INDIANAPOLIS – You can’t resell your Colts ticket if you don’t have a ticket to hand over. Ticket brokers and Indianapolis sports teams are at odds over whether legislators should step in.

Both sides say they’re defending the free market. The Pacers and Colts say paperless tickets are not only more convenient, but a safeguard against counterfeit tickets. Ticket brokers including StubHub and SeatGeek contend it’s a cover for attempts to squeeze out ticket resales.

Brokers say there should be some limits on ticket resales. They say they’d support laws to stop bots from swallowing up tickets, and to ban deceptive web addresses which make a website look like the “official” point of sale. But they also want legislators to step in to make sure you can resell your seats, and block the practice some teams have adopted of allowing resales only on their own platforms.

Legislators looked at the issue in this year’s session but didn’t pass anything. A legislative study committee took testimony on the issue Thursday, but won’t make any recommendation to next year’s General Assembly one way or the other.

 

photo of stadium seats Ladyheart on morguefile