Broncos fans — and ticket holders for any other sports team — would be able to sell their season tickets for any price they can fetch and to whomever they please under a bill sponsored by Sen. Lois Tochtrop.
The Thornton Democrat said the bill was prompted by the Broncos’ crackdown last year on fans who were selling their season tickets online or through brokers.
A letter from the Broncos to season ticket holders in April reminded them that “the only authorized outlets for Denver Broncos ticket sales are the Broncos Ticket Office and Ticketmaster.” Fans selling their tickets through newspapers, the Internet or any other media could face losing their season tickets, the letter said.
Tochtrop said the policy means even people trying to sell their tickets to neighbors or through the office bulletin board could lose their season tickets.
“These (tickets) are the Broncos season-ticket holders’ property,” Tochtrop said. “It’s not the Broncos’ property.”
Kirk Dyer, executive director of ticket operations for the Broncos, said the tickets are “revocable licenses” that the franchise can take back for any reason.
He said the team has always prohibited reselling tickets for a profit and the advertising of tickets for resale. However, he said the Broncos have never been able to stop fans from reselling their tickets to friends or co-workers.
“It’s just like when you ask your neighbor if he wants to buy them. We know that happens,” Dyer said.
It’s reselling tickets for a profit and advertising them for sale that the Broncos are trying to stop, he said.
“The bottom line is we don’t want to see our fans pay more than what the ticket is worth,” Dyer said. “We want people to pay a fair price.”
Some revocations
Dyer would not comment on Tochtrop’s proposal, filed as Senate Bill 24.
He confirmed the team has revoked the season tickets of some fans for violating resale polices. Dyer wouldn’t give an exact number but said it was “definitely less than 100.”
The Broncos in 2006 began a service with Ticketmaster that allows for season ticket holders to resell tickets they can’t use. Buyers have to pay a service fee on the tickets, and the Broncos get a cut of the service fee.
Dyer would not say what the Broncos’ take on the service fee is, adding that there are costs to operating the ticket resale service.
One fan who has had Broncos season tickets for 35 years said he had been reselling his unused tickets through a broker until he got the letter from the Broncos last year. Terry asked that only his first name be used, saying he worried the Broncos would take away his season tickets if they found out about his past resales through a broker.
“They want us to be season ticket holders and come to the games, and then they want to turn around and limit us on what we can do with the tickets,” Terry complained.
Being able to sell his unused tickets when a team has a winning season makes up for the bad years, he said.
“If they have a poor season, nobody wants to buy the tickets.”
Monopoly hurts consumers
Gary Adler, general counsel for the National Association of Ticket Brokers, said the Broncos’ policy hurts fans.
The team doesn’t allow its tickets to be sold above face value on its resale service, but it also doesn’t allow tickets to be sold below that value, Adler pointed out.
Consumers suffer both ways while the Broncos create a monopoly over the tickets, he said.
“It’s disingenuous for teams to say we’re prohibiting this while they’re participating in” ticket resales, Adler said.
The Broncos’ actions are similar to those of the New England Patriots, which sued San Francisco-based StubHub, an online reseller, to learn the names of Patriots ticket holders who had resold tickets.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
