eBay World Cup Tickets Not Valid

TICKETS bought for next year's cricket World Cup 2007 on internet auction sites or from third-party outlets will not be honored, organizers warned today

Only tickets sold through authorized travel agents and the International Cricket Council's public ticketing program will be valid for entry at the tournament, which is being held for the first time in the Caribbean, World Cup commercial manager Stephen Price said in Jamaica.

"We're telling people before they make a bid on eBay that those tickets won't be valid," he said. "We're trying to protect people from price gouging."

Price said World Cup officials are working with eBay and internet monitoring services to identify who is selling tickets. Tickets posted yesterday on eBay are drawing bids of more than twice their face value.

A package of four tickets for matches in Barbados with a face value of $US900 had attracted bids higher than $US1900 with a day left in the auction.

Price said organizers started noticing unauthorized ticket sales on eBay and sites, such as worldticketshop.com, last month.

He said the number of tickets being offered online is in the hundreds.

About 800,000 tickets are on sale for the tournament and organizers will begin mailing them in January. "People are selling tickets they haven't even received yet," he said.

Source: The Australian