Ticket sales for the 2018 Commonwealth Games set for Gold Coast, Australia are expected to top a whopping $60 million in total when all is said and done. However, scalpers are trying to get their own piece of the monetary pie via inflating prices on resale websites.
With scalpers reportedly reselling tickets for up to 10 times the original sales price, Commonwealth Games organizers are threatening to cancel online sales all together to combat the practice.
Chairman Peter Beattie stated this week,“If you start trying to tout them online the tickets can be cancelled. Once a ticket has been allocated to a person, they own it so if you try to rip someone off and sell to them and we cancel it, you’re selling something which is worthless.
“We do not want to do this but we do have to raise money for the Games and if you are caught cheating on this your tickets will be cancelled.”
According to The Gold Coast Bulletin, swimming heats tickets go for $80 regularly, but have been seen as high as $1511 on resale websites this week. Swimming finals have already sold out, as was the case at the 2014 edition of the Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
Fans should have fair access to tickets, even our Aussie mates. -Roostr.com
His name is Common Wombat . Common has been burrowing on all sites downgrading this majestic event & decrying it as toytown games . Meanwhile he has bought ALL of the tickets up under assumed names . Eric Echidna , Peter Platypus , Terry Tasmainan Tiger , Susie Stingray , Donnie Dolphin are not really sports fans but CW bots .
A tragedy .
And I can only thank your most obliging offshore financiers, Mrs Rinehart, for bankrolling my nefarious schemes !! ROFLAO
In all honesty, those international “scalpers” are way overpricing …. just who, apart from family members of intl competitors or the most fanatical follower of a particular sport, are going to be mad keen to make what will be a v expensive trip to AUS “out of peak season” for most sports for a NON World level event ? The bulk of any such market is likely to be domestic