$1,000 to see one of the first A’s games in Sacramento? Watch out for deceptive listings
Those looking for A’s tickets months ahead of next spring when they move to West Sacramento’s Sutter Health Park might have seen exorbitant prices from secondary market sellers.
StubHub, for example, this week had listings for the team’s March 31 home opener against the Chicago Cubs ranging from $1,163 to $2,419. Vivid Seats listed tickets from $447 to $2,343. StubHub also showed several tickets at more than $1,000 for each of the next two games, April 1 and April 2.
There’s a reason for prices being so high outside of supply and demand: Buyers pulling the trigger on those listings are at risk of buying speculative tickets, which are often inflated relative to market rates and aren’t always delivered.
Speculative tickets are sold by resellers who list and sell the tickets before having them. Critics of speculative tickets argue they deceive consumers and artificially inflate prices benefiting only the reseller.
Resellers are often accused of using bots to purchase tickets from original providers ahead of consumers trying to buy them as they’re released and creating false scarcity by falsely advertising ticket availability.
The A’s have been selling season tickets for their new temporary home since the summer, with their second-tier premium seats going for roughly $15,000 to $20,000 per seat, per season. That means those tickets cost roughly $183 to $244 per game, at face value — well below the early listings on the secondary market.
Individual game tickets have not been made available as of this week, nor has Major League Baseball scheduled start times for A’s games in 2025. A normal practice is for teams to not distribute tickets until start times are finalized, even to those who have already purchased season tickets.
In other words, sellers on secondary marketplaces are charging four-digit prices for Athletics game tickets that haven’t even been distributed yet.
Though game dates and opponents were set when MLB released team schedules in July, there’s currently no way for speculative ticket buyers to know for certain whether they’d be buying seats to a day or night game. That can be a critical distinction during Sacramento’s hot summers.
MLB’s official secondary market ticket provider is SeatGeek, which prohibits speculative ticket sales under its terms of service. It’s likely not a coincidence there are no ticket listings available for the home opener and only a handful of tickets available throughout the year, likely from verified ticket holders.
Other sellers such as StubHub, Vivid Seats and TickPick do not require sellers to have possession of their tickets before listing them for sale, which means they could be listing speculative tickets.
Are speculative tickets legal?
Speculative tickets were spotlighted two years ago when tickets for Taylor Swift’s “Eras Tour” were bought up by resellers and sold for thousands above face value. As of June this year, Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota and Nevada have banned speculative ticket sales.
However, California lawmakers’ efforts have hit a snag. Senate Bill 785, a consumer protection bill introduced last year that aimed to legislate ticket sales, stalled in the state Legislature this August.
“This practice creates considerable confusion for consumers who cannot purchase tickets from the primary box office because they have not gone on sale yet, but are able to purchase tickets for a premium price on the secondary market,” Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan, D-San Ramon, wrote in a proposed amendment to SB 785.
This story was originally published October 11, 2024 at 2:39 PM.
