Baltimore Orioles FanFe$t
By Joe Serpico
Got a few hundred dollars handy? That’s what it’s going to cost you if you want a John Hancock from your favorite Baltimore Orioles player.
The Baltimore Orioles will be holding their annual FanFest at the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday, January 31, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., with season-ticket holders eligible to enter at 10 a.m.
It is promoted as a day for Oriole fans and families to come together and get hyped for the 2015 season. The activities included at FanFest consist of a clubhouse tour, question and answer forums and memorabilia dealers among other events for fans as they get the fortune to interact with the Orioles players and staff.
The truth is that most fans really want to go for the biggest “prize” of the event: autograph signings.
The Orioles sold 250 autograph vouchers for each session and they were sold out in just an hour. The team’s intention is to take the $20 spent on the voucher and have that money donated to OriolesREACH. OriolesREACH is the club’s foundation that benefits local children’s charities. The Orioles are trying to do the right thing by donating that money to charity.
It’s the people who abuse this that are ruining it for real fans.
Everyone is entitled to earn a dollar, and no one should ever prevent another man from earning a living. The Orioles are still getting the $20 from the voucher sale so the team has no real reason to refuse the sale. There is also no law preventing anyone from selling these tickets.
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Maryland law MC § 43-318 states that boxing, wrestling and kickboxing promoters are prohibited from allowing the sale of tickets to be more than that of the admission value. That’s it. No law protecting the resale of NFL, MLB or any other tickets. No law that puts a cap on the pricing of tickets. Basically, if you want to go to the Royal Farms Arena and watch someone get beat up, you know your ticket price is set. Any other event, you’re at the mercy of supply and demand.
That is just wrong.
The idea behind FanFest is that the fan gets the rare opportunity to actually meet the players they see on television at a bargain price. It is not everyday that you get the chance to walk up to a player and personally say, “Good luck this year.”
Twenty dollars is not much for most people to spend for that special occasion. What about $199? That’s the asking price for an autograph at 11:20 p.m. that features Chris Davis. You want Manny Machado‘s signature? You can purchase vouchers at $175 or $155. Adam Jones your favorite Oriole? Just $150 to get his autograph.
Those are just some of the prices on eBay. There are currently 222 items for sale on eBay for FanFest. There are also countless vouchers available on craigslist and StubHub. Let’s not forget the scalpers that will be looking to make their money too.
This is not just an issue limited just to FanFest. There were plenty of playoff tickets last season that were on sale for well over $1,000. Again, there is no law preventing this from happening. You could argue that teams need corporations to buy up those bulks of tickets during the season.
The difference is FanFest is designed for the fan, and the Orioles can control who buys the vouchers.
When a buyer purchases the ticket, the ticket should come with the buyer’s name on the ticket. When it’s your turn in line, the event staff should have each person with a voucher show identification on arrival. If the name on the tickets and ID don’t match, sorry, no entrance.
It’s a simple, yet, effective method. The groups that buy up huge blocks of tickets have no incentive in buying and reselling tickets if they must have a matching ID. The scalper normally found outside the ballpark can’t sell tickets because the names must match.
If the club is serious about making this a “fan-friendly” experience, they must give the fan an opportunity to buy at the $20 price only. You do that by making sure the online scalpers have no benefit in buying up all the tickets.
Otherwise, there is little reason to attend FanFest unless you’re fine with spending a few hundred dollars.
At that price, just buy season tickets instead.