Under StubHub's new pricing model, customers will pay a $2.25 delivery fee per ticket up to $10. That's compared to a flat $5.40 delivery fee before. The service fee was lowered to $3 for tickets under $50, and is a percentage of the price above that number.
These numbers appeared in several news stories about the new five year extension of the deal between StubHub and MLB announced last month. But they don't exactly match up with the changes I'm seeing for Nats tickets currently listed for sale.
--I'm seeing a $2 per ticket charge instead of $2.25
--I'm seeing the 10% purchase fee all the way down to the cheapest seats rather than a minimum of $3
Another notable change is that StubHub has agreed to list tickets based on the "all-in" price, with fees included. They aren't doing that right now, and it might be a bit tricky if a variable number of tickets are listed that could cause the total price to exceed $30 where the percentage fee would apply rather than the flat fee. What this means is that the $6 minimum isn't much different from last year because it includes the fees which where not included in the $1 list prices that we often saw. (Also changed is that StubHub will not show the cheapest tickets by default, which is hardly much of an impact on the buyers, but is aimed at preventing the perception that hundreds of dirt cheap tickets are available, devaluing the product.)
The Yankees, Cubs, and Dodgers have all opted out of the deal (teams can drop out or opt in each year), these teams are joining with Ticketmaster on an alternative resale site that will allow them to enforce much higher price floors. Of course StubHub will crush these attempts by setting up offices across the street from the ballparks where they can continue to sell tickets, which with no floor will allow them to undercut prices from the official site.
http://nytimes.stats.com/mlb/story.asp?i=20121210102708362616208&ref=hea&tm=&src=
