Thursday, January 8, 2009

PSL owners banking on Panthers' success

The logic is simple: More wins equals more buyers, and hopefully more money.

That's why some Carolina Panthers fans – despite their team winning 12 games and hosting a playoff tilt Saturday – are willing to give up their chance to see every home game next season.

After two years of mediocrity, the Panthers' success this season has some permanent seat license (PSL) owners trying to sell their rights to buy season tickets, and in some cases asking premium prices. Despite the sour economy, sellers hope Panthers pride will prevail, netting them a profit on what they paid for seats.

“People tend to buy – and at a higher price – when the team is doing well,” said Steven Youngblood of Cornelius, who paid $6,000 for two lower-level PSLs several years ago and is now asking $12,000. That's $3,000 less than what the Panthers would charge – if those seats weren't sold out.

“I don't need to sell them and don't really want to sell them,” said Youngblood, 35, a support technician at a public utility. “I just wanted to test the market, and if I can get a couple thousand less than what the Panthers would sell them for, I would probably do it.”

Unlike previous winning seasons, though, PSL sellers face a troubled economy in which many consumers have clamped down on optional spending, including sporting events.

Still, one ticket broker has seen an increase in people trying to sell PSLs. Greg Carl of PanthersPSLs.com said the company is still selling more seats than buying, but that the number of people trying to sell seats is at least double that of each of the last two seasons, when the Panthers didn't have winning records.

“We buy more seats during mediocre seasons,” when prices are lower, Carl said. “Right now we're seeing lots of people wanting to sell their seats, and they want to sell at a premium.”

We'll have more on this story later on charlotteobserver.com and in the print edition. Meanwhile, what are you seeing when it comes to the Panthers success this season and people selling PSLs?

8 comments:

  1. I bought my PSLs in section 344, club level, for $250 the year after the Panthers went 1-15. Best investment I have ever made!

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  2. Tickets are still available for purchase on Ticketmasters website listed below. It is tickets that are listed for sale by owners. Once bought the original owner tickets are deactivated and new ones are issued. There are some great deals.

    http://www.ticketmaster.com/exchange/0E004192987C5E6B?tm_link=edp_buytix

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  3. I'll give you 350.00 right now "CASH"

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  4. I've made money ever year selling my season tickets.....then I pick the games I want to go to and buy better seats than I own to watch the game!
    $350 and you BOUGHT club PSL??? Someone must have been very desperate or they were going through a divorce and really wanted to get even with their husband! HAHA

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  5. Pete: For the love of Pete, can you please not quote some idiot (Greg Carl of PanthersPSL.com) that has a parked website. Or at the very least, post his actual website that is www.PanthersPSLs.com (with the extra “s” at the end). Did you even go to the site before you posted this or was this just an error? Must be fun blogging since you save time from having to check your story.

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  6. Anonymous at 6:05 pm:
    I find it hard to believe you bought "PSL's" for $250 in any section of the stadium, at any time.
    Single GAME tickets in that area run for $250.
    Sell crazy someplace else, we're all stocked up here....

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