I don't know what to make of Mikey's allegations, Ron. I wonder if he can back them up.
I spent a career engineering at Dofasco (Arcelor-Mittal) and I can honestly say that any tickets that were handed out were paid for in full value.
I can't speak for Stelco. (U.S. Steel)
As you suggest, the allegations, true or false didn't belong on the thread in question. I think Mikey had a lot of steam to blow off because of his differences with Zontar, and I can't particularly say I blame him for that. Oddly enough, however, I couldn't see, on this thread anyway, where Zontar was all that offensive to Mikey.
I'm guessing that Mikey's pent up emotions are what we ended up reading and would agree, this is no place for them, but Mikey has another side. I find him
knowledgeable and usually good humoured. I generally enjoy his posts.
Too bad it all happened and I'm glad I had the good sense not to enter the fray.
If true, I would agree that there would be a cost to the Ticat organization and therefore, hope the allegations are either false or exaggerated, but who knows; stranger things have happened.
This happens all over the place. People allways sell their gifts from work. Is it morally right. NO. In saying that I sold my 18V corldess drill I received from work at a garage sale.
But I picked it out of a book so that was my mistake. Sold it for 5 bucks. 5 bucks for 10 year service. lol.
It is sad that certain companies receive these tickets and the employees sell them.
At least at my work if someone receives tickets they give them to someone they know would appreciate them. I am so glad I work with good people, not the clowns who figure making 40 bucks is better than helping out people they know who would love to be there but can’t afford it.
And yes Ron...if those tickets are "out there", I firmly believe there is no "foul".....those specific tickets represented a bum in a seat......and were already gone........so, who cares how the "bum" got there.......??.........the minute the ticket was given to some employee of a company, if he/she gave it away or sold it for $10, who cares?.......the seat was spoken for!.......better if someone sits in it, buys food and merchandise!!
Now, the Ticats have limited free seats?..cool!....but again, it's their business to do so and the recipient's business as to who sits in the seat!!
Do we monitor who actually sits in the tents in the west end zone?.......no!!..the company buys the access/seat/tent space and the team then minds it's own business.....!!
Since when does the Gestapo monitor who sits in legally obtained seats anyhow?..........Who cares??
If someone walks up and buys a ticket from a person on the street they are buying a resold ticket, its already been paid for. if they go to the window they purchase a new ticket, one that actually helps the team. If someone is stuck with a handfull of tickets that have already been paid for then too bad for them. go to the box office and make sure your money goes where it should.
You have to honour what you love.
Scalping comp tickets is a scuzzy business. It costs the team - at least some of the people that make the effort to go down to the stadium in the hour before a game are committed enough that they'd buy a ticket at the box office if there weren't scalpers hanging around selling comp tickets. Unfortunately scalping is the kind of by-law that police have no interest in enforcing.
On the other hand, if a corporation is given tickets as a part of a sponsorship package, or buys at group rates, they are their tickets to do whatever they want with. If the team is getting fair value for these tickets then great, the seats are bought and paid for. If the Cats give them away for nickels on the dollar (which I suspect they do), and they end up being sold on the street to people that would otherwise pay full price, it's hard for someone like me that pays full price year after year to feel any sympathy for the Cats. I suspect all those big crowds of the past four years have been a mirage - all the freebies given to Traditions members and the ability to cash in unused tickets for future games only made fan support seem strong.
Sadly, I guess it just says something about the value of Cats tickets in the community. A minority of people care quite a bit and the rest couldn't care less. If more people valued them, employers would have employees that actually wanted to go to the games and you wouldn't have some guy standing on the street with a stack of fifty contiguous tickets.
I'm a situational hypocrite. I'll walk past a hundred scuzzy scalpers and pay more at the box office to see something I want to see, but I've sold comp Leaf tickets and other higher value tickets I didn't care about to scuzzy scalpers for beer money.
Ron…we’re talking about tickets the team gave out last year and years before…there is only one ticket for one bum!..what should the team care whose bum ended up in the seat?..the ticket left their grasp and was gone!!
If they have changed their policy this year, good on them!..but even then, if they continue handing out tickets, they do so at their own peril because anyone can sell a ticket to someone else for face value!!..and even a couple bucks above as a reasonable handling fee…a ticket to a game is a property which can be re-sold…within profit guidelines…if I was given 40 free tickets to the Super Bowl, what do you think I’d do with them?..
Well its true, you are hurting the team’s bottom line if IWS isn’t completely sold out and you’re selling tickets that were given out for free from the team.
however, if the game’s been sold out, this sketchy mb character is right, no harm no foul, at least there’s someone in that seat MAKING NOISE. (buying food and merch is nice, but its the home field advantage that matters most guy)
Personally, I don't understand the concept of why it's anyone else's business what each person pays for their tickets or how they cut their own deals.....who cares?...
My girlfriend is a business manager for a car dealership and she approves different type deals for the same type vehicles......that's the way of the world people!..........the person beside you may have a freebie ticket as a "perk" from their company.......or may have bought it half-price from someone who got it as a Christmas present in their stocking.....who cares?....it's nobody's business how that bum got in the seat beside you anyways......the team released the ticket to someone or some company for a fee at the outset....(even if the fee was "free")...........once the ticket was put "out there", who cares?.........as long as nobody broke into the Ticats office and stole tickets, it's out of their hands and the ticket was meant to have a bum attached to it come game time.......to buy stuff at the stadium!
.......this year they say that free tickets will be reduced.......again, that's their own business......and that's cool too!
I think it comes down to doing something you know will benefit the team rather than something you know will not. if I walk up at kickoff and some guy has some tickets on the corner at face value and I walk past him and pay face value at the booth, odds are my money went towards the team. If I buy from that guy on the corner all it means is someone who got something for free benefited from it instead of using it or giving it to someone who might become a fan or is already a fan and cant afford a ticket. They are freebees for a reason, marketing, to spread the love of ticat football and anyone who takes advantage of that for their own monetary gain does not share the love of ticat football that most of us on this site do. I wont make excuses for those people. I know they exist and I know they are legal in what they do....how they sleep at night is their own business.
I agree there Beetlejuice.......When buying at the stadium, I've always walked straight to the ticket booth.....I can't recall even once seeking out a scalper......
Agreed Ron,buy from the ticket window ,support the Cats.
Selling corp tickets given to you is wrong,IMO,but human nature says make a buck when given the oportunity.
Give the tickets away,as most people on here would do, to a young family in your area or Big Brothers and Sisters as others have often mentioned or family members etc etc.
