Last year, the struggling Cubs had an embarrassing situation on their hands.
With the team WAY out of the playoff race, some tickets were selling on StubHub for....
$1.
Yes, a dollar.
In addition to this being an embarrassment, it also caused the Cubs lots of difficulty with selling seats on their own.
Who will buy tickets at face value if tickets are so marked down on StubHub?
Who will bother purchasing season tickets, if again, people can get the same seats for much cheaper on StubHub?
The Cubs' solution to this was to "un-partner" with StubHub, thus disallowing sales of Cubs tickets on that site.
The Yankees and Angels have already un-partnered with StubHub.
Rather than lose the lucrative Cubs market, StubHub made various concessions, including minimum pricing (no big deal), and an earlier before-game deadline for purchases (a very big deal).
See, any smart StubHub ticket buyer realizes that game day ticket prices drop TREMENDOUSLY just hours before the game. This is because the tickets become worthless once the game starts, and the sellers panic. Unlike traditional ticket vendors, who are willing to eat the value of the tickets rather than establish a "last minute cheap tickets" pattern, the sellers on StubHub are mostly individuals. They don't want their tickets to go unsold under any circumstances.
I have utilized this method to get some great buys on EXCELLENT seats at Dodgers games in the past. These include:
- Field level, 12 rows behind the Dodgers dugout during the 2009 NLCS for $150/each
- Similar seats to above for regular season fireworks night for $50/each
I would always buy them about 3-4 hours before game time, and get a heckuva deal.
That's done.
Now the deadline for purchase of MLB tickets is 6 hours prior to game time, due to the new agreement they made with the Cubs.
You can still do the last minute thing, but buyers will be in a bit less of a panic, as they have some more time for a contingency plan if the tickets don't sell.
Add that to the fact that the Dodgers tickets are going for more money this year (because people are excited about the expensive new team), and I think my days of $50 baller seats are overwith.
http://www.bleachernation.com/2013/0...-before-event/