More than 60 people are being investigated on suspicion of scalping tickets for the Asian Baseball Championship that opens tomorrow in Taipei, the Taipei City Police Department said on Thursday.
A total of 67 individuals were arrested by Taipei police from Nov. 24 to Thursday on suspicion of violating the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法) by reselling tickets for profit, the department’s Criminal Investigation Division said in a statement.
The tickets were found to be resold at prices ranging between NT$1,000 and NT$4,700 (US$31.77 and US$149.32) each, mostly through social media, police said.
Photo courtesy of the Taipei City Police Department via CNA
About 90 percent of the 170 scalped tickets, which have been seized by police, were for the opener on Sunday between Taiwan and South Korea being held at the Taipei Dome, it said.
The investigation division said a Taoyuan resident was also recently detained for allegedly advertising tickets to the Asian Baseball Championship, as well as various music concerts on Facebook.
A raid carried out by the Criminal Investigation Bureau’s 3rd Investigation Corps on Friday last week found that the suspect had six tickets to the baseball event and 103 tickets for various music concerts.
The person is being investigated for suspected contravention of the Social Order Maintenance Act and the Development of the Cultural and Creative Industries Act (文化創意產業發展法), the division said.
According to Article 64-2 of the Social Order Maintenance Act, those who “[purchase] transportation or entertainment tickets with no intention to use and resell them for profit” may be detained for up to three days or fined no more than NT$18,000.
The police urged the public to report ticket scalpers and to refrain from buying tickets from unauthorized resellers.
The Taipei Dome, a new indoor stadium that is to host its first major international event, is to be the site of the tournament’s opener between Taiwan and South Korea.
Yet of the stadium’s roughly 40,000 seats, tickets for only about 17,000 are for sale, resulting in many people who wanted tickets to the opening game being left behind.
In other news, the Sports Administration intends to budget NT$300 million to upgrade four baseball stadiums across Taiwan.
The funding would be used to upgrade Rakuten Taoyuan Baseball Stadium, Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium, Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium and Tainan Asia-Pacific International Baseball Stadium, Sports Administration director-general Cheng Shih-chung (鄭世忠) said.
All four stadiums are used by clubs in Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League.
“The pro baseball stadiums have reached the point in recent years where they have to be upgraded, and the government is investing a lot of money in this,” Cheng said on Thursday, adding that the program is focused on giving players quality fields and optimizing the fan experience.
The proposed funding is part of a NT$6.4 billion program put forward by the Sports Administration to improve Taiwan’s sports environment by revamping the sports facilities of cities and counties across Taiwan.
Funding for the facility enhancement project is part of the overall funding requested by the Sports Administration in the central government 2024 fiscal year budget, which has yet to be approved by the legislature.
The NT$300 million funding for the four pro baseball stadiums is to go toward improving infield and outfield grass and stadium lighting and drainage, the Sports administration’s Sports Facilities Division head Tsai Wen-chuan (蔡文娟) said.
It would also cover work on the stadiums’ outfield seating, locker rooms and bathrooms, Tsai said.
Once the overall central government budget for next year is approved, it is hoped that the project could be completed within two years, a Sports Administration official said.
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