would keep the stadium filled with mostly Packer fans.

My buddy has season tickets and I can't remember which site it is, but there is only one site that he resells his tickets on, and that site is somehow "affiliated" with the Packers. I say "affiliated", because they guarantee him that he won't lose his season tickets if the person who purchases them gets thrown out of the stadium. For those who don't know it, a season ticket holder can lose their tickets if they do something at a game, which is against the Packer policy of fan conduct.

Anyway. If they limit the market where those tickets can be bought, as well as the price they can be sold at, then those people who just buy season tickets to resell them, will mostly likely just give them up.

The 2 seats to our (my buddies tickets) left have ALWAYS been different people for every game. We came to find out that the lady who owns them lives in Chicago and makes a small fortune reselling them.
 

SudsMcBucky

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I LOVE this idea!

The people getting really rich off of Packer tickets aren't necessarily the season ticket holders, but the resellers. Ticket resale at above face value (used to be known as "scalping") should be discouraged. Forcing season ticket holders to resell them at face value (or a bit above to cover sale costs) on a Packer ticket resell site would keep the stadium filled with mostly Packer fans.

My buddy has season tickets and I can't remember which site it is, but there is only one site that he resells his tickets on, and that site is somehow "affiliated" with the Packers. I say "affiliated", because they guarantee him that he won't lose his season tickets if the person who purchases them gets thrown out of the stadium. For those who don't know it, a season ticket holder can lose their tickets if they do something at a game, which is against the Packer policy of fan conduct.

Anyway. If they limit the market where those tickets can be bought, as well as the price they can be sold at, then those people who just buy season tickets to resell them, will mostly likely just give them up.

The 2 seats to our (my buddies tickets) left have ALWAYS been different people for every game. We came to find out that the lady who owns them lives in Chicago and makes a small fortune reselling them.
Correct. I also have season tix and the ONLY option I have if I want/need to resell them is through Ticketmaster on my mobile ticketing app.
 

Pokerbrat2000

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Correct. I also have season tix and the ONLY option I have if I want/need to resell them is through Ticketmaster on my mobile ticketing app.
Well, you could resort to other markets, but you could loose your tickets if they got into the hands of a drunk and stupid fan.

That said, I wouldn't buy tickets from anyone or any site unless there was some kind of guarantee that they weren't fake. With everything going electronic these days, fakes are even easier to pass off to a clueless victim. Heck, the place that I ski at has someone randomly scanning our daily passes at the lift line. They were having issues with people making fake passes and this is the only way they can assure themselves that it is harder to do.
 

SudsMcBucky

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Well, you could resort to other markets, but you could loose your tickets if they got into the hands of a drunk and stupid fan.

That said, I wouldn't buy tickets from anyone or any site unless there was some kind of guarantee that they weren't fake. With everything going electronic these days, fakes are even easier to pass off to a clueless victim. Heck, the place that I ski at has someone randomly scanning our daily passes at the lift line. They were having issues with people making fake passes and this is the only way they can assure themselves that it is harder to do.
You really can't use another site, though. With the digital tickets that are only accessible on the app, the only 2 options you have are to "transfer" to someone's cell who also has the app, or "sell". If you choose "sell", the ONLY option is to go through Ticketmaster.
 

Pokerbrat2000

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You really can't use another site, though. With the digital tickets that are only accessible on the app, the only 2 options you have are to "transfer" to someone's cell who also has the app, or "sell". If you choose "sell", the ONLY option is to go through Ticketmaster.

I am guessing there are other ways to sell/transfer tickets. If you ever go online to shop Packer tickets, they are available at a ton of different sites. Since the games at Lambeau are all sold out, all those sites have to get those tickets from someone and it isn't just from the allotted tickets for the visiting team. I think Ticketmaster is the only one that through the Packers, guarantees you won't loose your future tickets if your buyer does something bad.

Here is just an example of 1 site:

 

SudsMcBucky

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I am guessing there are other ways to sell/transfer tickets. If you ever go online to shop Packer tickets, they are available at a ton of different sites. Since the games at Lambeau are all sold out, all those sites have to get those tickets from someone and it isn't just from the allotted tickets for the visiting team. I think Ticketmaster is the only one that through the Packers, guarantees you won't loose your future tickets if your buyer does something bad.

Here is just an example of 1 site:

That's because those other sites basically "re-broker" them. Kinda like travel booking sites. 1 site lists it primarily and a bunch of others link off of that. I might be saying this the wrong way or not explaining it well, though.
 

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