Australian Open fans turned away after buying unauthorised Viagogo tickets

A QUARTER of Australian Open fans who purchased “fraud” tickets via a controversial resale site were left devastated after being turned away at Melbourne Park last week.

A QUARTER of Australian Open fans who purchased tickets via a controversial resale site were turned away at Melbourne Park last week.

Fans have been warned to beware of buying tickets from secondary sale sites such as Viagogo, which was tonight advertising seats to Sunday’s men’s final for up to $8899.

Staff have been inundated with complaints of seats being sold several times, and children’s passes being sold as adult passes. Some families travelled long distances only to find their tickets were frauds.

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Fans were turned away queue from the Australian Open after purchasing tickets from a resale site. Picture: AAP Image/Julian Smith

Open director Craig Tiley told the Herald Sun fans from near and far had been left heartbroken and out of pocket.

“It’s disappointing to hear that so many genuine fans this week have missed out on watching their favourite players because of unauthorised tickets,’’ he said.

“Each year we try to encourage all fans to only purchase tickets from official outlets such as Ticketek and our resale site Australian Open Fan Marketplace.’’

Via­gogo today advertised $495 seats to the men’s final for $2856, and $795 tickets for $2670.

Its cheapest seats were $94 above face value, plus fees.

Category 1 seats which sell for $795 were advertised for up to $8104 extra, plus booking and administration fees.

Unsuspecting fans were not let in after their tickets were found to be unauthorised. Picture: Greg Wood

New laws to address scalping and price-gouging resale sites are before parliament.

Under those laws, should the Open become a “declared event”, anyone caught selling tickets to it for more than 10 per cent above face value would be fined up to $475,000.

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Also today, the State Government confirmed it was at an advanced stage of negotiating with the Melbourne and Olympic Parks Trust over naming rights to Melbourne Park’s Hisense Arena.

The Chinese home appliance retailer’s contract giving it naming rights to the stadium expired as long as six months ago.

Melbourne Arena is believed to be the favoured new name for the stadium.

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