London Empty seats; corporate comp tickets; not good

[110hedgeNYC]

The entire practice of handing out corporate comp tickets to disinterested employees/donors, etc., needs to be curbed.

This practice, this largess, too often results in what we're witnessing in London: blocks of empty seats close to action, on camera and "sold out".

This has happened at the Adidas Diamond League meeting in New York, where even in the couple years it's been sold out, or close to sold out, big chunks of seats were left empty - in sections where there were apparently corporate giveaways.

Not saying sponsoring corporations/organizations should stop this practice entirely. It's a reasonable perk for employees, etc. It's just that it appears to have gotten out of hand - just too much. It looks bad on TV and keeps folks who really want to go and who are willing to pay for seats out of the stadiums.

[gh]

It may be inconvenient for the sponsors, but I think the tickets need to be placed at will-call somehow, and if not picked up an hour out (individually, not in a group) then they go on general sale.

[Marlow]

if not picked up an hour out then they go on general sale.

But Big Wigs, by their very bigwiggedness, can't deign to wander in till half-way through (the limo driver having dropped them off at the entrance to the stadium, lest they get their Gucci loafers scuffed) and would be very upset if the hoi polloi were sitting in their seats.

[110hedgeNYC]

It may be inconvenient for the sponsors, but I think the tickets need to be placed at will-call somehow, and if not picked up an hour out (individually, not in a group) then they go on general sale.

agreed. this seems like a more reasonable policy.

[kuha]

if not picked up an hour out then they go on general sale.

But Big Wigs, by their very bigwiggedness, can't deign to wander in till half-way through (the limo driver having dropped them off at the entrance to the stadium, lest they get their Gucci loafers scuffed) and would be very upset if the hoi polloi were sitting in their seats.

Capitalism at its finest: those that PAY (or are paid FOR) get to do what they please, when they please.

[Daisy]

It may be inconvenient for the sponsors, but I think the tickets need to be placed at will-call somehow, and if not picked up an hour out (individually, not in a group) then they go on general sale.

Let's do it.

[Marlow]

Capitalism at its finest: those that PAY (or are paid FOR) get to do what they please, when they please.

Nice try, but those 'Guccis' you're wearing are $10 knockoffs!

[j-a-m]

Capitalism at its finest: those that PAY (or are paid FOR) get to do what they please, when they please.

No; actual capitalism would be to sell the tickets at what they're actually worth, i.e. auction them off; or at least allow a secondary ticket market.

[user4]

Capitalism at its finest: those that PAY (or are paid FOR) get to do what they please, when they please.

No; actual capitalism would be to sell the tickets at what they're actually worth, i.e. auction them off; or at least allow a secondary ticket market.

Or how about this variant of crony capitalism:

#1) Mulitmillionaire business owner buys tickets as part of his "sales-team corporate entertainment expense", gets a 30% write off in state and federal taxes (its a business expense), effectively paying 30% less for the tickets than the average #2) sucker.

#2) average joe sixpack working for a multi-milliondollar business wants to take his family to a sports event... buy a ticket and pays full price. No tax break for him.

[j-a-m]

Or how about this variant of crony capitalism:

Yes, only if you include the word "crony" does the London ticketing system have anything to do with capitalism.

[Jackaloupe]

j-a-m's right: The Economics concept is one of capturing the "excess" value, under the Demand Curve that represents so-called Willingness to Pay. Set Ticket Prices 'never' capture all that, as there are nearly always a significant number of people willing to pay more: that's where Scalpers come in, along with more 'legitimate' Resalers.

I suspect London Scalpers are excluded from areas near venues--unlike Eugene (and LA '84, in my own experience), where they played fair and satisfied lotsa demand.

[gh]

if not picked up an hour out then they go on general sale.

But Big Wigs, by their very bigwiggedness, can't deign to wander in till half-way through (the limo driver having dropped them off at the entrance to the stadium, lest they get their Gucci loafers scuffed) and would be very upset if the hoi polloi were sitting in their seats.

