Come on season ticket holders, do NOT sell your seats to brokers

**Captain Silver** · 01-13-2012, 10:27 AM

Just a voice of reason, and I mentioned it in my column, I sit in a seat that my friends have PSL's on, we usually split the year with me taking the colder half of the season as I am busy the first half of the year anyway. But those tickets are normally $90.00. For the playoff game, they jacked them to $375.00.

Now, I could have sprung for one, but for me, it is a little ridiculous to "reward" a few fans with game balls and then gouge the living hell out of the stadium.

Sorry, here is where the NFL is a greedy monster. People should NOT be punished with higher ticket prices because the team made the playoffs. I could almost condone double price, but 416% markup for being one of the loudest stadiums in the country? That is a crock of shit.

Sorry, the level of greed displayed by the NFL in this instance makes me quite at peace with ANYONE with PSL's who cannot burden the cost of their seats to pass them up. My buddy already ponied up the 750, and if he can't make the game and has to sell them to a Texan fan, so be it.

At some point this becomes about common sense and less about fandom.

**Ravenswintitle** · 01-13-2012, 10:32 AM

Cpt - it's called free enterprise. If the market will bear the cost, they're gonna charge it. There won't be any empty seats and most of them will be wearing Purple.

I get your point but it's business.

**Flipping Birdie** · 01-13-2012, 10:33 AM

Meh. The media is making much ado about nothing. Surprise, surprise. I'd be shocked if as many as 10 thousand tickets were available for this game and not being used by rightful season ticket holders. Estimates indicate that about 20% of available tickets are going to the Houston fans. That adds up to about 2,000 tickets, which sounds to me to be about the right amount of visiting fans for a playoff game. No biggie. Houston fans, congratulations for a great season and your victory last week. While you are here, please SPEND LOT AND LOTS OF MONEY. :)

**cbaywolf** · 01-13-2012, 10:35 AM

Here's the problem: The Ravens allow PSL holders to buy up to 10 additional tickets (the ones that other season ticket holders don't buy for the playoffs in the lottery each playoff season). And every good capitalist sees this as a way to make some coin in the secondary market- so you have all of these season ticket holders who buy up all of these extra tickets, and then the price goes up higher than it should, or they end up selling them to brokers to unload them so that they don't get stuck holding the bag.

i *am* a season ticket holder, and I think this is ridiculous. We *should* get the option to buy a few extra tickets if they go unsold, but they should cap it at a max of 4. Then at least all of the remaining tickets could have gone on-sale with the few thousand to the general public last week at face-value instead of the bloated secondary market value. You aren't going to find a ton of Ravens fans willing to shell out $250+ for crappy 500 level tickets since the fans that normally go to the games have seats already- but you will have 1,000-5,000 opposing fans who will shell out that money for one game. It's just stupid business on the Ravens part- and is keeping the lower-income fans away from the stadium by selling 10 tickets to PSL holders.

I still don't expect to see more than 2-4,000 Texan fans there, and it won't make a differnence anyway- but i still think this practice sucks.

**cbaywolf** · 01-13-2012, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Captain Silver

Just a voice of reason, and I mentioned it in my column, I sit in a seat that my friends have PSL's on, we usually split the year with me taking the colder half of the season as I am busy the first half of the year anyway. But those tickets are normally $90.00. For the playoff game, they jacked them to $375.00.

Captain:

Are you sure about those prices- that seems off to me. Are you sure that's not just what your "friend" is charging you? I sit in 513- Our seats are normally $60, and they were going to be $90 for the Wildcard, and I forget the exact cost for Divisional round- but it wasn't more than $115- but it wasn't even double face value- but it's always been this way for every playoff game, and every team does it.

What section are you in, and is the price really more than $180 per ticket if your face was $90 during the season? Can anyone else with $90 tickets chime in here?

