Lynne Kiesling
Last week I noted JetBlue’s eBay store for selling tickets, and I said
… I agree with one of the commenters that I wish music concerts and sporting events would start doing the same.
Well … what I had in mind was last-minute tickets for games and concerts, but here’s a variation on that theme: the New York Jets will auction off 2,000 season ticket seat licenses on eBay. Here’s the deal: the Jets and the Giants will share a new stadium being built in New Jersey. The Jets, like several other NFL teams, sell season tickets as a two-part product — the stream of annual tickets to specific games, and the personal seat license (PSL).
A PSL gives a fan the right to buy season tickets for a certain seat for the life of a stadium. The fan owns the license and can sell or transfer it, though the secondary market for PSLs has been mixed. However, the overheated New York market, with its lengthy waiting lists for season tickets for football, is likely to prove active for fans reselling licenses.
Since they first emerged in 1993, PSLs have grown in popularity as public financing for new stadiums has dried up and teams must bear more of the costs. Typically, the licenses cost $1,000 to $10,000.
The Jets will auction off 2,000 of the best seats in the house using StubHub, which is owned by eBay:
From Oct. 19 to 27, eBay’s StubHub unit and the Jets will put on the block the rights to 2,000 lower-level seats behind the Jets bench near the 50-yard line. The team, using a special Web site called Jetscoachesclub.com, will set a floor price for the licenses, said Danielle Maged, head of partnerships for StubHub, which is conducting the auction.
Expectations of the prices that will result are high, because the demand for Jets season tickets in the large New York entertainment market is high, so PSLs are scarce relative to demand.