Yankee government connections apparently trumped again by "Massachusetts"....

Ticket scalping is now acceptable behavior, called the "secondary market" says the NY Times. The Times notes, "the Yankees lost" referencing their battle last year with the state of New York to regulate ticket sales. What the Times doesn't say is the Red Sox may again have superior government connections. No mention of the Red Sox or any of its Directors, simply saying in parentheses, (Massachusetts is one of the few holdouts):

• NY Times: "Meanwhile, as the futility of trying to stamp out scalping became increasingly obvious, state and local legislatures began rethinking their previous opposition.

StubHub and its competitors started lobbying legislatures all over the country to overturn anti-scalping laws — and by and large they succeeded.

• (Massachusetts is one of the few holdouts.)

In New York, the state’s longstanding opposition to scalping was eliminated last summer. The bill was held up for a while because the New York Yankees wanted to control the resale of their tickets — but in the end, the Yankees lost."

• From NY Times article by Joe Nocera, "Internet Puts a Sugarcoat on Scalping," 1/19/08

P.S. I was surprised to hear the Red Sox and other Massachusetts teams are still protected against scalping. Everything I'd heard up til now was the Yankees were evil, greedy and mean and everyone else was wonderful. The Yankees apparently lack friends in government, for example lifelong back room power brokers who can point their finger in your face. Isn't that obvious by now? Randy Levine may consider himself a ballbuster, but he's not getting it done for the Yankees.

Tweet Stumbleupon StumbleUpon