Ticketing And Coronavirus: Stubhub Offers Coupon, Updates Payout Process With Vivid

Sukhinder Singh
StubHub – Sukhinder Singh
In light of the COVID-19 coronavirus, the North American ticketing industry has already begun grappling with the consequences of increased public concern and the cancellation of several prominent events. 
Stubhub President Sukhinder Singh Cassidy sent a letter to the StubHub Community March 6 stating that StubHub’s FanProtect Guarantee was still very much in place to refund all tickets purchased on the site in the event of cancellation, and introduced an alternative option: a coupon worth 120% of the ticket’s value in credit on StubHub. The coupon is valid for one year and can be transferred within 48 hours, whereas refunds can take two-to-three weeks, “because many events are impacted by the coronavirus.” 

StubHub and Vivid Seats also recently changed their payout processes to not issue funds until after an event has taken place, meaning brokers using the site would not have access to the revenue from the sale as quickly. 

A Vivid spokesperson sent the following statement to Pollstar: “We are closely tracking event cancellations. For some events, because the situation remains fluid, we have updated our terms such that payment for future ticket sales will be remitted to ticket sellers after the event.”

Tickets purchased prior to the change in payment terms will not be affected by the new terms an email sent to Vivid users said. 
Along with the cancellation of SXSW and Ultra, Madonna has called off the last two dates of her Madame X tour thanks to COVID-19. Pearl Jam announced the postponement of the first leg of its North American tour. 

As of March 8, The New York Times reported the number of cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. had exceeded 500 with 22 deaths.