The NFL Oakland Raiders / Denver Broncos Game's Sold Out. So Why Aren't All The Choice Seats Filled?

I'm watching the first quarter of the Raiders / Broncos game, having elected to stay in and get work done after spending all day at Cal for the Cal - USC game yesterday.

I've gotten into the habit of looking at the stands to see how many people are actually filling the seats at NFL games. Why? I have a theory that a large percentage of tickets are purchased and then resold by ticket brokers. My theory is that this process starts with the firm that has "exclusive" first-sale rights at Oakland Raiders and San Francisco 49ers Games -- TicketMaster.

From observation, it seems some of these tickets are purchased by other brokers, who bid up the price higher. The highest priced tickets? The ones between the 40-yard lines on the first level. The bigger the game, the more likely these tickets are to be resold. Note "re-sold" -- they were already purchased once by a broker, so they remain to be bought by someone else, but at a high price, or to be re-sold yet again.

I think this happened for the Broncos game, so the end result is -- because of the Raiders poor record this year, a set of choice tickets are not resold. But the game's sold out. I also noticed this pattern at the 49ers / Colts game earlier this year.

What's the answer? Well, break up the in-stadium monopoly held by TicketMaster, at least in the Bay Area. The ticket offices of the NFL should place them on an online tickets exchange, like Stubhub, thus lowering the price. The NFL team ticket offices can then set the ticket prices at below face value, and better control the level of prices of tickets from the start. Yes, tickets will still be purchased and resold, but at a lower price rate, increasing the chance that a person with a lower income can afford to get them.