Ticket transferability is one of the most important consumer protections for fans of live events. It is one of the pillars of the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights, for which Sports Fans Coalition advocates. Fans often have to buy a ticket to an event months in advance, and sometimes life has other plans. This is especially true of fans who invest in season tickets and are holding many tickets for a sports season. If a fan can’t attend the event, they should be able to resell their ticket to make up any losses they may face. However, there’s another important element to fan resale – consumer savings. Continue reading

Last night, in dealing a victory in the name of consumer protection, Colorado Governor Jared Polis vetoed SB23-060. Though it included some good provisions, this legislation would have given permission to live event ticketing giants Ticketmaster and AXS to deceive consumers when tickets go on sale by creating fake scarcity, and turning a blind eye to illegal software bots that scoop up tickets before humans can instead of reporting their usage to law enforcement. It also contained a loophole that could have handed Ticketmaster, AXS and event venues the ability to cancel, revoke, or otherwise invalidate tickets they already sold for various reasons - a unique power in the market that other ticketing companies argue could harm consumers by making them fearful to buy tickets from another ticketing company even if they find better tickets at a lower price.   Continue reading

Sports Fans Coalition, a member of the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights Coalition, today released polling conducted by Rick Ridder of RBI Strategies & Research finding that voters overwhelmingly oppose many provisions included in Senate Bill 23-060 and support a key transparency provision that was removed from the final bill at the request of large dominant ticket sellers Ticketmaster and AXS. The poll found that 81% of Colorado voters oppose provisions in the bill which could allow companies like Ticketmaster and AXS to prevent fans from freely giving away or selling their purchased tickets. Additionally, nearly 9 in 10 voters (88%) of those polled support a requirement of these companies to disclose their use of the deceptive practice of holding back tickets from the initial sale to manufacture scarcity to mislead consumers into buying tickets at arbitrarily higher prices. Continue reading

A 1977 analysis revealed that, although justified as a catalyst for economic growth, the construction of new stadiums fails to generate local benefits. 25 years later, a similar study reaffirmed this contradiction between rationale and impact. Local and state governments, however, continue to ignore such evidence and instead promote the construction of new stadiums.  Continue reading

Some supporters of the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights have joined SFC in calling for Colorado Governor Jared Polis to veto Senate Bill SB 23-060, "Consumer Protection in Event Ticketing Sales.” Despite its name, Sports Fans Coalition, the National Consumers League, the Consumer Federation of America, Public Knowledge, Fan Freedom, and Protect Ticket Rights have demonstrated that the bill will actually harm consumers and proposed two amendments that would make the bill consumer-friendly. Once the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee added ticket holdback disclosures and mandatory bots reporting to the bill through amendment L033, these same groups then endorsed the bill.  Continue reading

Senator Robert Rodriguez, the senate sponsor for SB23-060 “Consumer Protection In Event Ticketing Sales”, removed the Trojan Horse provision of the legislation that gave Live Nation/Ticketmaster and other primary market participants the ability to revoke fans' resold tickets at the gate; allowing the legislation to pass the Senate this week.  Continue reading

This week, Sports Fans Coalition fought the Devil in Georgia and testified about how ticket transferability is important for fans - especially season ticket holders. Georgia's lawmakers want to hear from you, now! Continue reading

Sports Fans Coalition over the years has called for reforming the governance system of the U.S. Soccer Federation (USSF) to allow for open, fair competition and maximum participation by Americans from all communities.  That is why we are concerned about the claims made by La Asociación Nacional Fútbol en Estados Unidos (National Association of Soccer in the United States) about unfair and discriminatory practices by USSF.  These complaints include allegedly willful attempts to deny a predominantly Latino organization from full and equal participation in youth, amateur soccer in the U.S. and, if true, could constitute serious violations of antitrust and anti-discrimination policies and laws of the United States.  We urge USSF to agree to a third party audit and report of its practices with respect to the claims made by the National Association of Soccer.

This week, Sports Fans Coalition traveled to Denver, CO to oppose SB 060. Continue reading

This week Sports Fans Coalition filed comments at the FTC for their Unfair or Deceptive Fees Trade Regulation Rulemaking process. The FTC requested information on how consumers are charged excessive fees by companies, especially in the live event ticketing industry. It’s no secret Ticketmaster is among the worst culprits when it comes to charging fans junk fees, and largely because of its monopoly. “We discuss conduct employed by Ticketmaster/Live Nation that falls explicitly within the several categories identified by the agency in the ANPR,” reads the comments before listing a litany of consumer harms imposed by Ticketmaster.” Continue reading