The NFL did an about face this week, saying season ticket sales were now down for the year. Ticket brokers already knew that.
Rick Maese of the Washington Post took an early look at the lockout’s affect on the secondary ticket market, which is unsurprisingly taking a hit. Don Vaccaro, chief executive of popular online ticket exchange TicketNetwork, says NFL sales are down 53 percent.
“That is a huge, huge swing. It seems that a lot of folks on the lower end aren’t buying tickets, and it could be the start of a multiyear problem for the NFL, like we’ve seen with some other leagues,” Vaccaro said.
Another broker says he’s not even buying tickets until the lockout ends. StubHub didn’t provide numbers, but also talked about feeling the pain.
While ticket brokers aren’t the people you worry about first during the lockout, their lack of activity speaks to a greater malaise this offseason for football fans.
Of course, that malaise is nothing a few more productive “not-so-secret” negotiating sessions couldn’t fix.