Demand for the Jan. 20 presidential swearing-in ceremony appears to be exceeding supply and ticket offers have already begun showing up on sites including StubHub and eBay, much to the chagrin of California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the committee that oversees the event.
The thing is, all 240,000 tickets to the ceremony are still locked in a room and they’re supposed to be free. But with officials expecting more than 1.2 million people flocking to Washington D.C., for inaugural festivities, exclusivity is leading to some high offerings on secondary sites – if ticket-holders eventually want to resell them.
StubHub has listed tickets to the ceremony from $1,950 to $7,500 each and tickets to the parade for $681 to $1,023. Ticket broker StageFront Tickets was offering ceremony tickets between $1,095 and $2,750 and parade tickets between $995 and $2,500 at press time.
Feinstein is working on a bill that would make it a crime to sell tickets to the historic event at the markups that generally come with such exclusive territory. The Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies is also reportedly in discussions with sites including eBay over the ticket issue.“Any Web site or ticket broker claiming that they have inaugural tickets is simply not telling the truth,” stated Howard Gantman, staff director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies.
“Tickets for the swearing-in of President-elect are all provided through members of Congress, and the President-elect and Vice President-elect through the Presidential Inaugural Committee. We urge the public to view any offers of tickets for sale with great skepticism.”
In order to prevent scalping, individuals who request the inauguration tickets will need to pick them up in lawmakers’ offices and show ID.