Ten years after Major League Baseball agreed to a deal with online ticket reseller StubHub, the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team has signed on.
The deal will see the team get an unspecified cut of revenue from tickets sold on the platform.
Cameron Pap, communications manager of StubHub, confirmed to Global News Thursday the Blue Jays are among the last remaining MLB teams to opt in.
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The partnership between the Blue Jays and StubHub, which is owned by eBay, was first announced on March 30, 2017 in a press release. It was described as “a fully integrated ticketing solution that will enable all Blue Jays Season ticket members, Game Pack holders and single-game ticket buyers to re-sell, purchase and electronically transmit tickets conveniently, safely and securely on the StubHub platform.”
Now, according to a Toronto Star and CBC News investigation, the Blue Jays are set to “receive secret commissions on every ticket sold on StubHub, allowing the club to profit on the scalping of its own seats”.
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The Star report didn’t confirm whether the Jays have placed their own seats directly for sale on the service. Other MLB teams have done so, according to another StubHub spokesperson quoted in the report.
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The Toronto Blue Jays declined to comment on its financial arrangement with Global News.
When a camera crew asked fans their opinions on the deal outside Rogers Centre, owned by Rogers Communications Inc., the crew was asked to leave the public space.
Two security supervisors told Global News only journalists “with credentials” provided by the Blue Jays media office could record interviews with fans outside the building.
WATCH: Global News crew booted from outside Rogers Centre
Journalists and camera crews typically require media credentials to work inside the Rogers Centre and many performance venues. But Global News has not, in memory, ever received a demand to obtain credentials outside the building in a public space.
Some baseball fans showing up to the home opener expressed frustration with a deal that might see patrons pay higher ticket prices for baseball games.
Ervil DiGiusto, a private ticket reseller and spokesperson for the Canadian Ticket Brokers Association, said the relationship between the Blue Jays and StubHub is “no big deal” on its face.
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