Will Next year be the year of the scalper & BMO expansion..

[StandUpIfYouHateChelsea]

As i stated in the title i believe next year will be the year of the scalper. With the hype surrounding tfc and the future signing of one or more 2 star players , i bet scalpers everywhere in the GTA are salivating. If you guys thought the 400 or so tickets in the scalpers hand this year was bad (conservative estimate). Just wait until there's a star on the pitch. I realistically see BMO turning into a ACC with the real fans left on the outside....... Next to stadium expansion. Wether MLSE sign a big player or not i believe the market of Toronto would easily support a stadium double bmo's size. However if TFC want to achieve this goal they must adapt there marketing to the true football crowds in this city. The ethnic diversity of Toronto provides a huge base of consumers , however if the club wants to attract these fans they need to market to them. For example TFC could target Italians in tor onto by running ads in Italian in little italy or sign a notable Italian player.... the same can be said for other neighborhoods with a dominant ethnic background.

If the club was to lure the large market of football fans in Toronto they could easily support a football stadium of 40,000 people or more......

p.s i know there are nay sayers on here , however look at the facts , look at the past and take an honest look at it

also dont try to compare amateur teams to toronto fc please

[TorCanSoc]

I'm not so sure. In my section for sure a scalper has 30 tickets around me 10 per row below, my row, and above me. I've seen them for sale batches at a time on StubHub. Never seen teh same person twice in those seats. Last game of the year, there were 8 seats empty to my left. I think re-sales are slowing down. My $0.02

[Bobo]

Well you know that scalpers won't be dropping their tickets but I can bet they'd be waiting in line for more. So ya, I see the problem progressing.

[TheRenter]

I'm not so sure. In my section for sure a scalper has 30 tickets around me 10 per row below, my row, and above me. I've seen them for sale batches at a time on StubHub. Never seen teh same person twice in those seats. Last game of the year, there were 8 seats empty to my left. I think re-sales are slowing down. My $0.02

which section is yours?

[Mikey]

I'm not so sure. In my section for sure a scalper has 30 tickets around me 10 per row below, my row, and above me. I've seen them for sale batches at a time on StubHub. Never seen teh same person twice in those seats. Last game of the year, there were 8 seats empty to my left. I think re-sales are slowing down. My $0.02

whats the average price for each of those tickets? $100 bucks?
potential $3000 bucks a game, 15 games a season, possible turnover of $45,000

Screw MLSE doing anything, especially if the rumours of scalpedtickets in 118 coming from a manager are true.

This should be a call to the tax man for tax evasion. Pretty easy to track people who own big bunches of season tickets and audit their accounts.....

[arbogast]

As i stated in the title i believe next year will be the year of the scalper. With the hype surrounding tfc and the future signing of one or more 2 star players , i bet scalpers everywhere in the GTA are salivating. If you guys thought the 400 or so tickets in the scalpers hand this year was bad (conservative estimate). Just wait until there's a star on the pitch. I realistically see BMO turning into a ACC with the real fans left on the outside....... Next to stadium expansion. Wether MLSE sign a big player or not i believe the market of Toronto would easily support a stadium double bmo's size. However if TFC want to achieve this goal they must adapt there marketing to the true football crowds in this city. The ethnic diversity of Toronto provides a huge base of consumers , however if the club wants to attract these fans they need to market to them. For example TFC could target Italians in tor onto by running ads in Italian in little italy or sign a notable Italian player.... the same can be said for other neighborhoods with a dominant ethnic background.

If the club was to lure the large market of football fans in Toronto they could easily support a football stadium of 40,000 people or more......

p.s i know there are nay sayers on here , however look at the facts , look at the past and take an honest look at it

also dont try to compare amateur teams to toronto fc please

I don't get your logic:

1)If they sign a notable player (from anywhere) all the team is doing is building hype and fuelling scalper activity whether they market the club to "ethnic" communities or not.

2) Also, the club has intoduced a limit of 4 sst per person this year, no doubt an attempt to block more scalpers form getting thier hands on even more seats. The REAL Problem with scaplers are the scripts they run to buy tix on line, the average person trying to buy just can't compete.

[brad]

I'm not so sure. In my section for sure a scalper has 30 tickets around me 10 per row below, my row, and above me. I've seen them for sale batches at a time on StubHub. Never seen teh same person twice in those seats. Last game of the year, there were 8 seats empty to my left. I think re-sales are slowing down. My $0.02

Same goes for the top of 105. The better part of two rows are empty most of the time, and I've never seen the same face twice.

