CA regroup after first day ticket fiasco

Cricket Australia aim to block resale of tickets

Cricinfo staff

June 2, 2006

Going once, going twice, sold! - The Ashes tickets being bid for A$15000 on eBay, much to the ire of Cricket Australia © Getty Images

Cricket Australia has called for a ban on excessive profiteering of tickets to sporting events after successful buyers flooded the eBay website with Ashes tickets that they had purchased by registering with the Australian Cricket Family - the board's initiative to allow Australian residents to get in early in the rush for tickets to this winter's Ashes clash.

"We have people who have bought these tickets, not with the intent of going to the cricket but with a view of exploiting the public's passion for cricket and I think that's very disappointing," James Sutherland, the chief executive of Cricket Australia told AFP.

CA demanded that eBay remove a dozen entries for Ashes tickets after two tickets to the first day of the Sydney Test sold on the website for A$15,000 (US$11,250) when their actual price was between A$47 to A$113 (US$35 to US$85).

"One of the things that we would be keen on is exploring a national approach, a national legislation that can be applied across all sports to ensure that this approach introduces legislation so that this sort of thing is illegal," said Sutherland.

eBay declined to meet Cricket Australia's demand, and said that it had done all it could to make buyers and sellers adhere to terms and conditions, including the use of a warning through an automated message. "We don't actually sell the tickets. We provide a marketplace where the buyers and sellers can transact," said Daniel Fieler, an eBay spokesperson.

Sutherland also said that the board might take Australian Rugby Union's step of tracking down and cancelling the Bledisloe Cup tickets sold by scalpers for the Australia New Zealand Test in Brisbane on July 29.

"Anyone who's bought a ticket under the terms and conditions is not able to on-sell that ticket, the issues for us are tracking that down," Sutherland said. "It is a real 'buyer beware' situation."

Peter Young, Cricket Australia's public affairs general manager added that re-selling tickets at a profit was breach of contract and that eBay should take a more responsible stand against scalping. "We want to do whatever can be done to ensure that tickets only end up in the hands of only legitimate fans," Young told Fox Sports.

Cricket Australia is attempting to cancel any tickets which have not been bought through legitimate channels but have declined to say how they will do so. "The detail of the system we're looking at is something that we'd prefer not to publish because as soon as we do people try to figure out ways around it," Young said. "We're looking at a process and separately we're talking to eBay. The contract of sale specifies that the person buying the ticket agrees to not resell at greater than face value."

All the initial tickets available for first three days of Tests in Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, and Sydney have been sold out while only a small number are left available for the first day of Boxing Day Test at the 95,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground. Tickets for general sale will be sold from June 19.

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