WasWatching.com

wow.

At first, I was annoyed, but not shocked, to hear this from the Yankees. But, after thinking about it for an hour or so, I think I understand it.

Suppose that you wanted to scalp tickets and keep your hands clean – StubHub would be a great way to launder the tickets. You could get a season ticket account, buy the tickets at face value, then sell them to a friend or family member via StubHub at face value (or whatever price) and then that person could give you the tickets back to scalp somewhere at a huge mark-up, etc.

And, by “turning them over” via StubHub, first, you, as the season ticket account holder, would be free of anything coming back to you, etc.

This is, of course, if the Yankees would give you a buddy-pass once you sold them on StubHub – which is probably part of the reason why they’re not willing to let you off the hook.

This make sense?

This is a nonsensical policy. The logic of StubHub is to sell tickets to strangers. If you know the buyer, then why use the service? The management of the Yankees is endorsing and profiting from a service designed for selling to strangers and at the same time holding the seller responsible for the conduct of the buyer. How does that make any sense? It’s ironic that the management would be so disrespectful of their loyal customers, who are both supporting the team financially and following its rules.

I appreciate your informing us about the team’s policy, Steve, but I object to your defense of it. The way to handle the hypothetical you pose is to hold StubHub purchasers accountable. If a buyer violates the team’s policies, then ban him from purchasing from the team and from StubHub. That makes a lot more sense then holding someone responsible for the conduct of a stranger. In other words, deal with the moral hazard directly.

Management’s policy on this makes me question its competence and/or whether it respects rule-following fans.

Here's what you have to remember:

- The Yankees *vehemently opposed* the MLB/Stubhub deal. They didn't want it in any way shape or form.

- The Yankees original terms (prior to the change in NYS law last year) was that you couldn't even legally *give* the tickets away to your friends and family without risking loss of the License.

This is the Yankees doing their best to "get what they wanted all along" within the bounds of the rules that have been established around them. In other words, they never wanted season ticket holders selling or giving away tickets *anyway*. So if the law says they can't penalize you for *selling* them? OK, they won't. If MLB says they have to allow Stubhub to be a broker for them? OK, I guess they will. But to expect them to completely roll over whenever they can find a loophole to try and use to scare STHs into not selling their tickets, after all they've been through on that front, is not terribly realistic.

Anton - FWIW, I'm not defending it - I'm just saying that, at first, I was just ticked, and just ticked alone. But, now, I can sort of see their angle, maybe...but, for the record, I'm still bummed out about it.

~~This is the Yankees doing their best to "get what they wanted all along" within the bounds of the rules that have been established around them. ~~

Excellent point.