Rock Chalk Ticket Hawkers

[HouWarrior]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5382936
KU ticket scam was pretty big--Athl Dept people steered good BB tickets to ticket brokers, paid the face price over to KU and then pocketed the excess over face price paid paid by brokers, for themselves....six to seven figures.
Does MU have controls to prevent this, or are good tickets to MU games not even of interest, or sold through brokers?
Texas law allows brokers ...maybe WI doesnt
Can student tickets be resold?

[brewcity77]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=5382936
KU ticket scam was pretty big--Athl Dept people steered good BB tickets to ticket brokers, paid the face price over to KU and then pocketed the excess over face price paid paid by brokers, for themselves....six to seven figures.
Does MU have controls to prevent this, or are good tickets to MU games not even of interest, or sold through brokers?
Texas law allows brokers ...maybe WI doesnt
Can student tickets be resold?

Student tickets can be resold. I just asked a student season ticket holder standing about 10 feet from me (advantage of working with him) if they checked ID or had any safety precautions and he said no. He could hand me the ticket for whatever price I paid and I could get in and get seats meriting the time I showed up.

[martyconlonontherun]

Student tickets can be resold. I just asked a student season ticket holder standing about 10 feet from me (advantage of working with him) if they checked ID or had any safety precautions and he said no. He could hand me the ticket for whatever price I paid and I could get in and get seats meriting the time I showed up.

They can, but may? I was in MUSG a few years ago where the ticket rep was discussing student tickets and getting more students to non-conference games. He was all for giving tickets to relatives, friends, and basically anyone who would use them and cheer for MU. Only time I've seen it enforced is sell-outs and only with people wearing other teams colors and causing problems. Seen plenty of non-MU people in the student section and are only kicked out if they are obnoxious.

[brewcity77]

They can, but may? I was in MUSG a few years ago where the ticket rep was discussing student tickets and getting more students to non-conference games. He was all for giving tickets to relatives, friends, and basically anyone who would use them and cheer for MU. Only time I've seen it enforced is sell-outs and only with people wearing other teams colors and causing problems. Seen plenty of non-MU people in the student section and are only kicked out if they are obnoxious.

Good point. What I meant to say was that whether or not there is a rule in place to prevent it, there is no security measure that actually stops it if it does happen.

[Benny B]

As I understand, there are no "special" regulations on ticket brokers in Wisconsin... they are regulated the same as any other business (i.e. minimally).  Certain municipalities, e.g. Green Bay, have ordinances in place to prevent the sale of tickets over face value, but that's easily circumvented by crossing the street into Ashwaubenon.  Further, as long as the transaction is taking place outside of the municipality or via mail, it's very difficult to enforce those rules.

In answer to the question, no... there isn't anything in the Wisconsin statutes that would prevent such from occurring in Wisconsin, and even if there was, you could simply set up shop in Waukegan.

However, the primary factor that allowed this scandal to take place is demand, period.  KU tickets, especially tourney tickets, are always high-demand & short-supply.  You don't have to spend 4 years in Straz Hall to know that prices are going to be astronomical in that scenario.  MU just doesn't have the demand during the season to allow ticket skimmers to pocket six to seven figures.  Three to four figures, perhaps... anything more, NFW.

During the tourney, MU does require that season ticket holders and students attending the games pick up their tickets and show ID at the team hotel a couple hours before the game.  No -- that doesn't prevent the AD staff from funneling tickets elsewhere, but it is another layer of protection to ensure that the fans are the ones receiving the tickets that are distributed.

The other driving factor here is the success of KU and the impact that has on their supply.  The more games you play, the more tickets you have to sell/funnel, not to mention that as you advance the school's allocation grows (e.g. instead of having to split tickets amongst 16 teams in the first round, the venue only has to split amongst 4 in the regional semis).  KU hasn't had much trouble in the tournament, so they have historically had much larger quantities of tickets to distribute - which makes it all the easier to skim some off the top.  Plus, their reliability in the tourney is attractive to the would-be brokers who would need to spend their time and effort building back-door relationships with the ticket office staff... no broker is going to waste time with Marquette's ticket staff in the hopes of getting a few first round tickets before they bow out (their perspective, not mine) when there are other schools who are perennial Sweet 16 teams.

In short, I don't know that there are any barriers in place to prevent the same from happening at Marquette, but the economics alone make it highly unlikely that a similar scenario could take place at MU.

[Litehouse]

Good point. What I meant to say was that whether or not there is a rule in place to prevent it, there is no security measure that actually stops it if it does happen.

I believe what we have here is selective enforcement.  If they want to, security can kick you out of the student section for not having a student ID, but they very rarely ever do.