[deltox]

real fans left outside

i think real fans would have already signed up for tickets by then.

remember that the season tickets did not sell out on the first day.

i Bought my season tickets the morning they went on sale. as a fan of the game i wanted this.

tickets were available for months. even after the beckham signing they were still available.

so real fans would have already bought their tickets.

[TorontoBlades]

All I know is that season tix holders are getting emails asking if they want to purchase more tickets, that doesn't sound like hype to me....

[brad]

real fans left outside

i think real fans would have already signed up for tickets by then.

remember that the season tickets did not sell out on the first day.

i Bought my season tickets the morning they went on sale. as a fan of the game i wanted this.

tickets were available for months. even after the beckham signing they were still available.

so real fans would have already bought their tickets.

This attitude smacks of elitest BS.

Why does when you decided to follow the team have any relevance to whether or not you are real fan?

I'd bet that half the people that show up 25 minutes late and leave 20 minutes early bought their tickets early - you think they are real fans?

I a lot bet the people that sit on their asses and complain the second some one stands up and cheers bought their tickets early - are they real fans?

I bet most of the scalpers bought their tickets early. Real fans?

I know a lot of people that do not have tickets for a variety of reasons that are bigger TFC fans than 80% of the people in BMO.

[rocker]

real fans left outside

i think real fans would have already signed up for tickets by then.

remember that the season tickets did not sell out on the first day.

i Bought my season tickets the morning they went on sale. as a fan of the game i wanted this.

tickets were available for months. even after the beckham signing they were still available.

so real fans would have already bought their tickets.

there is much truth spoken here.

it's easy to criticize scalpers by appealing to the faceless, nameless "real fan" (who is she/he????). But that's a melodramatic, strawman argument in my opinion.
Scalpers may or may not be the evil scourge of the sporting world, but the comment assumes "real fans" don't buy from the scalpers... if you can even define a real fan in the first place.

At least people who never got in during Year 1, or Year 2, when STs were available, shouldn't complain. Just suck it up and admit you gotten beaten to the bunch by scalpers.

[joel]

StandUpIfYouHateAnnoyingSpeculation

[deltox]

i hate the idea of a "real" fan anyway.

somneone that sits down to watch is a fan. someone that stands is a fan. the person that buys a lot of TFC stuff and who is on all the boards is a fan. the person that goes to a few games a yr is a fan.

there is no real fan BS. the part-time supporter thing is BS as well.

im not being elitist. theres a lot of people that dont get to go to games. they are fans too. but ALL the people in the stadium on game day are fans. whether they bought tickets by themselves or through a scalper.

so while you complain that "real fans are outside" remember that they are inside too.

[Pyeddo]

somneone that sits down to watch is a fan. someone that stands is a fan. the person that buys a lot of TFC stuff and who is on all the boards is a fan. the person that goes to a few games a yr is a fan.

Well said

[sulfur]

but ALL the people in the stadium on game day are fans.

This I will dispute, and quite happily. I know of at least 2-3 people that go to the games to socialize and be seen. They don't give a rat's ass for the game.

[brad]

i hate the idea of a "real" fan anyway.

somneone that sits down to watch is a fan. someone that stands is a fan. the person that buys a lot of TFC stuff and who is on all the boards is a fan. the person that goes to a few games a yr is a fan.

there is no real fan BS. the part-time supporter thing is BS as well.

im not being elitist. theres a lot of people that dont get to go to games. they are fans too. but ALL the people in the stadium on game day are fans. whether they bought tickets by themselves or through a scalper.

so while you complain that "real fans are outside" remember that they are inside too.

Well put, and I agree with this 100%.

My interpretation of your initial post was wrong - I thought that you were saying the people that got in early are the "real fans", and the late comers aren't. Thanks for clarifying.

[I_AM_CANADIAN]

i hate the idea of a "real" fan anyway.

somneone that sits down to watch is a fan. someone that stands is a fan. the person that buys a lot of TFC stuff and who is on all the boards is a fan. the person that goes to a few games a yr is a fan.

there is no real fan BS. the part-time supporter thing is BS as well.

im not being elitist. theres a lot of people that dont get to go to games. they are fans too. but ALL the people in the stadium on game day are fans. whether they bought tickets by themselves or through a scalper.

so while you complain that "real fans are outside" remember that they are inside too.

Disagree. People who don't get to games can also be fans, but many of the people at BMO aren't real supporters. They're occupying seats that could be better used by people who actually care about the team. I'm not referring to people who bring their kids and families to games, etc. I'm referring to the people who go there and stand in the supporters sections and don't do anything but get drunk.

And have you ever been to a Leafs game at the ACC? I haven't, and I'm the biggest Leaf fan I know. That's not right, especially when you watch on TV and nobody in the lower bowl cares about the game in front of them.

