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Monday, March 18, 2024 | Back issues
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Dodgers Face Lawsuit From Ticket Sellers Over Consolidation Deal

A group of ticket brokers say the Los Angeles Dodgers spurned them when they cancelled thousands of ticket sales during a consolidation deal, according to a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court this week.

LOS ANGELES (CN) – A group of ticket brokers say the Los Angeles Dodgers spurned them when they cancelled thousands of ticket sales during a consolidation deal, according to a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court this week.

After 15 years of purchasing Dodgers tickets in bulk, the brokers said their big payoff was just around the corner as the Dodgers clinched the 2017 National League pennant. Despite losing in the World Series last year, tickets to a Dodgers game this season are a hot commodity.

Unfortunately, the brokers say they were cut out of the equation all together, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday by Connecticut-based Renaissance Ventures, New York-based Broadway Hospitality and California-based RT&H doing business as 714Tickets and Venue Kings Ticket Brokers from Canada.

Instead, the Dodgers opted for a single broker to handle ticket sales, Houston-based Eventellect, which cut out plaintiffs.

The brokers who filed the lawsuit say the Dodgers got greedy and consolidating all tickets under one broker will inflate ticket prices for fans.

They go on to say this will mean “more profits for the Dodgers and their new mistress, Eventellect.”

Language exchanged in emails between the Dodgers organization and the brokers led them to believe they were partners who enjoyed a good relationship where they were notified of special promotions.

“For over a decade, plaintiffs and various Dodgers’ representatives gathered at the convention dedicated to fostering a relationship” where they were offered unique proposals for event pricing and offline arrangements to avoid fees, the complaint says.

But all that wooing soured, according to the lawsuit. The Dodgers pressured the brokers to donate tickets back to the organization, so they could give them away to fans.

The brokers allege Dodgers management demanded “impossible-to-get-tickets” for the Broadway musical “Hamilton” for a few hundred dollars, even though they were selling for $5,000 each. And they extorted trade secrets and used those to sell 2017 World Series tickets through a third party.

Plaintiffs named the Los Angeles Dodgers organization and Guggenheim Baseball Management for breach of oral contract and other causes of action. They seek an injunction to cease the sale of the tickets that were promised to them and allow them to resume buying tickets for the Dodgers season.

The plaintiffs are represented by Jonathan Genish with Blackstone Law in Los Angeles. The Dodgers organization did not immediately respond to an email for comment.

Categories / Business, Courts

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