Welcome to the RACER Mailbag. Questions for any of RACER’s writers can be sent to mailbag@racer.com. We love hearing your comments and opinions, but letters that include a question are more likely to be published. Questions received after 3pm ET each Monday will be saved for the following week.
Q: IMS contacted my family about my father being the “Account Holder” on our tickets for the 500. Our father passed away in 2006 (his first 500 was 1946). Our mother is still alive at 97 years old. IMS asked if our mother still attends the race; she stopped attending in 2017 (her first 500 was 1947).
IMS then stated that someone attending the race needed to be the “Account Holder” and that the transfer fee for same would be $100.
Per their policy:
“The account will be assessed a $100.00 administrative fee for the transfer that is payable within 10 business days of the invoice date. Failure to pay the fee will void the ticket transfer and the tickets will revert back to the current Account Holder.”
Thanks, IMS. As your Account Holders die off, $100 is now charged to their survivors if they’d like to retain their tickets.
Two questions:
1) Why did it take 19 years for you to call us?
2) Why does it cost us $100 to retain our tickets within our family?
Jesse (first 500 was 1969), Franklin, IN
MARSHALL PRUETT: Oof. Penske Entertainment was taken to task last year by its teams after big year-to-year price hikes were passed down – like annual credentials for extra crew members, which went from $500 to $1000 for no apparent reason. I heard from several teams who reported their Indy 500 hospitality suites were subject to an extra $50,000 fee, with no extra amenities: just a giant money grab, from within its cash-strapped paddock.
I share this in response to the apparent cash grab here which, as I’ve read about in other sports, has become a common way to squeeze more money from fans through personal seat licenses and transfer fees. Probably not as big of an outrage for younger sports fans who are accustomed to such things — not as if they like it, but some newer fans have never lived in a time where PSLs didn’t exist — but for older fans who’ve been loyal to IMS, or your favorite local stick-and-ball team you’ve supported forever, it likely lands in a different, greed-based manner.
Here’s what Penske Entertainment/IMS shared in response when I forwarded your letter, and they’ve also asked for your contact info to make a direct outreach:
Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s main goal is to ensure tickets are going to our account holders and to prevent fraudulent activity.
In many cases, a family member reaches out to let us know when a beloved family member has passed, and we assist with an account transfer, so the tickets remain in the family.
Understandably this is not always the case, so the IMS Ticket Office has started to review customer accounts and reach out to customers where the name on the account and the payment details and/or address do not match. We want to ensure the tickets are paid for by family members and others do not try to fraudulently acquire an account/tickets when the account holder passes. We also want to ensure the mailing address is correct so tickets arrive where they should the first time and the email address is current so event operational emails with important information are received.
We believe we should always allow family transfers (because the seats transferred have the family ties and memories that make them special to that family) and our policy allows family members to transfer tickets from another family member’s account for situations such as these. The account holder does not always need to attend the race, so we will reach out to the fan and address.