These Blue Jays ticket prices are too high. We must do something

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Vass Bednar is the managing director of the Canadian SHIELD Institute and co-author of The Big Fix.

With the Toronto Blue Jays making the World Series, tickets have been scooped up and instantly resold at enormous markups. Fans are outraged and incredulous.

By one estimate, in 1993, when the Jays last won the tournament, a 100-level World Series ticket cost $67 – about $152 today after inflation. Now that seat, often available only on the resale market, is over $11,000 before tax and fees. What happened?

Scalpers use bots to snap up tickets at face value before fans get the chance. And in the resale market, there are no rules. Part of the problem is access. The desire to attend these high-demand events will always exceed the supply of available seats, and those scalper bots can complete online purchases faster than a human, vacuuming up tickets the instant they go on sale.

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But the bigger shift is how prices are set once those tickets hit the resale market. There, algorithms – not fans or sellers – now determine what a seat is “worth,” adjusting based on demand signals and how desperate buyers seem to be. The market allocation of these tickets has shifted from being “first come, first served” to “whoever the algorithm determines will pay the most.”

Part of the reason people seem so angry at Ticketmaster itself is because the company has formalized the secondary market for tickets. Ticketmaster profits from both primary and secondary sales, creating a built-in conflict of interest.

Recently, amid a U.S. Federal Trade Commission lawsuit, Ticketmaster pledged to “increase the percentage of tickets going to real fans.” But can we just take the company at its word?

We need legislation to curb the ability of persons (and computer bots) to capitalize on ticket sales.

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The good news is that we have options if we want to address the ability to cash in on high-demand cultural events. In Ontario, there is some talk from Premier Doug Ford of revisiting a section of proposed legislation from the government of former premier Kathleen Wynne, the Ticket Sales Act, that would have capped ticket resale profit at 50 per cent. Shortly after Mr. Ford first took office, implementation of the rule was paused and it was ultimately cancelled in 2019, amid concerns about its enforcement.

Amendments to Quebec’s Consumer Protection Act make it illegal for a merchant to resell tickets at a price higher than authorized by the event producer. However, this rule does not apply to individual resellers. This loophole has been exploited by ticket resale sites that position themselves as brokers between individuals, while still collecting a commission.

British Columbia requires resellers to list the original face value and prohibits the use of bots for purchasing tickets. New York State mandates all-in pricing, prohibits hidden fees, and requires disclosure when algorithmic or “market based” pricing is in effect. Minnesota and Massachusetts’ “Taylor Swift Bills” require upfront, all-in pricing, bans speculative ticket listings, and increases transparency about dynamic pricing.

Two states in Australia, Victoria and New South Wales, have legislation that makes it illegal to resell a ticket at more than 10 per cent above the original asking price. Most states in Australia prohibit a ticket reseller from selling a ticket for profit. Other jurisdictions have banned profiting from resale altogether. Finally, after widespread outrage over the Bad Bunny concert pricing in 2023, Mexico’s Congress now caps resale at face value. France similarly mandates that tickets can only be resold at face value or less.

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FIFA has suggested that it will ring-fence some subset of tickets for specific fan categories at a fixed price. It could also consider holding back a subset of seats for fans at a reasonable price and allocating them through a randomized lottery. If a recipient is unable to attend, that ticket would go back to the pool for reconsideration. An imperfect system, but one that is predicated on chance and equity, instead of someone’s maximum willingness to pay. Public policy can set the terms of value in the resale market, reclaiming control over price formation as a form of consumer protection.

We must also tackle another core pricing shift: a carefully calibrated pricing dynamism facilitated by algorithmic software. Earlier this month, California took a significant step to address the issue when Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law banning coercive price-fixing algorithms and making it an offence to coerce another company to adopt an algorithm’s price or terms. Canada’s Competition Bureau recently sought feedback on the tensions of this tactic, and it deserves our attention to seek creative solutions as we look for meaningful ways to tackle the cost of living.

Regulators can restore trust and fairness in the event economy. These games are for fans and shouldn’t be a luxury experience. Effective resale caps would be a home run for affordability.