Boston.com - The 2007 Red Sox season was just underway when a group of professional ticket brokers held an unusual meeting in a private room at the Baseball Tavern, the storied bar in the shadows of Fenway Park. The main item on their agenda: How to persuade Massachusetts officials to keep ticket-resale profits rolling. One man was there with an offer of help. He was not a broker, had no known experience as a political strategist, and has never registered as a State House lobbyist. But Richard Vitale had something that the two dozen brokers came to believe was even more important to their cause - a close personal and professional relationship with Salvatore F. DiMasi, the speaker of the Massachusetts House. Vitale told the group that he could "do things a registered lobbyist couldn't do - behind the scenes," according to one ticket seller in attendance who asked that his name not be used. Others present also told the Globe they left the meeting with a clear understanding that Vitale was close to DiMasi. What they did not know when they decided to retain him through his firm, WN Advisors, was just how close. Vitale is the speaker's personal accountant and former campaign treasurer. And he had given DiMasi a $250,000 third mortgage on his North End condominium, according to public records. It was an unorthodox line of credit, apparently at below-market interest rates for such a loan, that DiMasi in an interview ac knowledged he had used. At the urging of the group's leader, James Holzman, the president of Ace Ticket Worldwide, the brokers paid Vitale what two members in attendance at the meeting that day described as many thousands of dollars to help their cause. Months later, legislation to lift regulations on the ticket resale business glided through the House of Representatives with DiMasi's support. After passing the House, the bill got bottled up in the Senate, where it remains today. If Vitale was paid more than $5,000 to influence lawmakers - and several brokers briefed on his fee arrangements said he most certainly was - he would have had to register as a lobbyist. And if he was working as a lobbyist, his ongoing financial relationship with DiMasi - namely, the loan -would have run afoul of state conflict of interest laws that prohibit lobbyists from granting anything of value to a public official. Under current law, ticket resellers may charge no more than $2 above a ticket's face value, plus a service charge, though the law is rarely enforced, observers say. Consumer advocates had been pressing for tighter price controls after receiving complaints that tickets to sporting events and concerts were being sold for many times their original price. By late September 2007, months after the brokers hired Vitale, the measures sought by consumer advocates were dead in the House. And in their place, a broker-friendly bill lifting all pricing restrictions had emerged with a favorable recommendation from the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure. A week later, that bill passed the full House.

Let’s call a spade a spade.    Clearly DiMasi, the ticket guys, and Richard Vitale broke the law.   That’s pretty freaking obvious.    I mean nothing screams guilty like when you start having Regan Communication speak for your ass in the press.   But what amazes me about this story is how the Globe found about this secret meeting in the first place.   My only guess is that some of the smaller ticket agencies in Boston must fucking hate Ace Tickets so they ratted him out.  Why else would you spill the beans?   Regardless, this story brings up a bigger issue.   Should it be illegal for these ticket brokers to exist?    Personally I think it’s a legit business.   Listen nobody wants to pay 200 bucks for a Red Sox ticket, but I’m not sure getting rid of these guys will change that.  It’s just the law of supply and demand.    If these ticket brokers didn’t exist you’d just be buying them from somebody else.    The bottom line is that when something is as hot as Red Sox tickets it’s virtually impossible to regulate prices.   And personally I’d rather buy tickets from a reputable place like Higs Tickets rather than risk getting screwed on Ebay or by some shady dude outside Fenway.    

Now having said I do think there should be more Day of Game tickets made available to people who are willing to wait in line.   The easy way to do this would be for the Red Sox to buy back all the tickets from fans who can’t use them for whatever reason at face value and then put those tickets on sale the morning of a game.  But instead of doing this the Red Sox decided to form a partnership/monopoly with Ace Tickets and let them resell all those unused tickets for 500 times the face value on them.  In return Ace bought a huge ad deal with the Sox.  In other words it’s a win, win for the Sox and Ace Tickets while the fans get fucked in the ass.   Granted I don’t blame Ace Tickets for doing this deal, but it’s as greedy as greedy gets for the Red Sox.  They are basically helping make their tickets harder to get and more expensive.   If the State wants to regulate anything this is where they should get involved.    But as far as trying to regulate ticket brokers I just don’t see what this will accomplish.  It won’t help keep prices down.  It will just make it easier to get scammed.