Buying tickets on the secondary market is usually a gamble and unfortunately these fans learned that the hard way and will miss the biggest game of the year.
Hundreds of fans won’t be going to Super Bowl XLIX after brokers and resale sites reneged on tickets that they already sold.
In most cases, those selling tickets never had them to begin with. The practice, called short selling, has become common for big games over the years. Brokers sell tickets and buy them cheaper closer to the event to make their profits. But the idea of selling before having anything in hand became more commonplace as the returns consistently came in for previous Super Bowls.
That was until this year, when too many brokers sold tickets they didn’t have and for lower prices than in previous years, making it impossible to get the real ticket for a price that was affordable when it came time to pull the trigger. By last Sunday, brokers were buying the worst seats for $5,000 just to save their company. Five days later, finding a ticket even for $10,000 was a challenge.
Fans were given refunds and some even got additional money for their troubles, some got back twice what they paid. Many fans however didn’t take the money and just wanted their Super Bowl tickets. StubHub which is backed by eBay, has a ticket guarantee so everyone who bought from them received a replacement if the seller didn’t come through. You can read some of the stories on ESPN.
