| Salt Lake City |
 |
 |
| GER |
12 |
16 |
7 |
35 |
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| USA |
10 |
13 |
11 |
34 |
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| NOR |
11 |
7 |
6 |
24 |
|
| CAN |
6 |
3 |
8 |
17 |
|
| RUS |
6 |
6 |
4 |
16 |
|
| AUT |
2 |
4 |
10 |
16 |
|
| ITA |
4 |
4 |
4 |
12 |
|
| FRA |
4 |
5 |
2 |
11 |
|
| SUI |
3 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
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| NED |
3 |
5 |
0 |
8 |
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Scalpers call Salt Lake Games 'very tough'
By Lee Davidson
Deseret News staff writer
In a gruff South Philly accent, Greg Thompson barked at the crowd flowing along Main Street asking if anyone had Olympic tickets to sell. That's how he makes his living.
"It's how I've done it for 23 years," said Thompson, who now lives in New Jersey.
He's a ticket scalper, and the 2002 Winter Olympics have attracted myriad of his kind from around the world who travel a circuit of big-name, sold-out events, buying low and selling higher to desperate fans.
"I've gone to the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Final Four in basketball," Thompson said. How have the Olympics been in comparison? "Slow. Really slow."
"It's been very tough here," agreed Robin Peters, from Melbourne, Australia, who normally makes his living by hawking tickets to soccer matches, football and pop concerts back home. He also had success at the Sydney Olympics and hoped for a repeat in Utah. But he says it is slow here for unknown reasons.
Of course, the profession is at best borderline legal — and efforts by some "professional" scalpers to skate along legal borders is a sort of Olympic event in itself that can make for entertaining sidewalk watching. It's doubly true as they operate among Utahns who generally seem not to understand how it works.
Bear in mind that while scalping — or selling tickets for more than face value — is legal in Utah, it must be licensed if it is a for-profit business. People may resell tickets they bought for their own use (even at a profit) without a license. But if someone buys large numbers of tickets to resell, it is considered a business and must be licensed.
Dealers inside the Ticket Exchange in the Walker Building at 200 South and Main Street are licensed, and police say that by extension some may have employees on the street who are covered by those licenses.
But as one bicycle police officer told the Deseret News, "We could probably fill a couple of buses with these guys (under arrest) if we wanted." As past stories have reported, the city hired security guards to issue citations and seize tickets of unlicensed scalpers. But since they have no arrest powers, scalpers often ignore them. Meanwhile, police are usually busy with more pressing security matters.
Still, scalpers are careful to at least appear to try to stay within the law.
For example, most will not directly offer to sell tickets. Instead, they offer to buy extra tickets (which in Utah is always legal if for one's own use). Several even wear signs around their necks saying they need tickets. However, most openly and conspicuously carry tickets in their hands that they obviously hope to resell.
In many cities that would be a signal for the savvy to ask the scalpers what they have and then dicker on price. But most Utahns walking along Main Street on Saturday obviously didn't get the hint as they politely said they had no tickets to sell. So, several scalpers tried to make their intentions a bit more obvious.
"Who needs tickets?" one called, which wasn't quite saying he was selling them — maybe he just wanted to know how many people were looking.
"I have one ticket to USA-Russia hockey," another yelled, which was closer to an offer, but of course could be taken as an expression of joy at having a ticket for the big game.
When police walked buy, some of the more brazen offers were toned down, but some continued. Only one scalper complained of any interference by police during the week. Another, from England, said, "At the end of the day, they know it's a service we're providing."
Several scalpers could be seen Saturday talking among themselves about what seemed to be hot, and what tickets seemed to be moving at what prices. Many seemed to keep track of what the others had or wanted. Most appeared to keep or show only small numbers of tickets themselves.
Tony — the only name he wanted to give — from London, England, who usually travels his own country scalping tickets to soccer games, said he and most scalpers do not have tickets in advance of big events. They buy them from the general public or brokers, so they really do need tickets as they advertise and then try to resell them.
For what it's worth, scalpers said the hot tickets have been for hockey (especially USA men and women), figure skating, speedskating and aerials.
What is slow? "Everything else," one scalper said, which means tickets to about any event are available, for a price.
E-MAIL: lee@desnews.com
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February 18, 2002
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