StubHub has blown the lid off the worst-kept secret at the sports-world box office — admitting that it helps teams unload tickets every day in the hope of filling seats that would otherwise go empty.
“Yes, teams will often put tickets on our site,” said Glenn Lehrman, head of communications for the ticket-reselling giant.
The matter-of-fact admission confirmed the long-held belief that teams secretly stage box-office fire sales.
Lehrman, however, was not about to out any particular team.
“I can’t,” he said. “[Then] the experience wouldn’t be opaque.”
The Yankees have a contract with TicketExchange, the Mets with StubHub.
A representative for Ticketmaster, which owns TicketExchange, insisted that the service only moves ducats between individual fans.
A spokesman for the Mets declined to comment.
But Met season-ticket holder Michael Gold said the ticket dumping came as no surprise to him.
The tech start-up investor and longtime Met fan says he regularly asks his revolving door of nightly neighbors at Citi Field where they scored their tickets.
“Sometimes,” he said, “it’s right off Mets.com. But a lot of other times, it’s StubHub on a one-off basis — the very same seat.”
The Mets’ tacit ticket-dumping admission won’t anger tech-savvy casual fans, who appreciate the increased choices and decreased prices.
But season-ticket holders may not be so understanding.
Season subscribers frequently use StubHub to dump their own unused tickets, which means they’ve got added competition from the team.
“No team is ever going to say they dump their inventory on the secondary market,” said Chris Matcovich, vice president of TiqIQ, which tracks secondary-market ticketing sale trends.
“Not sure fans [season-ticket holders] think that they will be getting better prices than the resale market. But they definitely think they are getting discounted prices from the team compared to other buyers.”
Gold said he doesn’t mind anyone getting a deal at his expense. He’s more upset that fans, who are not ardent Amazins supporters, can now buy their way into is prime location.
“I don’t care if someone is getting in for $10 less than me, I just want my section filled with Mets fans,” said Gold, a 34-year-old Upper West Side resident.
“When you buy a season ticket, you expect to be around other Mets fans.”
Amazins season ticket-holder Bob Johnson, 40, said the value of his seats, behind home plate in the 400 level, haven’t been hurt by any ticket-dumping.
“It’s only if they go to the extreme and start putting 15,000 tickets a game at $8, then my season tickets wouldn’t be selling,” said Johnson, a Westchester County resident who regularly sells unused tickets on StubHub.
Johnson said his bigger problem is with the Mets’ work on the field, not in the box office: ”They’re not winning, and there’s not much a need [demand] to tickets.”