§ 4.22 p.m.
§ Mr. Eric Fletcher (Islington, East)I beg to move,
That leave be given to bring in a Bill to prohibit the sale in public places by unauthorised persons of tickets for football matches and other sporting events at prices higher than the officially advertised price of the tickets, and for purposes connected therewith.This proposed Bill has the support of hon, Members on both sides of the House and is intended to deal with a growing public nuisance affecting chiefly that large section of the community which is interested in watching football matches and certain other sporting events.As hon. Members are aware, there is always a great demand for tickets at certain sporting events, particularly football games, not only cup-ties but also important League matches. Most football clubs endeavour to ensure that tickets for these matches are made available for their supporters and others on a basis of equality, so that every patron wishing to get one or two tickets to see a particular game has a fair and equal opportunity of doing so.
Experience during recent years has shown that an extensive racket has grown up whereby certain individuals, often referred to as ticket touts—and there is reason to believe that some of these are controlled by a central agency—manage to obtain by very dubious means a large number of tickets, sometimes as many as one hundred in the case of one individual, and then resell them at vastly inflated prices outside the ground or stadium where the match is to be played.
It is no uncommon thing for these ticket touts to charge £3 or £4 for an 8s. or 10s. ticket offered outside the ground before the game begins, and people who have no other means of entry —some of whom may have come from the provinces to London or vice versa to support their local team—have no option but either to pay the inflated prices demanded by a scarcity market or to go away disappointed.
This occurs to my knowledge regularly at Tottenham outside the Spurs ground, and at Highbury when the Arsenal are playing an important game, and I am told on reliable authority that a similar 337 nuisance occurs in Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham as, for example, at Villa Park, on Saturday last. The House will appreciate that football supporters are naturally incensed and annoyed by this public display of profiteering, and this nuisance also creates a serious problem for the police.
As the law stands at present, the police are practically impotent. Very occasionally, the police can intervene on the ground that a ticket tout is causing obstruction, and, indeed, such a case occurred a few weeks ago, when a man called Charles James Spinks was charged with causing an obstruction outside the Spurs ground before a cup-tie. He was found with £299 in cash and 12 unsold tickets. As the only offence with which he could be charged was obstruction, he was fined 40s. Many a peaceful, cunning and well-mannered tout carries on this business and is not breaking the law if he sells his tickets, as many of them can, without in any way causing an obstruction.
The proposed Bill is supported by the National Federation of Football Supporters Clubs, a body which consists of about 400 clubs and represents 750,000 supporters. My intention is that the scope of the Bill should be carefully limited to deal with the particular evil it is aimed at. I think it right that it should apply not merely to football matches, but to certain other sporting events where a similar nuisance occurs, notably boxing matches.
I propose that the Bill shall be confined to sporting events. It does not apply to entertainments and it will not in any way affect, for example, the reputable theatre agencies, which, quite properly, add a small booking fee for the sale of theatre tickets, and others. 338 Nor, of course, will it apply to the sale of tickets in private. It will be confined to sale in public because the evil it is aimed at is the practice which occurs outside the gates of a football ground or stadium. Obviously, it would be wrong for the Legislature to attempt to deal with the private sale of tickets. If a person has a ticket which he wants to sell privately at a profit, he is entitled to do so.
Nor would the Bill attempt to prevent the advertisements one sees regularly in The Times and other newspapers, offering tickets for Wimbledon and other sporting events at higher than the advertised prices. I propose that the Bill should be limited to sales in public. If the House gives me leave to introduce the Bill the question of penalties can be considered in Committee. At 'the moment, my inclination is to propose that the penalty should be merely 'sufficient as a deterrent. I suggest that £25 would be an appropriate maximum for a first offence, with a higher penalty for any subsequent offence.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Mellish, Mr. Skeffington. Mr. C. Osborne, Mr. Rees-Davies, Mr. Wade, Mr. G. Thomas, Mr. J. P. W. Mallalieu, Mrs. Butler, Mr. A. Brown, and Mr. L. M. Lever.