EBay's StubHub to resell Yankees tickets from July

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[June 28, 2016]  (Reuters) - EBay Inc's StubHub said on Monday that it had won a 6.5 year revenue-sharing deal to resell tickets for the New York Yankees, ending a feud between the baseball franchise and the ticket broker.

StubHub will replace Live Nation Entertainment Inc's Ticketmaster, which currently runs the ticket-resale business for the baseball team, starting on July 7. Ticketmaster will remain the seller of all online original ticket sales.

ESPN reported that the deal was worth around $100 million to the Yankees. StubHub spokesman Glenn Lehrman told Reuters the value was "definitely not that high," however.

He gave no estimate of the full value but said it was based on revenue sharing.

The two companies previously had been at odds over ticket pricing. The Yankees complained that StubHub resold tickets too cheaply, since it did not have a floor on pricing.

StubHub said it already has a $6 floor on prices for Major League Baseball tickets, in order to cover company expenses. As part of the deal, the company has agreed not to sell Yankee tickets for less than half their value in a full-season plan.

For Yankee season ticket packages, the lowest cost for a ticket is $15 per game for bleacher seats, according to a Yankee's spokeswoman, putting the deal’s 50 percent price floor for resale value at $7.50.

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Jun 25, 2016; Bronx, NY, USA; The New York Yankees celebrate after defeating the Minnesota Twins 2-1 at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Andy Marlin-USA TODAY Sports

In February, the Yankees changed their ticket policy to prevent StubHub from selling digital or print-at-home tickets to fans, requiring fans to pick up hard copies of tickets from a StubHub office close to Yankee Stadium. The new deal allows for digital tickets on mobile phones, and StubHub said it would close the office near Yankee Stadium.

In addition, StubHub will now be a primary sponsor for the Yankees, and will be able to advertise inside the stadium, the parties said.

(Reporting by Rishika Sadam and Narottam Medhora in Bengaluru and Meg Garner in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Henderson and Tom Brown)

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