TALLAHASSEE -- Scalp tickets outside a Florida venue or online, and you're probably breaking the law.

Since 1945, Florida has banned the resale of sports or entertainment tickets for more than $1 over face value, though the rule is rarely enforced.

Now, legislators want to legalize the "victimless" crime to keep ordinary Floridians from becoming criminals.

"It's just a fairness issue, a consumer issue," said state Sen. Mike Bennett, who is sponsoring the Senate bill. "It's free-market enterprise at its best."

In reality, the push for legal scalping is as much about big business as it is about individual concertgoers and sports fans. Companies like Ticketmaster and StubHub are pushing the bill, hoping to cash in on Florida's portion of a $10 billion U.S. secondary ticket market.

StubHub is a San Franciscobased online ticket outfit that matches buyers with sellers for a fee of about 10 percent.

And Ticketmaster is pushing the legislation so it can introduce a program in Florida that allows fans to sell tickets through them above face value, for a fee.

The House approved the legislation Tuesday, and the Senate could take it up this week. If approved, Florida would join 34 other states that allow some form of ticket scalping.

These days, fewer tickets are scalped person-to-person. Most are exchanged online. And the exchanges carry risk that the ticket may not be real.

Ticketmaster's program would protect consumers and remove the risk of buying tickets above face value, said Kerry Samovar, the company's senior vice president of policy.

For example, the company would partner with sports teams to set up sites where fans could sell to other fans. The person selling would enter the bar code from their ticket, then Ticketmaster would cancel that ticket and issue a new one, with a new bar code, to the buyer.

The team or concert promoter would take a cut of the price, along with Ticketmaster.

"If the law is changed, the legal channel would be provided by Ticketmaster," Samovar said. "You only know the ticket you're buying will work if you get it from the event or the event's authorized ticketing company."

The new law would require Internet sales sites to offer refunds if a ticket doesn't work or an event is canceled.

Sites like StubHub already offer Florida tickets for sale, with the disclaimer that they only connect buyers with sellers. They hope legalized scalping will send more business their way.

That could result in higher ticket prices and less opportunity for average fans to get seats, said Lionel Dubay, president of the Florida Facility Managers Association.

"From a consumer standpoint, I don't see where the benefit would be," he said. "People in the ticket resale business will obtain as many of the best seats as possible."

But Rep. John Stargel, R-Lakeland, the bill's sponsor in the House, said the bill addresses those concerns. It sets up a Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act violation for anyone who knowingly buys more tickets than allowed by caps that ensure average fans have a chance to buy tickets. Samovar, of Ticketmaster, is convinced prices will drop if the bill succeeds.

"This bill will not change the amount of tickets that are resold," he said. "This bill will allow some of that money to go back into the venues, back into the teams." Source>>>

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