February 8 – Chelsea FC owner, Todd Boehly, has a history of upsetting the supporter base at Stamford Bridge with his scatter gun approach to running the club, and now he has been accused of a “breach of trust”.
The American businessman is a director and investor in Vivid Seats, an online ticketing site that buys and sells tickets to concerts and sporting events. These secondary market tickets are then resold often with a large mark-up.
British fans cannot use the site or others like it because it is illegal to resell football tickets in this way in the UK. In fact, the Premier League goes so far as to list Vivid Seats as an “unauthorised ticket website.”
Blues fans have taken to social media to complain about the difficulty in purchasing tickets to home and away games at face value due to the influx of football tourists.
The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) has conducted a survey with its members and found that only 17% of supporters have confidence in the club to tackle touting and anger was expressed at Vivid Seats’ connection with Boehly.
The CST said: “Vivid Seats currently lists hundreds of Chelsea FC General Admission tickets at significantly inflated prices. As these tickets are not sold by the Chelsea FC website, they are considered by the club to be ‘illegal sales’.
“Within the recent CST ticket touting survey, many CST members suggested that Mr Boehly’s connection with Vivid Seats is a ‘breach of trust’ and could be a conflict of interest. These recent reports are very disappointing, and it is within Mr Boehly’s best interests to investigate these issues and address supporters’ concerns – we do not believe it is appropriate for any Chelsea tickets or wider Premier League tickets to be listed on the Vivid Seats website.”
The trust added: “The alarming findings of this survey have indicated that supporters do not have faith or trust in Chelsea FC to combat ticket touting and that the club has failed to protect its loyal supporters from the ongoing exploitation of ticket touting.
“It is vital that the club provides immediate reassurances to supporters and must demonstrate that they are taking effective action to combat ticket touting through greater communication, stricter resale policies and sanctions, and additional enforcement against illegal ticket selling.
“Despite warnings from the CST, the trend of data indicates that supporters have become increasingly dissatisfied with anti-touting measures in place at Chelsea FC over the past two-three years.
“Now is the time to take proper, meaningful steps to address this. This is not simply about ticketing, this is about respecting and protecting the lifeblood of Chelsea FC – its supporters.”
As the self-titled, ‘greatest show on earth’ the Premier League is a bucket list destination for many foreign fans and the secondary ticketing market issue looks here to stay.
Contact the writer of this story, Nick Webster, at moc.l1738935425labto1738935425ofdlr1738935425owedi1738935425sni@o1738935425fni1738935425