Wednesday, March 19, 2008

NCAA looking to scalp tickets?

Once a practice frowned upon by the NCAA, the large sums of money that come from scalping tickets could not be denied and last season they entered into the sometimes scummy business of marking up tickets using RazorGator. Official ticket packages on the site are going up to 15% higher than original face value. But the NCAA is insisting they are doing it for the fans "protecting them from counterfeit tickets." How sweet. However maybe instead of selling large blocks of tickets to a website, you could sell them directly to the fans.

Currently tickets are divided with 35% going to participating schools, 10% to the local host committee, 8% to the national basketball coaches' association, 8% to college athletics directors and 6% to CBS and corporate sponsors. The remaining tickets are sold through a lottery system with those chosen able to buy a maximum of 2 tickets. Under their new partnership with RazorGator, the site was able to skip the hassle of rigging the lottery and was able to purchase an undisclosed amount of tickets at face value from the NCAA.

While purchasers are able to pick up official tickets through RazorGator the practice is still putting the cost of tickets out of reach for the average fan. Only wealthy or corporate buyers are able to get primo seats and the average fan is forced to watch games online at work or on their couch at home. Such is capitalism, I guess.
(source)

It's been fun blogging with you,
Kate

No comments: