Rockies Suspend Online WS Ticket Sales after System Malfunction

by flachimesa on Oct 22, 2007 4:41 PM CDT

And we thought the VWR was a nightmare...

The Rockies had to suspend the sale of tickets for World Series games at Coors Field after a ticketing system malfunction earlier today (Monday).

"After more than 8.5 million hits on the Colorado Rockies website, Paciolan, MLB's ticket vendor, experienced a system wide outage that impacted all of its North American customers. As a result, the Colorado Rockies have suspended the sale of 2007 World Series tickets scheduled to be played at Coors Field" until a new plan is announced.

Although some ticket transactions (less than 500 seats) did take place this morning, virtually all of the tickets for the three games in Denver remain available. A new plan to sell them will be announced soon.

Rockies WS Ticket Update

Press Release

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of SB Nation, Bleed Cubbie Blue, or Al Yellon, editor-in-chief. FanPost opinions are, however, valued expressions of opinion by passionate and knowledgeable baseball fans.

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Maybe...

... this will finally give the impetus to do what should have been done by ALL teams selling playoff tickets:

Have an email lottery
Refund automatically to credit cards any money for unplayed games

It sounds so simple, doesn't it?

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Oct 22, 2007 4:39 PM CDT 0 recs

it makes too much sense

thats the problem

AC 00 00 00 - BELIEVE

by mike on Oct 22, 2007 4:49 PM CDT up 0 recs

Nice try...

but any good sys admin can generate thousands of valid email addresses with some simple scripting tools.

I'm not sure what would be a fair scenario, but an email lottery wouldn't work.

by Neifi Puppy on Oct 22, 2007 10:49 PM CDT up 0 recs

True...

... but then, other teams have used lotteries successfully. They limit entries to one per email address -- obviously, that doesn't take into account your scenario. But they also reserve the right to cancel any entries they don't feel follow their rules -- maybe they can cancel multiple entries from the same IP address.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Oct 23, 2007 3:58 AM CDT up 0 recs

IP Address

I guess all of your friends with AOL accounts would never be able to order tickets. Seems that they all use the same IP range.

by NorthsideBlue on Oct 23, 2007 12:38 PM CDT up 0 recs

Not Simple at all

*Refund automatically to credit cards any money for unplayed games*

This is such a onesided view on this - So Al, when you sell your tickets to a friend of yours or maybe better yet to a broker - you are then asking the Cubs to send you the money back????

This doesn't make sense to the third party who is holding a ticket in their hand.

It's a win-win for the ticket purchaser - they get back their money from the Cubs and from the person they sold the ticket.

It's a losing situation for both the purchaser and the Cubs. The purchaser is out the cash and the Cubs have customer service issues.

Wow - seems simple, doesn't it.....

by NorthsideBlue on Oct 23, 2007 12:37 PM CDT up 0 recs

Then why...

... does virtually every team do it this way?

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Oct 23, 2007 1:02 PM CDT up 0 recs

If someone paid $200 on StubHub..

for a game 5 NLCS ticket that was $50 face, they have to send the tickets back to StubHub and get a credit from StubHub. Then StubHub has to send the worthless tickets back to the original purchaser (either a STH or not), who then has to send them back to the Rockies, who in turn has to send the bearer/original purchaser a check. Whew! Takes 5-6 weeks.

Under the system the Cubs (and most other teams) used, my purchaed NLCS tickets were refunded automatically. If I had sold them the buyer did not need to return them. Quick and painless.

by bison on Oct 23, 2007 6:03 PM CDT up 0 recs

They said they had no idea

there would be 8.5 million attempts to login.

But as easy as it is to resell tickets nowadays, ANYBODY could take the chance, and if they got tickets, make a big profit.

Geo! (clap-clap-clap) Soto! (clap-clap-clap)

by zambranofan on Oct 22, 2007 8:20 PM CDT 0 recs

I Wonder....

... if what happened here is the same thing the ticket brokers did with all the Hannah Montana tickets. They managed to break the security code and bought up just about all the tickets, forcing parents to pay scalper prices for a kid's show. Since ticket brokers have the conscience of Charles Manson, I wouldn't doubt they did the same thing here.

Santo Forever!

by BeerCub on Oct 22, 2007 8:44 PM CDT 0 recs

Rox still don't know how to sell 60,000 tickets

As of Monday evening, the Colorado Rockies still have no idea how they're going to sell 60,000 tickets for the Rockies' three Coors Field World Series games.

In the meantime, StubHub sales are soaring, with over 3500 tickets being sold by Monday afternoon, mostly by season ticket holders and "others" [wink wink] who obtained them before Monday.

Click Denver Business Journal to read more of the story.

by flachimesa on Oct 22, 2007 8:57 PM CDT 0 recs

Story at Denver Business Journal updated...

at 8:15 PM MDT.

World Series tickets back on sale Tuesday after the "website contracted to sell tickets to the general public was the victim of 'a malicious attack.'"

Read update at Denver Business Journal.

by flachimesa on Oct 22, 2007 9:40 PM CDT up 0 recs

They should have done...

what the White Sox did--sold WS ticket strips those plunking down cash for 2008 season tix. Maybe WS one game for a partial plan. They had 8 days to make it happen--when will this franchise (mostly mediocre the past few years) have a chance like this again? They could have moved lots of the 60,000 tix that way, then have a lottery drawing or first come, first served on the rest.

by bison on Oct 22, 2007 11:26 PM CDT 0 recs

White Sox

There was an article written last year about this. The White Sox got in a bunch of trouble with MLB about this plan. Some team asked about doing it last year and MLB told them that they were not allowed to use World Series tickets to try to sell future game tickets.

by NorthsideBlue on Oct 23, 2007 12:40 PM CDT up 0 recs

Stupid.

NBA teams do this. And you'd think MLB would WANT to generate future sales in this way.

MLB really is run by idiots.

"That's my opinion and if you don't like it, well, I have others." ~ Groucho Marx

by Al on Oct 23, 2007 1:01 PM CDT up 0 recs

Rocky Mountain Math

According to reports, there were "nearly 60,000 tickets for the Rockies' three Coors Field games available through an online-only general sale beginning at 10 a.m. Monday."

"Only about 500 tickets were sold before officials shut down the Rockies' ticket website around noon Monday, Oct. 22."

"About 18,000 tickets per game remain unsold."

Am I missing something? Perhaps the Rockies rounded up 54,000 to be "nearly 60,000."

Must be Rocky Mountain Math.

by flachimesa on Oct 22, 2007 11:31 PM CDT 0 recs