That Didn't Take Long: Tickets To See Pope At Independence Hall On Craigslist For $500 A Piece
By Kim Glovas
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Not long after free tickets to the Pope Francis' Independence Hall visit were doled out on Tuesday, some were on sale online.
Craigslist Philadelphia had offers to sell the free tickets for up to $500 dollars a piece.
The Craigslist ad reads: 'Have up to 4 tickets to see Pope Francis at Independence Hall on Saturday September 26th. This is the lowest amount of people he will be speaking in front of. Be there to see Pope Francis up close and personal. $500.00 a piece or best offer.'
This news did not sit well with Mayor Michael Nutter.
"Pope Francis comes to Philadelphia to speak on, at least at that location, immigration and religious freedom," Nutter said. "You get a free ticket and then throw it up on a site and try to sell it. I mean, that's, at least in the neighborhood where I grew up, that's trifling."
According to the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, reservations for all 10,000 tickets were placed within two minutes and the website experienced 394,000 unique pages views during that time.
The archdiocese issued a statement on the resale. It says reasonable precautions were taken to limit the number of tickets one person could get. And that any resale is not sanctioned by the archdiocese or the World Meeting of Families. The statement also says the hope was that people would wish to be part of this historic event, and not sell it.
Pope Francis will speak at Independence Mall on Saturday, September 26.