In hopes of preventing brokers from buying tickets en masse with the intention of reselling, Madison Square Garden, the parent company of the New York Knicks and Rangers, will strictly enforce purchasing limits, ESPN reports.
The company sent letters on Wednesday night to people who previously held or controlled more than eight New York Knicks or Rangers tickets.
“This year, in an effort to ensure that a maximum number of fans have access to our tickets, while serving our values and long-tenured season-ticket holders, we will be strictly enforcing ticket purchasing limits,” the letter said.
MSG’s stand against resellers follows similar efforts by other sports franchises, including the Boston Bruins, who in March canceled the accounts of about 200 resellers. The Philadelphia 76ers have taken a different approach, teaming with StubHub to basically recoup some of the profits from the resale market.
It’s kind of hard to figure out whether we as consumers should be happy or upset about the crackdown on resellers. MSG is making it easier for regular people to get affordable season tickets but more difficult to get single-game tickets. From a team’s perspective though, it makes sense to cut out resellers as much as possible.
According to ESPN, season tickets MSG reclaims from resellers will be sold as single-game tickets.
