WI Board clamp down on scalpers

There is concern that the West Indies Cricket Board are going to have to ensure that next year’s Test series against England is not marred by West Indian fans not having enough tickets available, because of the overwhelming demand from English supporters.

With that in mind the WICB marketing committee under CEO Darren Millen are putting strict systems in place to ensure that ample tickets will be available to West Indians for next year’s home series against England. While explaining the thinking behind the introduction of a Cricket Holiday Levy for English visitors, Millien disclosed that only 40 percent of tickets will be allocated to the non-Caribbean market. Additionally, restrictions will also be placed on locals who may want to buy tickets in bulk and scalpers might be out of business if the move is successful. On previous tours by England to the Caribbean, venues in Barbados and Antigua were dominated primarily by tourists, but the new system, in which tickets to the English market will be distributed by the New Century Marketing Limited, the WICB will know exactly how many tickets are snapped up by non-West Indians. “We’re doing it in an orderly way this time. What happened last time was that they (English spectators) were using local handlers to buy blocks of tickets,” Millen stated. “There was no way to know exactly how many English people were coming to the ground, until you turn up the morning. We’re trying to control that. With this arrangement we know exactly how many tickets will be sold in the British market and we know how many will be sold to the locals,” he said. While tickets were already on sale in England, they will be made available to West Indians in December, but Millien said they need not worry that every single ticket would be gobbled up by overseas interests.

For several years, regional fans have also had to resort to scalpers who often sold tickets way higher than market value. “We’re even going to put restrictions in place so the locals can’t come and buy tickets in blocks of five or ten and then try and sell them,” Millien said. “We haven’t finalised the number yet, but we want to limit it to like two or three per customer, so that we won’t have people trying to beat the system by going and buying in blocks of ten or 20 and then either sell it black market, scalp them or sell them to tour operators for four or five times the cost,” Millien said. The Holiday Cricket Levy, which is US $260 for a Test match and US $45 for a One-Day International, was put in place primarily to secure funding to install temporary stands to accommodate the demand for seats. “We think it can work, but there are some elements trying to break down the whole thing. We want those people to come out and voice their opinion, but we also want it done in a constructive way. “The only people who will be bawling from this are the tour operators. They are the ones who normally make the obscene profit. What we’re doing now is extracting some of the money from their profits. Instead of them making 600 and 700 percent profit, they can only make 20 percent,” Millien said.