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Concerns have been raised about Chelsea’s commitment to preventing unauthorised resale of tickets as the club’s co-owner and chairman is a director of Vivid Seats.
The US-based online marketplace, of which Todd Boehly is both an investor and director, sells tickets to Chelsea matches and other Premier League games to foreign tourists. At present, Vivid Seats is advertising tickets for Liverpool’s final Premier League game of the season for up to £17,000 ($21,275/€20,400). Tickets for Chelsea’s last home game of the season, against Manchester United on May 18, are currently listed for as much as £2,616.
The Daily Telegraph claims that Vivid Seats and its backers benefit from tickets being sold for as high a price as possible. It charges a 10 per cent commission and a service fee from 20 to 40 per cent of the original ticket price.
Boehly has been a director at Vivid Seats since 2021, a year before his BlueCo consortium acquired Chelsea for £4.25bn.
Vivid Seats’ practices would appear to be at odds with Chelsea’s official utterances regarding resale. The ticketing platform is on the Premier League’s list of unauthorised ticketing websites while Chelsea has also denounced ticket touting.
“Chelsea FC is committed to tackling ticket touting, for both home and away matches,” reads the club website.
“We identify individuals who fraudulently harvest tickets/memberships to sell at vastly inflated prices, investigate both online and offline illegal ticket sales, and use a range of tactics and enforcement measures that help to combat ticket touting.”
Boehly’s involvement with Vivid Seats has provoked fury among some supporters.
“The fact that our owner could be benefiting personally at the expense of loyal supporters is hypocritical at best and downright dishonest at worst,” one fan told The Telegraph.
“Touting is a huge issue at Chelsea at the moment and it’s getting worse. There are fewer and fewer tickets available for supporters on a general admission, match-by-match basis.”
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