By ALAN SNEL
LVSportsBiz.com
A legal brawl has broken out between the Vegas Golden Knights and their secondary market ticket sales partner StubHub over playoff ticket sales.
StubHub was apparently not too happy with the VGK’s playoff ticket selling strategy called the “Knights Vow,” which allowed season ticket holders to buy playoff tickets from the Golden Knights at lower prices if they agreed to not re-sell their tickets. The Knights deployed the “Vow” strategy in an effort to keep mostly Golden Knights fans in playoff game seats at T-Mobile Arena after many crowds were half-filled with fans of visiting teams during the regular season .
And Golden Knights are alleging in a lawsuit filed last week that StubHub owes them more than $1.4 million in revenues from its secondary season ticket sales of VGK playoff tickets.
“Without any advanced warning or explanation, StubHub announced that it was withholding most of the VGK’s share of the secondary ticket profits,” according to the June 21 complaint filed by the team’s law firm, Lewis Roca Rothgerber Christie in Las Vegas.
The lawsuit alleges the Golden Knights are owed $1,449,430 and that StubHub plans to withhold at least $1,194,555.
The Golden Knights were ticked off at StubHub even before the team clinched the playoffs.
StubHub contacted its customers, including VGK season ticket holders, March 13 with a communication advising Golden Knights fans to sell their playoff tickets and “cover your season ticket cost,” according to the Knights’ lawsuit. StubHub noted the average playoff ticket sold for $249 in 2017, the legal papers said.
Meanwhile, the Golden Knights were privately working on their Knights Vow program in hopes of keeping as many playoff tickets as possible in the hands of VGK fans.
“VGK was not given any advance notice by StubHub that it was going to send the March 13, 2018 communication to VGK season ticket holders nor did it approve this communication,” the lawsuit said. The team announced the Knights Vow program March 27.
The Golden Knights did not appreciate StubHub reaching out to its season ticket holders before a playoff berth was even clinched, especially when the team was working on a “Vow” game plan that contradicted StubHub’s commercial attempt to get Knights fans to unload their playoff tickets to the ticket re-seller.
The VGK were working on a playoff ticket plan where season ticket holders would get a chance to pick from one of two price points — a lower price as much as 40 percent lower if they promised to not resell the playoff tickets and a higher price if they chose to keep the option of reselling their tickets. The “Vow” program helped keep the T-Mobile Arena crowds more partisan in favor of the Golden Knights fans.
But StubHub complained about the restriction of the sale of Golden Knights playoff tickets under the Vow, the lawsuit said. And the legal papers asserted that StubHub emailed the Knights April 5 to advise the team that StubHub would take any and all necessary actions if the team didn’t stop restricting the sales of the VGK playoff tickets under the “Vow” deal.
“StubHub’s ultimatum threatened to turn VGK’s historic inaugural season from an experience that encouraged fan loyalty and hometown spirit into a ‘scalping’ money-grab,” the team’s lawsuit alleged.
The team also asserted in the lawsuit that nothing in the term sheet with StubHub prohibited the Knights Vow dual-price structure.
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The Review-Journal first reported the Golden Knights-StubHub lawsuit story Tuesday.
Selling Golden Knights tickets to fans of visiting teams has irked owner Bill Foley, who has told LVSportsBiz.com in the past that he didn’t like so many fans in opposition team colors filling seats at T-Mobile Arena.
The Knights Vow accomplished its goal for the team in Rounds 1 and 2 of the playoffs when a small percentage of Los Angeles Kings and San Jose Sharks fans, respectively, were seen at the Golden Knights playoff games in Las Vegas.
In the Western Conference Finals, more Winnipeg Jets fans showed up in T-Mobile Arena than the LA and San Jose fans. And during the Stanley Cup Finals, especially Game 5 when the Washington Capitals clinched the NHL title on VGK home ice, many red-shirted Caps fans bought tickets and found their way to T-Mobile Arena seats.
LVSportsBiz.com contacted Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz for reaction on the legal action, but he said via email, “We can’t comment on a pending lawsuit.”
StubHub’s lawyers could not be reached.
The lawsuit is scheduled to be heard in Clark County District Court July 23. Sections of the lawsuit were also redacted, while the team had also filed a separate complaint June 21 in hopes of keeping terms of its agreement with StubHub and business information out of the public eye.
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