They Can Never Take Our Freedom (to purchase tickets at or above face value)
If you noticed a more active scalping market in front of Safeco Field during the Mariners' last homestand, there's a reason. Scalping tickets is legal in Seattle as of June 18th.
Furthermore, the police department will no longer cite ticket sellers for violating the "mobile-vending" law. Recently the Mariners hired plainclothes, off-duty officers to cite people for selling tickets under this ordinance, which is meant to prevent people from selling food ambulatorily. It was never intended to apply to ticket sellers.
The Mariners hoped to eliminate ticket sales near the stadium, which would force those arriving without tickets to purchase their seats at the Safeco ticket office. Perhaps with the death of the anti-scalping law, the Mariners will make "assembling a winning team" the focus of their ticket-selling strategy, not "entrapping our fans."
Seattlest likes the open-air market feel of the South entrance to Safeco now, as scalpers hock their wares with impunity. And, with the Mariners falling to last place and evidently considering trading their big name players, Adam Smith's invisible hand of commerce will push ticket prices lower and lower. God Bless Capitalism!
