Revenue / 03.25.20

Ticket Refunds: What to Expect

Access Staff

ESPN.com (03/19/20) Berko, Arty; Thompson, Tisha

Mass cancellations due to the coronavirus epidemic means many sports fans are holding hundreds of thousands of potentially unusable tickets. The largest ticket companies say fans are entitled to refunds if their tickets are for a fully canceled event and they used a credit card to buy directly from a team box office or the website of a team's official ticket seller. Ticketmaster's website says the company has a standing policy to automatically refund the full cost of the ticket and fees, but the refund process may take up to 30 days. Fans also should also get refunded if they purchased tickets from one of the popular online ticket reselling marketplaces like StubHub, while tickets bought via a broker should be refunded as well. Meanwhile, refunds are not currently an option for people with tickets to postponed events. According to Vivid Seats, if a buyer's event has been postponed, the purchase will likely be valid for the new date, "though every event may be different." If the holder cannot attend the rescheduled event, StubHub suggests they resell their ticket, and the broker will usually take a piece of the action as part of its reseller fees. National Association of Ticket Brokers Executive Director Gary Adler says the pandemic could cause serious damage to the ticketing industry as "the number of canceled events, including some of the biggest that exist, has made it extremely difficult for those in ticketing (and live events in general) to stay afloat."

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Tags: Sports , News , COVID-19 , Coronavirus