Scarce tickets send prices soaring, students scalping
By Anne Marie Mattingly
News Editor
Editor's Note: Some of the names in this article are pseudonyms. Names have been changed to protect the students and alumni who risk losing their ticket privileges for ticket scalping.
Students and alumni hoping to find cheap football tickets to Saturday's match-up between the Irish and the top-ranked University of Nebraska may want to consider looking over the rainbow. With online auction bids surpassing the $500 mark, tickets are selling for prices that make them literally worth their weight in gold.
Though Notre Dame does not expressly forbid the resale of tickets won by alumni in the annual lottery or of student tickets upgraded to general admission seating, the University does not intend its coveted football tickets to be sold to the highest bidder.
"There's no official statement that's been sent to alumni [on ticket resale]," said Jim Fraleigh, director of Ticketing and Marketing. "Alumni are allowed to resell their tickets for face value, hopefully to other alumni."
Students are permitted to resell upgraded general admission tickets, as are faculty and staff, according to Fraleigh, who emphasized that sellers should only ask for the price printed on the ticket.
"We have a program where we allow up to 300 students for each particular game [to upgrade]," he said, noting that the program was initiated at the request of student government. "The purpose of that is for them to get family or friends into the game with them. It's not intended for a money making purpose."
Worth every penny
Despite the University's intentions, several students upgraded tickets to this weekend's game expressly for turning a profit.
"It was the financial opportunity of a lifetime," said Paul Hastings, a Notre Dame senior who plans to sell his upgraded ticket this weekend. Hastings traded in his student ticket for a general admission seat with three friends because the group believed they could command a better price if they were able to sell four seats together.
"When we found out the amount they were going for, I couldn't turn that down with bills to pay," said Hastings, noting that the sale of his ticket will cover the cost of this year's season tickets with money to spare.
Class of 1998 alum Jason McKenna also said that the amount buyers were willing to pay contributed to his decision to sell.
"I'm selling my tickets because I'm a law student and poor as hell," said McKenna, who sold the pair tickets he won in the alumni lottery for $535. "The Nebraska tickets are paying for my airfare to the Stanford game."
Sellers on eBay, like McKenna, were able to find a national audience of buyers willing to pay handsomely for their tickets, in large part because of the rich football history of Notre Dame.
"I was willing to pay around $200 per ticket because it will likely be my only trip to South Bend," said Nebraska fan Kris Covi of Omaha. "I'll be honest — I don't like Notre Dame. But as a fan of college football and its history, of which Notre Dame played such a storied part, I am excited to visit the campus and the Stadium. Every college football fan should go there to check it off the list."
That checkmark was worth $1,160 to Covi, who purchased one pair of tickets for $350 and four others for $810 from Notre Dame alumni. Fellow Nebraska fan Joe Booth, also of Omaha, paid $305 to a Notre Dame alum for his tickets to this weekend's event.
"The tradition of these two teams is the reason I'm willing to pay more," said Booth. "I want to step inside Notre Dame's stadium. I'm rooting for Nebraska."
Cracking down
Although Indiana has no anti-scalping laws, the sale of tickets on University property is prohibited, said Rex Rakow, director of Security. Buyers and sellers who violate this policy are subject to losing their tickets.
"What we do is confiscate the tickets, turn them back into the athletic department on Monday, and in some situations we issue the people a trespass loiter and ask them not to come back, depending on how cooperative they are," said Rakow. "If somebody is combative with officers, they're upping the chance of getting arrested on the spot. Every case is different, but we've done that in the past."
Because the provision against selling is a University policy rather than a state law, most arrests are made for public intoxication or disorderly conduct, according to Rakow. Persons transacting sales are not subject to any legal consequences.
"Scalping is legal in the state of Indiana, but we enforce it on campus because we don't want it going on here," he said. "[Fans] who couldn't get tickets get upset when the see people with fists full of them."
After security returns the tickets to the Ticket Office, officials may still warn ticket holders' that action can be taken if their tickets are traced in an illegal sale again, said Rakow.
Fraleigh wanted to remind ticket-holders that tickets are subject to regulation by the University at all times.
"The owner of each ticket is the University itself, and the University reserves the right to revoke the tickets at any time for any reason," he said, noting that Notre Dame has revoked the ticket rights of two season ticket holders this year for selling on eBay.
