Touting Just Isn’t Cricket

A meeting of global stadium owners and operators in Barcelona June 9-11 heard how one of their number has been “beating the touts and closing out the Secondary Market.”

Photo: AP Photo / Jon Super, File

Events staff wait for play to begin on the fourth day of the second Test match between England and New Zealand at Headingley cricket ground in Leeds, England, June 1.

Maybe the first venue to come into your head, as ILMC’s Arthur Awards would have it, isn’t likely to be one of those operated by Lancashire County Cricket Club. Apparently the Red Rose county has been rewriting the terms and conditions on its tickets, and promises it’ll try to see heavy fines levied on those who don’t follow the new amendment in the incoming Consumer Rights legislation.

Those who do not display the row and seat number, face value and any restrictions placed on the tickets they’re touting could face fines of up to £5,000. LCCC chief exec Daniel Gidney told the Stadium Business Summit about the success the cricket club’s had by setting a tighter field around the touts and the difficulty in winkling out those who “hide behind free market principles.”