The New England Patriots last week received the names of 13,000 people who bought or sold Pats tickets through StubHub. Season ticket holders are rightly concerned that the Pats may now revoke the subscriptions of those who circumvented the Pats’ own Ticketmaster-run system.

A Massachusetts judge ordered StubHub to release the names last year, a ruling that was affirmed last week by the state Appeals Court.

Diane, a season ticket holder who asked not to be identified for fear of being targeted by the Patriots, said she sold some of her seats on StubHub to help defray the cost of purchasing them.

“It’s my ticket, and I should be able to do whatever I want with it,” she said.

The Patriots view their tickets as revocable licenses that they control. The team currently prohibits resales anywhere but on the team’s website, which is run by Ticketmaster and requires fans to sell their tickets at face value.

Mike, another season ticket holder who attempted to sell tickets on StubHub and requested anonymity, said he didn’t appreciate the Patriots going to court to obtain private information about him.

But other sports fans applauded the Patriots for trying to prevent season ticket holders from making enormous profits on their tickets.

“Whatever happened to buying tickets for the games you want to go to, rather than buying them so that you can resell them and essentially price the average blue collar fan out of going to a game,” said Sean Duke-Crocker of Brookline.

Do you agree with the team or the ticket holders? Tell us in the comments.

Patriots season ticket holders fear being put on hot seat [Boston Globe]
(Photo: Paul Keleher)

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