**HoustonRaven** · 01-13-2012, 10:45 AM

Originally Posted by Captain Silver

Just a voice of reason, and I mentioned it in my column, I sit in a seat that my friends have PSL's on, we usually split the year with me taking the colder half of the season as I am busy the first half of the year anyway. But those tickets are normally $90.00. For the playoff game, they jacked them to $375.00.

Now, I could have sprung for one, but for me, it is a little ridiculous to "reward" a few fans with game balls and then gouge the living hell out of the stadium.

Sorry, here is where the NFL is a greedy monster. People should NOT be punished with higher ticket prices because the team made the playoffs. I could almost condone double price, but 416% markup for being one of the loudest stadiums in the country? That is a crock of shit.

Sorry, the level of greed displayed by the NFL in this instance makes me quite at peace with ANYONE with PSL's who cannot burden the cost of their seats to pass them up. My buddy already ponied up the 750, and if he can't make the game and has to sell them to a Texan fan, so be it.

At some point this becomes about common sense and less about fandom.

No, it's about free enterprise.

And I call bovine scatology on your claim that playoff tickets are marked up 416%. A quick look at the ticket prices per section for playoff games shows not one ticket reaches that mark.

**Captain Silver** · 01-13-2012, 10:50 AM

RWT - I get the business, and what the market will bear. I am fine with that. I just don't get when people jump down someone's throat for selling their seats. Unless you are paying that man or woman's bills, you have no say in WHO he sells his seats to.

Why should the "FAN" develop a conscious over the number of opposing fans that are in the stadium when the NFL and home teams do not care, long as they make TOP DOLLAR.

**Greg** · 01-13-2012, 10:55 AM

Originally Posted by Captain Silver

Just a voice of reason, and I mentioned it in my column, I sit in a seat that my friends have PSL's on, we usually split the year with me taking the colder half of the season as I am busy the first half of the year anyway. But those tickets are normally $90.00. For the playoff game, they jacked them to $375.00.

Now, I could have sprung for one, but for me, it is a little ridiculous to "reward" a few fans with game balls and then gouge the living hell out of the stadium.

Sorry, here is where the NFL is a greedy monster. People should NOT be punished with higher ticket prices because the team made the playoffs. I could almost condone double price, but 416% markup for being one of the loudest stadiums in the country? That is a crock of shit.

Sorry, the level of greed displayed by the NFL in this instance makes me quite at peace with ANYONE with PSL's who cannot burden the cost of their seats to pass them up. My buddy already ponied up the 750, and if he can't make the game and has to sell them to a Texan fan, so be it.

At some point this becomes about common sense and less about fandom.

I don't know what your friend told you, since he controls the PSL, but my $55 ticket for this game is $74 and it is around $120 for the AFCCG, IIRC. Both together are that much more than a single, but the AFCCG is a bit more than double the regular season and the WC/Div game is under 50% more.

**Captain Silver** · 01-13-2012, 10:56 AM

A formal retraction.

I just saw the tickets, I was wrong, they were 180.00 x2 markup.

**HoustonRaven** · 01-13-2012, 10:58 AM

IMO, it's up to the PSL holder. They ponied up the cash and earned the right to do whatever they want with their seats. I'm not going to judge, especially in this horrible economic times, if they use their seats to their economic advantage.

It's brokers, not individual PSL owners that are more responsible for providing tickets to out of town fans.

**ravensrule20** · 01-13-2012, 10:58 AM

What he said !! If I was a season ticket holder there is no way in hell would I sale my tickets to make some extra coin ??

**Tottenham Raven** · 01-13-2012, 11:04 AM

I guarantee there's not gonna be a huge Texans fan presence, sure, there will be some, but no more than any other game. For the last two playoff home games (Titans and Colts), the visiting fanbase was almost nonexistent, why all the sudden would thousands of Ravens PSL holders be willing to sell their tickets? If making a huge profit is the answer I'm just not buying it. Those same fans didn't sell their Steelers game tickets and there's a huge profit potential there, so why do it for a playoff game? I will believe it when I see it, so in other words I won't believe it.