WE’LL SCALP SCALPERS
EXCLUSIVE Beattie fires shot at Games ticket holders trying to rort system
SCALPERS are trying to profit off Commonwealth Games tickets by reselling for 10 times the price.
But Games organisers plan a major scalp of their own.
Tickets at inflated prices – including $80 swimming heats for $1511 – were up for resale on websites yesterday prompting furious Games bosses to warn they will cancel scalped tickets.
Outraged GOLDOC chairman Peter Beattie slammed the greedy 18-times mark-up and gave scalpers a warning: cut it out or your tickets will get cancelled.
“If you start trying to tout them online the tickets can be cancelled,” he said.
“Once a ticket has been allocated to a person, they own it so if you try to rip someone off and sell to them and we cancel it, you’re selling something which is worthless.
“We do not want to do this but we do have to raise money for the Games and if you are caught cheating on this your tickets will be cancelled.”
The rorting has begun early on one website where tickets for Games events are all being sold for a mark-up. * Badminton for $650.10. * Boxing for $780.
* Hockey for $780.
On the same resale site, tickets for netball, squash, cycling, weightlifting, lawn bowls PUTTING VO INTO BUSINESS VOOM Kelsie Smith on start-ups, casinos and better transport and artistic gymnastics have all sold out. Late yesterday, nearly 400 people were viewing Commonwealth Games tickets on the site.
On online classifieds website Gumtree, a pair of tickets for the April 13 men’s basketball semi-final are being sold for their original value of $80.
Mr Beattie said he was disappointed to see scalpers preying on Games fans and admitted he was concerned overseas visitors would be duped. But he stressed people could transfer their tickets to friends or family if they could not make it.
“We say to people, if under the circumstances you cannot make it, sell them to your loved ones or friends, there’s nothing wrong with that but do it for what you paid for them, not for a profit. We just have to be careful that overseas people are not duped.”
On Thursday, Games offi- cials revealed a raft of popular events had already sold out, including the opening ceremony, basketball semis and finals, diving, hockey finals, swimming finals and rugby sevens. The most popular event was the netball final.
GOLDOC received 1.2 million tickets requests covering all of the 274 sessions from the first allocation of tickets. The 300,000 session tickets left will be available from July 5, with applicants from the first allocation given a priority window to apply on July 3 and 4.