So you think you're going to make a killing selling your tickets
to this year's home game against Florida State on e-Bay.
Beware.
Your buyer might be the Notre Dame ticket office. And if you
get caught reselling tickets above face value you'll lose your
ticket-ordering privileges for at least two years. If it's season
tickets you're scalping, you'll be barred from ordering tickets
for at least five years.
The penalties are part of a strict new resale policy adopted
by the ticket office. The aim is to discourage alumni, employees
and others from ordering tickets when they don't intend to attend
games but rather are angling to resell them at a profit.
"We want to sell the tickets to those who want to come to the
game and support the team," said ticket manager Jim Fraleigh '88,
assistant athletic director for external affairs and ticket operations.
The penalties are no idle threats. The ticket office knows to
whom every ticket is sold originally, and its staff plans to monitor
e-Bay and other outlets and identify -- at least on a spot-check
basis -- those being sold above face value. The original purchasers
will be held accountable, even if they gave away their tickets
or sold them at face value to someone who is now trying to scalp
them.
The growth of ticket brokerages along with e-Bay and a variety
of other Internet sites has created a sometimes lucrative international
resale market for Notre Dame football tickets. One of the results
is that alumni disappointed after going though the legitimate
ticket-buying channel -- the ticket lottery -- often see scalpers
offering hundreds of tickets for sale later at inflated prices.
The scalpers are either the original purchasers or are brokers
who've bought them from the original purchasers in hopes of reselling
at a higher price.
The other concern in regard to ticket reselling is potential
loss of home-field advantage. At the home game against Nebraska
in September 2000, thousands of red-clothed Cornhuskers fans were
scattered throughout the crowd. Those outside areas allocated
for visiting team tickets couldn't have been there without the
original purchasers selling their tickets.
Fraleigh said that since the new policy was announced earlier
this year many legitimate ticket holders have contacted the ticket
office with information useful to its investigation of unauthorized
reselling. (Not all resales are against the rules; alumni clubs
and charitable groups are sometimes given permission to raffle
or sell tickets to raise money.) As of midsummer, he said, the
office had caught nine individuals and one alumni club scalping
tickets.
While the policing continues, the ticket office and Alumni Association
are also making it easier to buy extra tickets or unload unneeded
ones legitimately. Under a consignment arrangement, alumni and
University employees can mail or hand-deliver unwanted tickets
to the Alumni Association on game days or before. The association
will then offer the tickets for resale at face value at the Gate
3 ticket window of the Joyce Center the morning of home games.
The first tickets turned in will be the first ones sold, regardless
of seat location. From 8 to 10 a.m., alumni will have first crack
at the supply. The remaining tickets will be offered to the general
public.
People seeking tickets further in advance can contact the ticket
office (574-631-7356) the week of home games to see if the office
has received back any unsold tickets allocated to the visiting
team, as is often the case. A $7 processing fee (per order, not
per ticket) is added for the phone sales. The tickets can be picked
up at the stadium's will-call window. Any remaining tickets of
this type are put on sale at the stadium on game day.
Fraleigh said the ticket office is also looking into creating
a system to facilitate straight swapping among ticket holders.
Such trades are already commonplace within some alumni clubs,
and they're perfectly legitimate, he said.
* * *
(October 2003)
