Tickets for the upcoming finals matches of the AFL Aussie rules competition have been pulled from eBay and Gumtree amid investigations into ticket scalping.
Australian broadcaster ABC reported that “dozens” of investigations into scalping have been launched after a number of tickets for the match between Collingwood and Richmond emerged on the two auction websites.
The two teams meet on Friday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and tickets went on sale yesterday (Monday). According to ABC, only 40,000 tickets were made available to members of the two clubs, despite the fact that the match is expected to attract close to 100,000 people.
Standing-room only tickets were reportedly available on the websites yesterday for Aus$1,200 (£658/€740/$865), with three concession tickets having exceeded Aus$1,600.
Anti-scalping laws in the state of Victoria dictate that people cannot resell tickets for ‘declared major events’ for more than 10 per cent of the face value of the ticket.
A government spokesman told ABC that there are currently more than 65 anti-scalping investigations underway relating to online listings to tickets for AFL finals matches. Twelve listings have been removed from eBay, with three having been taken down from Gumtree.
One fan told ABC: “I tried to get tickets on my computer, but I couldn’t get on so I thought I would come down, but they said no they’ve run out.
“It’s a bit of a shame really, to have only 40,000 tickets available to the members I think it’s a bit of a disgrace, when you’re going to have nearly 100,000 people at the MCG. I’ve never been to a final before, I missed out on tickets last year.”
TheTicketingBusiness.com reported yesterday that Ticketek had come under scrutiny for its handling of ticketing for the AFL Finals, with some Richmond and Collingwood fans claiming that they were able to proceed to the payments page before being met with erroneous security messages saying their credit cards had been blocked.
The issues come just weeks after the AFL announced staggered ticketing sales after the Ticketek service crashed ahead of Finals Week 1.
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