If it were truly sold under those conditions between consenting adults I would agree with you, Alisa. However (in the US, anyway), ticket scalping is generally illegal as a matter of positive law. In other words, the state sets the rules and everyone is obliged to follow them. That’s not “consensual” by any definition. Also, most sports arenas are now publicly owned (thanks to massive state subsidies), so even there when tickets are sold the state is setting the rules on resale. That’s not “consensual” either; in fact, it’s what lawyers would call a contract of adhesion, which are generally not enforceable as a matter of public policy.

If a private theater (or whatever) were to put limits on resales of its tickets I would say that it’s entirely their business (although I would also argue that it’s a foolish policy). However, the state has no business imposing such restrictions, either by statute or when it owns the arena.

And then the next time some grinning buffoon comes up with foolproof way of wasting money.

“Which part of fuck off would you like explained to you?”

I don’t know whether the ban on reselling tickets was a good or a bad idea – I do know that the entire business of the Olympics is a bad idea to begin with. Because of that, I think that no matter what they did and how they did it, the whole thing would have been full of all kinds of fiascoes.

More pictures.

Late last week I observed David Aaronovitch (on the BBC) opine that once the Olympic games had got underway, and the medals (by Brits) and heroic stories (about everyone) had started to flow, all the local Brit grumbling would cease. It would seem not. Not yet anyway.

Personally, I am torn between loathing of the Olympics and fondness for my country, which I do not enjoy being made to look foolish on world-wide television, however much I enjoy these fiascos in another part of my brain. But, on balance, I hope the fiascos keep coming.

Not at Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, Anfield.

But those are commercial operations, not statism.

Up to 70,000 of those tickets could be simply thrown away, The Daily Telegraph has learnt, because it is not cost-efficient for ticket agencies to return them, while another 50,000 premium tickets are being held back by foreign ticket agencies hoping to make a killing by selling them at grossly inflated prices at the last minute.

Actually Laird, if you sold me something under the condition that I could not resell it, and I freely accepted that condition at the time of the transaction, I think that I should stick to our agreement.

…and if you had such a ticket, which couldn’t be resold and therefore had no residual value, you might decide not to bother going when push came to shove…

QED – Why the general public stands might be empty.

This does not though explain why the seats reserved solely for ‘Olympic Family’ are empty.