The hype on Indian Premier League has been drenched with ever-rising black-market ticket sales - this is more than ever the status quo nowadays. And fans who desire to see live matches are already heading for disappointment as ticket sales are up a huge market, with even so many tickets being snapped up before publication time and sold online at inflated prices at the point of sale on social media sites.
Ticket sales for matches for Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) started on the internet but after a couple of minutes all tickets were marked as sold out. That quickly sell-out is raising suspicion within those who do bulk buying the sports teams for sale, because people are now using the genuine fans in reality.
Some public places have started posting advertisement of the IPL tickets, with various people posting messages to potential buyers on the social media by phone numbers. There are people charging double, and even triple the original price since there is such demand and less supply.
Despite RCB management warning all the fans to not buy tickets through intermediaries or unauthorized means they are still attracted to these offers. The franchise had warned fans not to buy tickets only from official sites at any time just to avoid buying people’s tickets and too pricey for them. The campaign had warned they could not trust.
The black market network in real time appears to work openly with very few consequences. The openness to posting and reaching such a wide audience on social media has been further fueling this practice. Not only did fans do something wrong to those ticketing firms, but that it has the potential to cause the ticketing system to not be fair.
They also say fake tickets are circulating which might place fans at stadium gate unable to get tickets with a large price because they paid so much. The authorities and event organizers will have to tighten up their monitoring and the unauthorized sale.
The message to fans as follows is, pay no heed to black market deals. The purchase of tickets (partially) through unregistered sources may not only encourage illegal activity but also pose a risk of fraud.
As IPL fever hits the country, an equitable and safe ticketing process is the most important task one that can only be done with stronger enforcement and increased fan awareness.
