Official MLB partner StubHub is changing the way it sells tickets to Royals' fans.
"We cut off StubHub two hours prior to game time," explained Steve Shiffman, the senior director of tickets sales and service Kansas City Royals. "Most clubs in baseball cut off between two and four hours before game time."
While other teams - like the Dodgers and Cubs - have stopped sales on the broker site for a while, it's the first time the Royals have implemented the rule.
"We really prefer our customers to come to Royals.com," said Shiffman. "It's the best place to get the best seats, at the best pricing."
The goal is to get last minute ticket buyers off StubHub.com and to the Royals directly, be it the box office, website or app.
"What the Royals are hoping to accomplish with it is getting that extra walk up business," said Jason Durbin with Overland Park's Tickets for Less. "People who are out at the parking lot, hanging with their friends, deciding last minute if they want to go or not. They want to increase the number of people who walk up to the box office and buy the tickets directly."
The two-hour cut-off only applies to Stub Hub, which means the move could push those looking to buy last minute seats to secondary sites like VividSeats or Tickets for Less.
"People are going to be out there and looking at StubHub and realize the tickets aren't there," explained Durbin. "You'll still be able to go on to our mobile site and buy tickets all the way up to the start of the game and even beyond the game time. Your tickets will be sent to you electronically and go into the game just like you are buying from the Royals."
Aside from luring fans to buy tickets directly, it also prevents StubHub, the biggest MLB reseller, reselling unsold tickets for fractions of face value on game days.
And while the Royal enacted the two-hour rule, the Cubs are doing away with it this season. The reason -- when the Cubs didn't perform well, ticket prices would plummet, and resellers on StubHub would drastically drop prices to get rid of tickets. That devalued tickets sold through the team. But since the Cubs' World Series victory, StubHub is back selling tickets until game time.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
