Catholics across the Archdiocese of Philadelphia received their tickets for the Papal Mass and for the Festival of Families on the Parkway this past weekend. Each parish in the Archdiocese was given an allotment of tickets based upon their registered parishioners, and by this weekend all parishes had their tickets in hand. Parishes either took reservations by phone or offered the tickets on a first come, first serve basis. One parish reportedly required those looking for tickets to have a SEPTA rail pass in hand. The region’s public transportation provider has a special schedule and special ticketing for the weekend.
The World Meeting of Families page reports that all passes have now been distributed for the Papal mass. As one might expect, not everyone was able to secure tickets to the event, particularly if someone is coming from out of town and did not have access to tickets as a registered parishioner.
To try to accommodate those out of town, an allotment of 10,000 tickets was offered to the public by the Archdiocese. Philly.com reported that it took just 30 seconds for all 10,000 tickets to be claimed. As one might expect, people are turning to the internet to find tickets – and to sell them at large sums of money.
On Sunday after the tickets were distributed in parishes, several sets of tickets were listed on the online auction site eBay. One user posted blocks of four tickets at a price of $600.00. As of Monday morning, the listings were removed. John Kopp of PhillyVoice.com reported that eBay was removing Papal tickets from the website. PhillyVoice.com quoted Archdiocesan spokesperson Ken Gavin saying that the Archdiocese was “delighted” to see these listings removed:
“We made reasonable efforts to provide for ease of registration for the free tickets while preventing scalping or hoarding,” Gavin said. “When we became aware of tickets being sold, we reported the matter to local law enforcement. We also reached out to eBay and Craigslist asking that any sale of papal tickets for events in Philadelphia on their sites be halted. We are delighted to see that eBay has halted sale of these tickets citing a violation of its policies.”
As of Monday morning, the website Craigslist contains several listings for tickets, ranging in price from $100.00 to $700.00. Some listings are people looking to barter tickets for one World Meeting of Families event for another.
Once tickets became required for attendance, many of the city’s hotel room reservations were canceled:
Over the last few weeks, hotels across central Philadelphia have dropped rates to move rooms they figured would have been booked by now, and at top dollar.
They were taken aback by the news of ticketed Parkway viewing, fearing it would serve as yet another disincentive for visitors. Airlines and transit agencies report unremarkable demand for tickets from inbound travelers.
Philly.com also reports that corporate bookings are significantly down, as corporations hold conferences elsewhere hoping to avoid the large crowds and security in Philadelphia.
On the travel website Expedia.com, there are hotel rooms available within three miles of the location of the Festival of Families available for as little as $299, with most beginning in the $400-500 range.
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