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Scalpers selling tickets to the Mass Pope Francis will celebrate in Edmonton are trying to make a buck off a free event, say those responsible for organising the Pope’s programme while he’s in Canada.
There’s also a real risk that some people might trick others into buying non-existent tickets, organisers say.
“It is sad and troubling that anyone would try to resell free tickets for an event with Pope Francis.”
The papal Mass is set to take place on July 26 at Edmonton’s 60,000-seat Commonwealth Stadium.
Scalping papal Mass tickets has happened before. Scalpers had a go in Philadelphia and New York in 2015. In fact, tickets to the Central Park procession were being offered on Craigslist for as much as $100,000. One New Jersey scalper insisted “It’s the American way.”
Mexico had the same issue in 2016. So did the Vatican for Pope John Paul II’s beatification in 2011. As far back as 1989, the L.A. Times reported that scalpers in Finland were asking for $160 for tickets to Pope John Paul II’s visit there.
A situation like a papal Mass, in which one can obtain up to six tickets at a time without having to show identification at the gate, is custom-made for scalping.
Custom made or not, it’s still cheeky. As the spokesperson for the papal trip to Canada, Laryssa Waler, said “People profiting off this is really disrespectful.”
From a neoliberal economic perspective, however, the only things to be “respected” here are the demands of the market.
Francis is a compelling world figure. People will pay $200-plus to see him, just as they would pay to see a star or attend a big show.
Francis has repeatedly highlighted the erosion of human society and the planet caused by uncontrolled, deregulated capitalism.
Every ticket scooped up by scalpers is one less ticket available to the people Francis is going to Canada to see, ordinary Catholics and in particular Indigenous Canadians. They don’t have thousands of dollars to come to Rome to attend a public papal audience.
Every ticket bought by a scalper represents someone, unseen and unheard, who won’t be able to go.
Please don’t buy them, organisers say.
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