Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals • Hacker News Board

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#11

Post by Implicated » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 4:48 PM UTC

vlucas wrote: post #2

Well this explains a lot. I recently bought NBA tickets to Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals (Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Golden State Warriors), and I was absolutely pissed off at the whole process. I went on a small Twitter rampage to vent about it, with a picture that shows NO TICKETS available LITERALLY THE SECOND they went "on sale" (10AM Thursday May 19, 2016), and then beside it another screenshot of ALMOS…

I recently experienced the same scenario with comedy show tickets, Dave Chappele did a few last min shows in Portland and getting tickets through the sales site was absolutely impossible.

Not only were they sold out within seconds, I also got the impression the process was designed to make sure anyone with an automated process would "win". Being a developer and knowing how people would use a system like theirs, it blew my mind they took basically no precautions to stop automated buyers from buying everything immediately.

Someone is making lots of money.

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#12

Post by chrisseaton » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 4:48 PM UTC

mmastrac wrote: post #6

It feels like the ticketing process in general is broken. There's too much demand for events, making the entire market dysfunctional. Why don't we 1) make tickets non-transferrable (but refundable), 2) start pricing half the tickets as what the person will pay via auction and the other half as a fixed-price lottery? I'm not aware of many other ways to make things fair when demand outstrips supply so much.

I can't relate to any of the arguments in this thread!

Why does it need to be fair? It's a private business putting on an event that nobody needs to go to except as a luxury entertainment. It's not access to food and water. We don't expect that other limited luxuries should be available to everyone, so why concerts and sport events?

Surely tickets going to the people who'll pay the most is fair?

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#13

Post by bgilroy26 » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:02 PM UTC

chrisseaton wrote: post #12

mmastrac wrote: post #6

It feels like the ticketing process in general is broken. There's too much demand for events, making the entire market dysfunctional. Why don't we 1) make tickets non-transferrable (but refundable), 2) start pricing half the tickets as what the person will pay via auction and the other half as a fixed-price lottery? I'm not aware of many other ways to make things fair when demand outstrips supply so much.

I can't relate to any of the arguments in this thread! Why does it need to be fair? It's a private business putting on an event that nobody needs to go to except as a luxury entertainment. It's not access to food and water. We don't expect that other limited luxuries should be available to everyone, so why concerts and sport events? Surely tickets going to the people who'll pay the most is fair?

Selling some at a lottery provides a market for people who would be priced out very early along the curve.

If you want to avoid a Hunger Games situation where only the rich and famous enjoy your product (the NBA and many musicians care about this) that sort of person needs to be provided for

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#14

Post by danbruc » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:22 PM UTC

aianus wrote: post #5

What's wrong with blindly auctioning off all of the tickets? That way more tickets will be sold, the artist can't be accused of being greedy, there won't be much profit in the resale market, and everyone who attends the show will have paid an amount they thought was reasonable during the bidding process.

Because if the supply of tickets is lower than the demand, which it obviously is, tickets will essentially only go to the people able to spend the most money on them.

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#15

Post by lutefisk » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:25 PM UTC

vlucas wrote: post #2

Well this explains a lot. I recently bought NBA tickets to Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals (Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Golden State Warriors), and I was absolutely pissed off at the whole process. I went on a small Twitter rampage to vent about it, with a picture that shows NO TICKETS available LITERALLY THE SECOND they went "on sale" (10AM Thursday May 19, 2016), and then beside it another screenshot of ALMOS…

That's pretty intentional. A venue really doesn't care how many people go, they care that the show gets "sold out".

A couple of my friends are scalpers. They said there's a limit of 8 tickets for most shows per address, but if you walk in with thousands of dollars in cash that limit goes away. Online it's a little different since you need to put your address in for your credit card, but there's plenty of ways to get multiple addresses with your name for credit cards.

They make more than me as a software engineer, but they can easily lose thousands if a show doesn't pan out. They follow tours across the US and hope they find "the one" that makes them rich.

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#16

Post by [deleted] » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:28 PM UTC

bgilroy26 wrote: post #13

chrisseaton wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't relate to any of the arguments in this thread! Why does it need to be fair? It's a private business putting on an event that nobody needs to go to except as a luxury entertainment. It's not access to food and water. We don't expect that other limited luxuries should be available to everyone, so why concerts and sport events? Surely tickets going to the people who'll pay the most is fair?

Selling some at a lottery provides a market for people who would be priced out very early along the curve. If you want to avoid a Hunger Games situation where only the rich and famous enjoy your product (the NBA and many musicians care about this) that sort of person needs to be provided for

[deleted]

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#17

Post by gratalis » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:29 PM UTC

Good analysis that makes me slightly less upset about the difficulty of gaining entrance into the Western States 100. The WSER event organizers implement this article's primary recommendations: transparency and non-transferability despite the huge supply and demand disparity and market forces driving their automatic entry vs. lottery process: http://www.wser.org/entry-process/

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#18

Post by aaronmiler » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:40 PM UTC

_9vpl wrote: post #7

mmastrac wrote: post #6

It feels like the ticketing process in general is broken. There's too much demand for events, making the entire market dysfunctional. Why don't we 1) make tickets non-transferrable (but refundable), 2) start pricing half the tickets as what the person will pay via auction and the other half as a fixed-price lottery? I'm not aware of many other ways to make things fair when demand outstrips supply so much.

> 1) make tickets non-transferrable (but refundable) This is apparently what Louis CK is doing for his latest tour. I ordered tickets and I have to pick them up from the box office with ID starting 1 hour before show starts. Or I can request a refund.

Dave Chappelle did something similar when he came through Portland. If your name wasn't on the ticket, you got turned away at the door. People who paid $300+ for second hand tickets weren't allowed in

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#19

Post by Shivetya » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:43 PM UTC

bgilroy26 wrote: post #13

chrisseaton wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't relate to any of the arguments in this thread! Why does it need to be fair? It's a private business putting on an event that nobody needs to go to except as a luxury entertainment. It's not access to food and water. We don't expect that other limited luxuries should be available to everyone, so why concerts and sport events? Surely tickets going to the people who'll pay the most is fair?

Selling some at a lottery provides a market for people who would be priced out very early along the curve. If you want to avoid a Hunger Games situation where only the rich and famous enjoy your product (the NBA and many musicians care about this) that sort of person needs to be provided for

Here is the deal, they already give fans an in road on buying play off tickets. Be a season ticket holder.

Now some will argue this is not sufficient but the rub is, if your not going to support the team the full season then why should you have preference over someone who does?

So all teams provide for regular fans. However many people who do complain about the 'system' are fans of fancy, as in fans when the team wins and is in the playoffs.

There are similar passes and priorities for entertainment venues.

Re: Why You Can’t Get a Ticket to the NBA Finals

#20

Post by karzeem » Sat, Jun 04, 2016, 5:51 PM UTC

danbruc wrote: post #14

aianus wrote: post #5

What's wrong with blindly auctioning off all of the tickets? That way more tickets will be sold, the artist can't be accused of being greedy, there won't be much profit in the resale market, and everyone who attends the show will have paid an amount they thought was reasonable during the bidding process.

Because if the supply of tickets is lower than the demand, which it obviously is, tickets will essentially only go to the people able to spend the most money on them.

That's how almost all goods in the world are allocated. Is a lottery more fair?