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Ticketmaster responded to the recent outcry over the exorbitant price of Blue Jays World Series tickets, telling CityNews in a statement that it does not “set or control” ticket prices, “especially not resale prices.”
The response comes after Premier Doug Ford on Wednesday accused the company of “deceiving” the public and holding a monopoly on coveted tickets.
“My personal opinion… they’re harassing people,” Ford said at Queen’s Park.
“When you have one player in the market that controls the tickets, it’s not right for people, so we’re really reviewing that right now.”
Ticketmaster spokeswoman Natasha Boeck emphasized that ticket prices in the resale market “are set by individual sellers, many of whom are professional ticket resellers who seek to sell tickets at the highest prices in the market.”
Boeck blamed “scalpers” for the current situation, and said that the company is “investing in new technologies to fight scalper bots used to defraud fans” and said that Ticketmaster supports resale reform.
Boeck said Ticketmaster’s resale marketplace is “verified and certified, so fans can be confident they are getting genuine tickets and a secure way to watch live events.”
“Providing a secure, verified platform is at the core of what Ticketmaster does,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ford hinted that his government may introduce legislation to tackle resale prices – even though it was his government that in 2019 scrapped part of a law that capped ticket resale prices at 50 per cent above the original face value.
The ticket-capping scheme was brought in by the previous Liberal government, but was canceled soon after Ford was elected.
At the time, the Ford government said that the rule was unenforceable and could lead consumers to buy tickets on the black market, which would have driven prices higher.
Despite this, Ford is now advocating for change.
“I don’t believe in one company controlling everything and in my opinion that’s what’s happening right now with Ticketmaster,” he said Wednesday.
Opposition parties have also joined the call for reform in resale prices.
Tickets for the single-game World Series go on sale to the general public at 10 a.m. Tuesday. As expected, they quickly sold out and resale prices reached thousands of dollars, with potential Game 7 tickets exceeding $10,000.
Meanwhile, some fans have continued their complaints about the skyrocketing prices.
One fan living with a disability told CityNews he was shocked to see that prices even for wheelchair accessible seats were in the thousands of dollars.
Ryan Healy-Ogden said he has “serious concerns” about handicapped seating for the World Series.
“After waiting over an hour on Ticketmaster… I only found verified resale tickets available,” the 44-year-old wrote. “After filtering the accessible tickets I needed, I was shocked to see a price of over $8,000 per ticket.”
Healy-Ogden shared a screengrab of the ticket below.
“You allow people to rack up handicapped tickets for $8,000 each?” he asked. “this is outrageous.”
He suggested, “Shouldn’t there be some control over who buys handicapped tickets? Just sell them last and not keep them available for resale.”
“Being disabled generally means you are unable to earn at the same rate as others, so again, it is shocking that this has been allowed to happen.”
Healy-Ogden said he reached out to Ticketmaster to share his concerns and was told the company would review the pricing structure for accessible seating.