Cubs facing ticket fraud lawsuit
Brokerage scalped fans, lawyers say

By Mickey Ciokajo
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 10, 2002

A lawsuit filed Wednesday charges the Chicago Cubs violated state consumer fraud and ticket-scalping laws this year by selling tickets at inflated prices through a brokerage service that it set up down the street from Wrigley Field.

The lawsuit says operation of the brokerage, Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services, violates the law because it sells tickets that were not first made available to consumers at face value through the box office.

Tickets that would normally sell for $36 would instead go for as much as $130 through the service, according to the lawsuit.

Mark McGuire, executive vice president of business operations for the Cubs, called the lawsuit "baseless" but declined to comment further on the allegations, citing company policy regarding litigation.

However, McGuire called it an "interesting coincidence" that some of the people involved in filing the lawsuit are also tied in with rooftop owners who have had an ongoing dispute with the Cubs over expansion of Wrigley Field.

The lawyers who filed the suit represent two of the rooftop organizations and a consultant for a separate segment of rooftop owners was helping the lawyers Wednesday deal with the media.

"At a minimum, the same people are involved," McGuire said.

Paul M. Bauch, one of the lawyers who filed the lawsuit, said he and his partner, Kenneth A. Michaels Jr., have two rooftop owners as clients. He said they primarily assist them with issues pertaining to the city, such as permitting and licensing.

"This is really independent of the rooftop people," Bauch said. "It has nothing to do with what we've been doing with this [lawsuit]."

Ken Jakubowski, a consultant for 10 of the 13 rooftop businesses, said the rooftop association is not involved in the lawsuit and that his role was limited to helping the lawyers with media calls.

Jakubowski was critical of McGuire for raising the fact that some of the people connected to the lawsuit are also tied to the expansion fight.

The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, was filed on behalf of Peter John Cavoto Jr. of Chicago, a Cubs fan who is not associated with the rooftop owners, Bauch said.

The lawsuit alleges that Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services sells tickets at marked-up prices like other brokers do. But the lawsuit alleges the tickets are "original distribution" tickets that were withheld from consumers at the box office.

Bauch said that unlike other brokerage services where the prepurchased tickets sit in stacks, the tickets at Wrigley Field Premium Ticket Services are printed on site off of computers that appear to be linked to the Cubs' system.

At the time the service was set up, Cubs officials said the tickets were pulled from a pool of VIP tickets and not regularly available. By selling the tickets through its subsidiary, fans could be confident the tickets were legitimate, officials said.

The Cubs are owned by Tribune Co., which also owns the Chicago Tribune.

Copyright © 2002, Chicago Tribune