The Sixers’ new single-game ticketing platform – which is run completely through StubHub – launched this week. Gone are the days of “face value.” In its place is fair (or not) market value, not unlike airline tickets. Fans won’t know whether they’re buying tickets directly from the Sixers or from a re-seller. This is a progressive, modern approach which makes a lot of sense, but it also allows for the Sixers to sell tickets for much more or less than advertised pricing tiers for season tickets and group sales and escape the negative publicity that comes with very expensive (or cheap) tickets.

The assumption is that the Sixers can price gouge for big games – like they did for the Lakers last year – and unload inventory at comically low prices for Tuesday games against a team from a city that doesn’t have a major airport.

group-prices

How is it working out in practice? We decided to take a look at a wide-range of games and seating locations to see how the best values on StubHub compare to the advertised prices for Sixers group tickets, which can essentially be used a surrogate for face value. It’s early, and prices will presumably change throughout the season, but the early returns are that prices typically are in the fans’ favor [yes, I know “face” may not be the appropriate term, but consider it the MSRP for Sixers tickets]:

Sunday, November 27 vs. Cleveland – Tier A

  • Mezz Corners Rows 8-15
    • Section 209 Row 11 – $66
    • Face  – $56

Friday, March 3 vs. New York – Tier B

  • Baseline Rows 18-23
    • Section 115 Row 22 – $120.75
    • Face – $103

Friday, November 25 vs. Chicago – Tier B

  • Lower Level Corners Row 11-17
    • Section 104 Row 12 – $82
    • Face – $88

Tuesday, January 24 vs. LA Clippers – Tier C

  • Lower Level Ends Rows 11-17
    • Section 119 Row 13 – $47.20
    • Face – $63

Friday, December 16 vs. LA Lakers – Tier C

  • Mezz Ends Rows 8-15
    • Section 220 Row 15 – $22
    • Face – $21

Friday, January 13 vs. Charlotte – Tier D

  • Lower Level Corners Rows 6-10
    • Section 121 Row 10 – $57.50
    • Face – $80

Friday, December 2nd vs. Orlando – Tier E

  • Mezz Center Rows 1-3
    • Section 215 Row 1 – $24
    • Face – $42

Sunday, December 18 vs. Brooklyn – Tier F

  • Center Court L/R Rows 11-17
    • Section 102 Row 13 – $92.08
    • Face – $100

Wednesday, November 16 vs. Washington – Tier G

  • Center Court L/R Rows 1-5
    • Section 114 Row 4 – $111
    • Face – $110

Monday, November 7 vs. Utah – Tier G

  • Mezz End Rows 8-15
    • Section 209 Row 11 – $8
    • Face – $11

Monday, February 27 vs. Golden State – Tier GSW

  • Mezz Center Rows 1-2
    • Section 202 Row 1 – $200 each
    • Face – $130 each

Saturday, March 4 vs. Detroit – Tier D

  • Center Court L/R Rows 1-5
    • Section 114 Row 4 – $139
    • Face – $192

So as you can see, it’s still possible to get seats that are on-par or better with the Sixers’ face value-ish price. For some games (or really good seats) finding options cheaper than face or very close to it becomes a little more rare. Some of the weird prices – $92.08 each, etc. – are from taking the average of the prices of two seats together, which is a feature of the new partnership with StubHub– one could be from the Sixers, one could be from a re-seller, but you can buy both in one transaction.

So do the Sixers have the option of hiking a price if, say, LeBron comes through town late in the year averaging 40/20/15 and also decides that he’s retiring right after the game and moving away to be a monk? Yes, they do. But so do re-sellers. And having all of your options in one interface is convenient. You don’t have to go to the Sixers’ site and open StubHub on your phone and compare prices while asshole-buttoning your Sixers ticket rep for the fifth time today.

In describing the new platform to Philly.com’s Jonathan Tannenwald this week, Sixers Chief Revenue Office Chris Heck spun this as being in the fans’ favor, but he also came across as kind of a jerk:

Heck said those swaths of cheap seats were available in part because groups that bought tickets for certain games were forced to buy tickets for other, less desirable games. Those groups sold their unwanted tickets to brokers, who put them on the market for cheap prices.

That practice has been cleaned up, Heck said, but individual ticket-holders aiming to sell unwanted tickets can do so for whatever price they want.

“People who are [full] season-ticket members have the opportunity to sell their tickets in a free enterprise way,” he said. “If Joe Q. Public has two season tickets and wants to sell [an individual game] for $5, fine. Knock yourself out.”

Heck added that while he thinks that practice is “a waste of time,” the team doesn’t discourage it.

“That’s the whole point of this whole configuration – make it easy for them to resell their tickets if that’s what they choose to do,” he said. “We have enough confidence to know you’re not going to see hundreds or thousands of tickets sold at $5, because that’s not who our consumers who purchase season tickets are.”

…

What about fans who want to buy tickets at the box office? For now, they’ll be able to buy seats only from the “primary” inventory. Seats that are resold won’t be available – which means the bargains you can get from resold seats won’t be available.

Lester said he expects those seats to be available to walkup purchasers next season.

Heck is convinced that there aren’t too many such fans left.

“Tell me somebody that doesn’t have a phone and wants to take a chance on a box-office purchase,” he quipped. “I bet if you went around, either they [would] or one of their children would buy tickets online for them. … We’re just not catering to people that don’t have phones or the internet, and I don’t think many businesses are.”

Asked if that was really how he wanted to describe the marketplace, Heck stood by the remarks.

“I’m not shy about saying that technology has influenced the way that we sell tickets and interface with the public, to our advantage and to theirs,” he said. “Hopefully, this is better and we can help [older fans] adapt. … If someone wants to still physically come up to our box office and purchase the same ticket that was available in the same scenario as the previous year at the box office, then they can do so.”

It seems, with the comment about $5 tickets, that he’s referring to brokers who buy season ticket packages and unload the cheap games, but he’s missing the point that there are some number of season ticket holders or otherwise well-meaning fans who simply can’t use tickets and need to get rid of them and, because the Sixers have sucked and probably will suck this year, can only do so for $5. Joe Q Public is a fan of your team, so maybe it’s best he doesn’t concuss himself, Chris. What’s more, though I’m fully in agreement that mobile sales is obviously where we’re headed, I have to imagine that there are many Sixers fans who are not proficient online, don’t have a credit card, or who otherwise just want to get tickets the old-fashioned way. Treating them as if they’re ugly step-children and literally saying that you’re not catering to them comes across as painfully tone deaf, needlessly hostile, and elitist, especially when you’re speaking on behalf of a team that has essentially held its most passionate fans hostage for the last three years. If I’m the Sixers, I giving free pizza to anyone who still wants to walk up to the building and buy tickets. That guy deserves a slice.

Again, I think this is a brilliant business decision. And Heck’s job is to make the Sixers money. But why is it every time the Sixers front office does something (on the business side) they manage to come across so poorly? The press they do is always focused more on what a brilliant business decision they’ve made rather than what it means for their fans. Sports teams are different than regular businesses. You are dealing with an emotional element that simply isn’t present with virtually any other company. As it turns out (so far), the new ticketing platform is just fine, maybe even to the benefit of the fan. But why bother taking swipes at Joe Q. Public (who might need the $5) or the old-school fan who prefers to deal in cash in the process?