Scalpers pounced on free pope tickets
Free tickets to see Pope Francis in Philadelphia were snapped up minutes after the archdiocese made them available online this week. But some who reserved the papal passes have no intention of seeing the pontiff. Instead, they hope to sell the tickets they secured for free – some for hundreds of dollars.
Many in the Catholic community are outraged that a papal visit has fallen prey to scalpers. And Pope Francis, quoting a fourth-century bishop, has called the unfettered pursuit of money "the dung of the devil."
But James Fortner of Glassboro, New Jersey, defends the right to profit from his online prowess.
"I figured if I'm sitting here, hitting refresh a thousand times, I might as well get paid for it," said Fortner, who was selling tickets to various papal events on Delaware's Craigslist for $100. "As far as I can see, it's the American way."
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The World Meeting of Families, which is organizing the papal visit, made 10,000 tickets available online to anyone on a first-come, first-served basis Tuesday for Pope Francis' address at Independence Hall on Sept. 26.
On Wednesday afternoon, another 10,000 went up for the Festival of Families also on Sept. 26. Later that evening, a final 10,000 became available to see the pontiff up close during his Sunday Mass on Sept. 27. Passes for that final event were reserved in 30 seconds, according to a news release from the World Meeting of Families.
That organization decided to offer tickets to the public after an outcry over a previous announcement that a five-block restricted zone would exist around Pope Francis during the Sunday Mass and only parishioners from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and surrounding areas, including Delaware, would be allowed in.
In late July, SEPTA also posted tickets online for its special $10 one-day papal passes for commuter rail service to Philadelphia from Wilmington and 17 other stations. Initially, that agency's servers crashed while trying to fill reservations. As a result, it offered the tickets a week later through an online lottery. On Thursday, some of those passes were selling on Craigslist for an average of $30.
Although the free tickets for the papal events in Center City were not doled out through a metered online lottery, servers were able to handle the demand of ticket requesters, likely because the World Meeting of Families used a third-party ticket site. The website eventbrite.com experienced 394,000 unique pages views during the two minutes that the Independence Hall tickets were available.
"All went very smoothly," said Ken Gavin, spokesman for the World Meeting of Families.
Amy Filliben, a mother of three from Newark, was with her teenage sons on Wednesday, each armed with a laptop, ready to secure tickets for the papal Mass. When those passes went online at 8 p.m., only one son was able to secure four tickets within the 30-second window.
It was success, but only partially, as she has a family of five. Had there not been scalpers to scoop up many tickets, Filliben wonders whether all of her family would now have tickets to attend the Mass.
"Someone is going to have to stay home," she said in an email. "It's sad that people are selling the tickets because he is such a people's pope. He is so down to Earth, and people just want to be near him."
Despite being one ticket short, Filliben won't buy from a scalper. The trip to Philadelphia, she said, is already too expensive.
Vannda Lane, a student at the University of Delaware, had also reserved tickets to the Festival of Families on Wednesday and then quickly posted them online for $150. While she understands why people might be upset, she said "America's a free market."
"But if I don't sell them in a couple days, I might just give them away," Lane said.
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Stephen Fox, a catholic parishioner from Miami Beach, Florida, will be traveling to Philadelphia with his boyfriend for the papal weekend, and said he is selling extra tickets to help pay for his journey. He was able to secure passes for the Festival of Families and the address at Independence Hall, but doesn't think he'll have time to attend to both events. So he posted the four Independence Hall tickets on Craigslist for $50 each, below the price tag of most, which were in the hundreds of dollars.
In one day, he said, he received 23 responses. Like Lane, Fox recognizes the ethical argument against selling these tickets but the money he receives, he said, will help to pay for his home rental in Philadelphia during his stay.
"If I were to give them away, under what conditions could I choose [who to give them to] in a fair way," he asked.
Robert Krebs, spokesman for the Diocese of Wilmington, said it's not unexpected that scalpers are selling these tickets. It's similar to the homeowners in Philadelphia who are "gouging" papal visitors, he said, renting their houses for thousands of dollars during the pope's visit.
"It's unfortunate that individuals will look at the papal events in Philadelphia to make some cash," Krebs said.
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The only way to avoid scalping, said Charles Link, an economics professor at the University of Delaware, is to sell tickets at a price that matches their demand in the market. If you give tickets away for free, he said, they will still find their way to people who can pay top dollar for them because scalpers will snap them up and sell for as much as possible.
"You're going to have people who are going to get the goods that know there are people who will pay more," Link said. "If you try to prevent it, people are going to find a way around it."
Nevertheless, officials at the World Meeting of Families are actively trying to prevent scalping, said Ken Gavin, spokesman for the organization. They have contacted law enforcement, he said, and have asked eBay and Craigslist to take down these advertisements. EBay agreed to remove papal posts, but as of Friday afternoon, many remained on the site selling for as much as $300.
"Scalping of tickets for papal events is shameful and reprehensible," Gavin said. "We made reasonable efforts to provide for ease of registration for the free tickets while preventing scalping or hoarding."
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Neither Craigslist nor eBay responded to requests for comment.
Mary Lagarelli, a parishioner at Immaculate Conception Church in Elkton, Maryland, was one of the few Craigslist sellers that had posted SEPTA rail passes for sale on the site at face value. She was surprised when she, her husband and her daughter all won 10 tickets during SEPTA's lottery last month. Now she is selling the remainder that her 10 family members will not use, but she is irritated by those who try to profit off of the papal visit.
"I think there is something sacrilege about selling for more than their face values," Lagarelli said.
If all of her tickets are not sold, she said, she'll probably give them away. Her biggest concern is about getting her entire family to the train.
"I still haven't figured out the parking situation [in Wilmington]," she said.
Fortner said that he has received "all kinds of interest" for his $100 tickets to the three papal events. But in addition to inquiries from potential buyers, he said, some who have seen his advertisement have also phoned to call him a "scumbag" for hawking these once-free tickets.
He said that the value of the tickets includes the labor he put into reserving them. Plus, he said, he's offering these papal passes through PayPal, which has a 30-day guarantee so that buyers won't be duped into buying tickets that had already sold elsewhere.
"If I was a scumbag, I could have sent [sold] these to 100 people," Fortner said.
Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.