Wrigley Expansion - Wrigley Field, Chicago Cubs

Cubs in court over claims of scalping tickets

August 20, 2003

BY NICOLE ZIEGLER DIZON ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Chicago Cubs are bilking fans by selling game tickets above face value through a brokerage the team set up, lawyers said Wednesday during closing arguments in a class-action lawsuit.

But what the plaintiffs call scalping is actually a licensed business separate from the Cubs organization, team attorneys said.

Cook County Circuit Judge Sophia Hall must decide whether Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services, established as a "sister company" to the Cubs last year, defrauded consumers and violated an Illinois law barring those who sponsor an event from charging more than face value for tickets.

The trial wound down Wednesday after a week of testimony. Hall said she would rule by Nov. 24.

Paul Bauch, an attorney for the plaintiffs, is seeking $100 per ticket for between 1,000 and 2,000 people who bought tickets from the brokerage. He also wants the judge to shut down the service.

The plaintiffs claim Premium is not a ticket reseller, as the Cubs say, but instead is an agent for the Cubs that gets "high demand" tickets the team keeps off the regular market. At the same time, the Cubs claim certain games for which Premium holds tickets are sold out, Bauch said.

"The Cubs dominated this corporation," Bauch said. "They did a good job of setting it up and making it look separate."

The team directs customers to Premium for tickets to sold-out games and even promotes the service with free television commercials aired during Cubs broadcasts, Bauch said.

Attorneys for the team, which is owned by the Tribune Co., have argued Premium is a Tribune Co. subsidiary that purchases tickets for resale at its own risk.

"We are not in the business of cooking the books and making sham transactions," said James Klenk, an attorney representing the Cubs and Premium. "Our business is to comply with the law."

Klenk said Illinois law is clear that a broker, once licensed, is allowed to sell tickets above face value. He said Cubs workers helped start the business but have not been involved since Premium opened in June 2002.

The tickets offered to Premium, the Cubs say, are those that normally would not be available at the box office until game day or shortly before-- those held for Major League Baseball officials, the media, politicians and employees, for example.

The Cubs claim Premium actually helps fans by increasing competition and driving down ticket costs from more than 40 other licensed brokers. Klenk argued that other brokers who want to put Premium out of business are behind the lawsuit.

"We are here because the ticket brokers don't like our business," Klenk said.

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