Tag / StubHub

by jim

Treating The Symptoms


stubhub-logo-300x239Towards the end of last season, there were a glut of Cubs tickets available on ticket reselling website StubHub, many of which of which were available well below face value, and in some cases were under $1.  To their credit, the Cubs saw that they had a problem.  Unfortunately, they decided that the problem was StubHub itself and the sellers trying to undermine the Cubs own ticket sales by offering the tickets at prices so low.  Which, of course, is utter hogwash.

Among the new “features” the come along with the Cubs new agreement with StubHub are:

  • A minimum listing price of $3
  • An additional “transfer” fee for sellers, in the amount of $1.50.
  • The ending of sales six hours before the game starts

So, if tickets are listed and sell for the minimum of $3, a seller will take home (assuming the good folks at StubHub round up) $1.28.

Instead of making sure that the $1 listings went away, the Cubs should have looked at why they were there in the first place: overpriced tickets for a team that had no chance of being competitive, let alone contending.  The choice wasn’t between listing the tickets for $20 or $1, it was between getting pennies on the dollar versus eating the whole investment.

With the Cubs looking like they are still a few years away from contending, the likely outcome of these moves will be another September with the stands half empty and season ticket holders once again left holding $30 tickets that they can hopefully exchange for $1.28.

by jim

Saviors?

It’s been a busy couple of days in the Chicago baseball universe.  After nearly three months of futility at the hot corner, the White Sox shipped Zach Stewart and Brent Lillibridge to the Red Sox for the services of Kevin Youkilis on Sunday afternoon.  Less than 24 hours later, the Cubs finally decided to call up their latest superstar-of-the-future Anthony Rizzo, now that they have successfully manipulated his free agent status.

Youkilis, whose time in Boston was brought to a premature end thanks to the emergence of Will Middlebrooks, has been fighting injuries and the suggestions that he’s not the player he once was.  Even if that is true, he should be an improvement over the incumbents, who have managed to put together numbers that, to this point, have been surpassed by, among others, the Washington Nationals pitching staff.  Even a broken down Youkilis should be an upgrade as the White Sox try to make a run at the AL Central crown.  Orlando Hudson moves to the bench, but I would be surprised if he finishes the season with the Sox.

Meanwhile, the performance of the Chicago Cubs this season makes the White Sox third basemen look like all-stars.  However, the one person putting up numbers has been buried in Des Moines, with the new leadership of Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer tanking the 2012 season in the hopes of securing the 2019 season.  At the end of the day, it may end up having been the correct decision, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it now for the people who have plunked down their hard earned money to watch (or not, if the empty seats and StubHub listings are to be believed) the mess that is the 2012 Cubs, who may end up with the worst record in franchise history.  Now the pressure is on Rizzo to save the season and prove that he was worth the wait.