Nice try at class warfare, but such generally is not the case. If they're coming to the thing they show up early and spend time in the well appointed sponsor "tent"; it wouldn't be putting them out in any particular way.

[Randy Treadway]

I suspect London Scalpers are excluded from areas near venues--unlike Eugene (and LA '84, in my own experience), where they played fair and satisfied lotsa demand.

I remember in '84 the organizing committee rented a couple of big hotel ballrooms in the L.A. area--- one was near Hollywood Park-- EVERY WEEKEND for months ahead of time, and anybody could come set up a table and sell their tickets to the public. People had huge boxes of tickets they were selling-- I have no idea how they got so many, because they were originally supposed to have been sold through official outlets only with quota caps. But in those hotel ballrooms you could find just about EVERYTHING- any event you wanted. Price haggling of course- but it was so competitive, you could get the sellers across the room low-bidding each other like a priceline kind of battle--- ESPECIALLY on the weekends that got closer and closer to the Games.
I got ALL my tickets that way (didn't miss a single session of Athletics save for the closing ceremonies) except one- and I got that one by looking through the classified ads in the L.A. Times- had to drive across town to a person's house whose family couldn't go after all, so I bought their tickets at face value. I also bought tickets to Weightlifting just to see something VERY different, and to check out that Pocket Hercules guy from Romania... only to have the Romanians follow Soviet orders to boycott the games so Pocket Hercules was a no-show. The Weightlifting session was fun anyway. I'd never been in person to a Weightlifting competition before- only seen it on TV. When they dropped those barbells after getting the green light, the whole building shook.

[Marlow]

Nice try at class warfare, but such generally is not the case. If they're coming to the thing they show up early and spend time in the well appointed sponsor "tent"; it wouldn't be putting them out in any particular way.

Really? That's not at all how it works at Jaguars' games, where the club seats are empty at the start of the game, but pretty full by half-time.

[kuha]

Capitalism at its finest: those that PAY (or are paid FOR) get to do what they please, when they please.

No; actual capitalism would be to sell the tickets at what they're actually worth, i.e. auction them off; or at least allow a secondary ticket market.

They've BEEN sold; the market has spoken. Thats "actual capitalism."

[dj]

I also bought tickets to Weightlifting just to see something VERY different, and to check out that Pocket Hercules guy from Romania... only to have the Romanians follow Soviet orders to boycott the games so Pocket Hercules was a no-show. The Weightlifting session was fun anyway. I'd never been in person to a Weightlifting competition before- only seen it on TV. When they dropped those barbells after getting the green light, the whole building shook.

He was Bulgarian. Romanians defied the Soviet boycott and showed up (Puica, Cusmir, Ionescu).

[j-a-m]

They've BEEN sold; the market has spoken. Thats "actual capitalism."

No, ticket prices were set arbitrarily low; Jackaloupe talks briefly about the economics of this in a post in this thread.

[Randy Treadway]

I also bought tickets to Weightlifting just to see something VERY different, and to check out that Pocket Hercules guy from Romania... only to have the Romanians follow Soviet orders to boycott the games so Pocket Hercules was a no-show. The Weightlifting session was fun anyway. I'd never been in person to a Weightlifting competition before- only seen it on TV. When they dropped those barbells after getting the green light, the whole building shook.

He was Bulgarian. Romanians defied the Soviet boycott and showed up (Puica, Cusmir, Ionescu).

You're right of course. The point was, Pocket Hercules was a no-show because of the boycott.

[gh]

Nice try at class warfare, but such generally is not the case. If they're coming to the thing they show up early and spend time in the well appointed sponsor "tent"; it wouldn't be putting them out in any particular way.

Really? That's not at all how it works at Jaguars' games, where the club seats are empty at the start of the game, but pretty full by half-time.

We were talking Olympic sponsors here, not the NFL, although I must admit that the Jags do play an amateur version of the game.

[James Fields]

Huge blocks of empty seats along the finish straightaway can include a media/press section.
From the other side (along 1500m start straightaway) I photographed that empty seats phenomenon at both the Atlanta and Beijing Olympics, plus the World Championships at Edmonton.