In addition to loss of ticket privileges, students face possible action from the Office of Residence Life for on-campus sales because engaging in such sales violates University policy.
"The resale of tickets isn't permitted by University policy, so if [students] were to do that they'd be subject to sanction," said Bill Kirk, vice president for Residence Life, noting that the particular sanctions would be determined by the circumstances in the particular case.
Jeff Shoup, director of Residence Life, explained potential consequences for students in more detail.
"There are all kinds of possibilities. The most likely penalty is the loss of the student ticket booklet and the inability to get a new one," he said.
Tracking down offenders
Among the factors considered in determining student penalties would be whether or not the student scalped the ticket and whether they have been caught selling student tickets before, Shoup said.
Still, Kirk does not anticipate that his office will actively track down student sellers.
"I can assure you I'm not going on eBay to find out [who's selling]," Kirk said.
Shoup agreed.
"We really don't have the time to do that. I suppose if someone called us up with a complaint and said, `I think I just got ripped off by a student through eBay' [we would]," he said. "We don't have the time to do covert operations through eBay and I don't think any of us are interested in it."
Shoup did express concern for unsuspecting fans who buy a student ticket without knowing it will not gain them access to the stadium.
"The problem is that ... when you go through the student gate you have to show an ID. If they sold [the ticket] to a non-student, that creates even more of a problem for the person who purchased it. ... We end up every year having a lot of really unhappy people at the gates that bought a student ticket thinking they'd be able to get into the game that are stopped at the gates."
Trading undeterred
Despite possible sanctions from Residence Life or loss of future ticket privileges, students and alumni continue to sell tickets. Few expressed genuine concern about disciplinary action.
Senior Joel Tipton, a second student among Hastings's group of four, isn't particularly worried about consequences from Residence Life.
"I don't know exactly what ResLife can or can't due. I'm looking at the ticket agreement and it doesn't really say anything about whether you can sell your tickets for more or not, but I'm not terribly concerned. None of us are terribly concerned," he said.
Still, Tipton and his friends are taking precautions.
"We're not selling the tickets for $200. We've got these T-shirts made up, and we're selling the T-shirts for about $250 and the tickets for face value, but it's a package deal," he said. "If people want to pay a lot of money for our T-shirts because the ticket is part of the deal, that's fine."
Nor is McKenna worried about the University's potential response.
"The University is way too uptight about menial issues such as scalping tickets and should spend a little more time worrying about the poor relationship between students and administration or the continued lack of a universal non-discrimination policy," he said.
Both buyers and sellers expressed little concern about being scammed through eBay.
"The tickets I did purchase were through two different means. For [the first set], the seller send them FedEx signature delivery. I had to give the check to the FedEx guy to get the tickets," said Covi. "It's an overnight COD, I guess. I suppose the seller had some risk, but I did not. I just paid for them and received the tickets."
"For the [second set] I had several phone conversations with the man's secretary and she seemed very professional. She agreed to send the tickets overnight upon receipt of a fax copy of my check," he continued. "Again my risk was limited because I could cancel the check if the tickets never materialized."
Seller McKenna was also confident in the eBay system.
"In regards to payment issues, I haven't been burned by eBay yet. Anyone that tries the bait and switch usually loses their ID and auction privileges and users know that, so they usually don't try it," he said. "I've got several friends who work for eBay and they feel confident about the eBay system. So if they trust their product, so do I."
Despite Fraleigh's warnings, purchasers did not worry about receiving forged tickets.
"As far as counterfeit tickets, I guess that's always a danger, but nobody would counterfeit these nosebleed seats," Covi said.
Unfaltering spirit
Though several longtime Notre Dame fans will miss the game because they have sold their tickets, few seem to think it's a decision they'll regret for life in the event of an Irish victory.
"If Notre Dame wins versus Nebraska, more power to them," said McKenna. "It's on TV, but if anyone else judges the status of their happiness in life on missing a football game, then they have issues."
Hastings believes that he can still be an Irish fan, even if he's not at the game.
"We couldn't turn down this opportunity. It's not a reflection of our loyalty as fans," he said.
Tipton expressed similar sentiments.
"We'll be really happy for the team and it will be great [if they win], but that's life," he said. "We'll be cheering alongside everyone else, very probably down at the Linebacker Inn."
All News Stories for Friday, September 8, 2000
