Pats in trouble over ticket sales?

[Gainzo]

This is very interesting.

The Pats signed a deal with Ticketmaster a few years back that allows me, a season ticket holder, to sell or buy tickets through patriots.com. The thing is that Ticketmaster and/or the Pats charge a $5 service fee for this "service."

What is the Jets policy? I know that historcialy that the Jets have been much more lenient on ticket sales than the Pats.

Ticket-sales suit against Patriots gets green light

By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff | July 7, 2007

A Suffolk Superior Court judge is allowing StubHub Inc. to proceed with its lawsuit accusing the New England Patriots of trying to monopolize the resale of its own tickets.

The Patriots had argued that the StubHub suit was "farfetched" and "ridiculous," but Judge Allan van Gestel held that case law only required the San Francisco-based reseller to "sketch the bare silhouette of a cause of action."

Van Gestel said he could not say at this point in the case that StubHub had failed "in its artistic efforts to sketch the requisite bare silhouette," adding that "this is not a decision that establishes the law of this case in any way."

The Patriots-StubHub legal dispute is being watched closely by the ticket industry. The Patriots sued StubHub in November, alleging the San Francisco-based online marketplace for ticket resellers was encouraging fans to flout the state's antiscalping law and the team's prohibition against reselling Patriots tickets for a profit.

The Massachusetts antiscalping law, which is under review by the Legislature, requires people in the business of reselling tickets to be licensed by the state and to not charge more than $2 above face value, plus certain business and service charges.

StubHub filed a countersuit against the Patriots in December, alleging the team was attempting to monopolize the ticket resale market by revoking the tickets of anyone caught reselling them anywhere but on the club's own TeamExchange website.

"If anyone has violated the state statute on ticket resale, it is the Patriots themselves," StubHub said in its suit.

Daniel Goldberg , an attorney representing the Patriots, called the StubHub suit ridiculous and later sought to have it dismissed by saying it reconstructed law and logic to make a farfetched claim.

Goldberg could not be reached for comment yesterday. A spokesman for the Patriots was also unavailable.

StubHub issued a statement saying the court "recognized that the Patriots do not have a legal shield against the sort of anticompetitive, anticonsumer behavior at issue in this case."

Bruce Mohl can be reached at mohl@globe.com.

[Lady Jet]

It definitely is something that every sport league, not just the NFL, is keeping an eye on.

For the most part, the Pats are trying to protect the fans, from paying exorbitant prices for tixs. (Although, I'm sure they wouldn't mind profiting off this if they could. )

Stubhub makes a heck of a lot more than $5 profit from resales.