Tony Khan Statement On AEW Tickets And "Illegal, Unethical & Inappropriate" Actions By Sellers
AEW President & CEO Tony Khan has issued a statement on issues surrounding tickets for the upcoming ticketed events from Daily's Place in Jacksonville, Florida.
Khan revealed that tickets quickly sold out for the Thursday, August 27 Dynamite show, which will run at 10% venue capacity. Tickets were sold in groups, or pods, to help follow COVID-19 protocols, but Khan noted that they are seeing tickets sold on the secondary market, which prevents them from keeping fans with their friends & families, safely distanced from other people at the tapings.
Khan called this an "illegal, unethical and inappropriate move" by sellers on the secondary market. He promised that AEW will police the situation online, and called on fans to help with the situation.
"We've seen unethical ticket resellers bought outdoor seat pods meant for family/friends & illegally tried to split them, theoretically to put unacquainted fans sat together. Nope. We'll seek out & cancel any split pods to ensure fans can enjoy the show while keeping safe distance. Thank you to all of the great wrestling fans who support AEW! Here is my full statement regarding the illegal and unethical outdoor seating pod splitting on the secondary ticket resale market, a move by predatory online ticket resellers which won't work and won't be tolerated," Khan tweeted. He then included the following statement:
We're very grateful for the fast sellout of Thursday's outdoor AEW Dynamite live show at 10% venue capacity that we recently announced. The show will be open to a limited number of fans wearing mandatory protective masks who will be seated in a specially designed, physically distanced arrangement in the open air Daily's Place amphitheater and will air live on TNT on Thursday, August 27 at 8pm ET/7pm CT.
The tickets were sold in groups, or pods, with the intention of keeping fans with their friends and families and safely distanced from other fans in attendance. We're seeing some of these tickets being sold on the secondary market in a way that splits original pod, and therefore potentially combining two or more groups of unacquainted fans within the same pod. This was clearly not our intention. Nothing is more important than the health and well-being of the entire AEW family, and that certainly includes our fans. It's an illegal, unethical and inappropriate move by secondary market sellers, and we intend to police this situation online as well as at the venue.
To that end, we're asking our fans to inform us if they've feel they've purchased tickets that were originally part of a larger pod and we will do what we can to offer a remedy. Furthermore, we will be watching for any AEW Dynamite tickets on the secondary market, and if we see anyone trying to divide a pod for resale, we will cancel the entire original order.
It's going to be great to have fans back at our show with social distancing precautions in place that will make these outdoor events safe for everyone in attendance. Thank you to all of the great wrestling fans who support AEW!
Tony Khan
President & CEO, All Elite Wrestling
Thank you to all of the great wrestling fans who support AEW! Here is my full statement regarding the illegal and unethical outdoor seating pod splitting on the secondary ticket resale market, a move by predatory online ticket resellers which won't work and won't be tolerated: pic.twitter.com/CTC2ETNviA
? Tony Khan (@TonyKhan) August 21, 2020