[swan]

i agree ....

real fans left outside

i think real fans would have already signed up for tickets by then.

remember that the season tickets did not sell out on the first day.

i Bought my season tickets the morning they went on sale. as a fan of the game i wanted this.

tickets were available for months. even after the beckham signing they were still available.

so real fans would have already bought their tickets.

[Hooligan69]

So am I not a "real fan" because I haven't been able to secure season tickets? Anyone who thinks that can go fuck themselves with a pitchfork.

[Richard D]

lol at real fans...

The 'realest' fans get tattoos of the team logo on their ass...

[rocker]

nobody is "real fan"... whether they have seasons or not.
scalpers are not keeping "real fans" out because there's no test for being a real fan. simple as that.
having season's tickets is never the test you're a real fan. so we need to cut out the melodramatic comments that scalpers keep real fans out.

and if someone says scalpers are keeping real fans out, they are making a judgement of what a "real fan" is, AND they are implying that real fans don't buy from scalpers (they must just think real fans just stand outside the gates staring in longingly I guess...

and if you didn't get season's tickets, rather than yelling at the scalpers, yell at yourself for being a Johnny Come Lately.

[Fort York Redcoat]

This is more a question of commitment and finance.

You season ticket holders showed the initiative. Congrats you deserve it. But only one team in the city sold out before TFC was born so we sports fans in the area didn't predict the demand. We footie fans going to CSL games didn't predict the demand. Yeah, yeah, boo hoo for us.

But to insinuate there's no difference in commitment from someone on this board who scours for tix every match on the trader or elsewhere vs some one who picks up scalpers tix day of?

I know it's hard to see the difference up there on your perch but...c'mon.

[Richard D]

I totally agree, all fans are created equal...

But everyone loves to hate 'bandwagon' fans. The 'real' fans ride the bus all year long... then when the team starts to do well, the bus gets all filled with people, we cant put our feet up on the empty seats, 2 fat guys sit next to us, their butt cheeks partially on our leg and so on...

Screw you bandwagon fans!! Screw Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

[Fort York Redcoat]

I totally agree, all fans are created equal...

But everyone loves to hate 'bandwagon' fans. The 'real' fans ride the bus all year long... then when the team starts to do well, the bus gets all filled with people, we cant put our feet up on the empty seats, 2 fat guys sit next to us, their butt cheeks partially on our leg and so on...

Screw you bandwagon fans!! Screw Youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!

So some are created more equal? I agree with you though.

[dcdcdc]

Who is considered a 'real fan'? Someone who is obsessed with the team at every waking moment? Perhaps people have families and many commitments and can't go to all the games or come late, and can't read every single update to the team including when new season tickets go on sale.

If some people choose to buy off scalpers and pay a higher price, that is their business. It doesn't make them any less of a fan.

[I_AM_CANADIAN]

So am I not a "real fan" because I haven't been able to secure season tickets? Anyone who thinks that can go fuck themselves with a pitchfork.

Agreed. I was 15 years old and hadn't a penny to my name when season's tickets were on sale. Real fans are those who love Toronto FC. Are some people naive enough to think that all 20,000 people in that stadium love Toronto FC?

[mighty_torontofc_2008]

Scalpers are not popular here...but i have a friend that does that as a profession, and their are pros and concs to it...you can make money
or lose big like my friend did on the Leafs Rangers games last night he has 4 $52.00 seats in the purples and could not even get face value for them, he sold one at face Value and lost $156 on the other 3 we used two to watch the game while waiting for the last greyhound to brantford.
He has a buddy that got 4 golds@ $167 ea and could not sell any, we moved down from the pruples for the better viewing....Scalping is a risk ,
i wouldn't want to do it...but scalper are here for the long term,,,

[Cambridge_Red]

This is more a question of commitment and finance.

You season ticket holders showed the initiative. Congrats you deserve it. But only one team in the city sold out before TFC was born so we sports fans in the area didn't predict the demand. We footie fans going to CSL games didn't predict the demand. Yeah, yeah, boo hoo for us.

But to insinuate there's no difference in commitment from someone on this board who scours for tix every match on the trader or elsewhere vs some one who picks up scalpers tix day of?

I know it's hard to see the difference up there on your perch but...c'mon.

Yup and some of us weren't living in Ontario at the time..

[TorCanSoc]

which section is yours?

Sorry... real fan with kids, aging parents, could not log on all weekend.

Section 108. Upper part of it, rows 26, 27, 28 have the scalper's sets of 10 tix.

[mighty_torontofc_2008]

Scalpers are willing just before ko to sell at face value or less to just get rid of them, if you have the patience to wait it out a deal is possible.