The pledge that I and at least 1,499 other students signed when we purchased student guest tickets for the Nov. 19 football game against Virginia Tech was clear: On my honor, I will not sell these tickets with intent to make a profit. Apparently students aren't getting the message.
Since a second-year student in the College pulled his student guest tickets off eBay Sept. 7, hours before he was set to earn at minimum a $225 profit, at least two other students have decided to sell their goods on the Internet auction site.
An individual with the eBay User ID of rfc4a put two student guest tickets up for auction Oct. 25, setting the minimum bid at $180. A week later, the auction ended with the winner paying $305 dollars. That means rfc4a, who paid $50 apiece for the tickets in early September, earned more than a 300 percent profit on the deal.
Of course, if a Virginia student was going to be stupid enough to break an honor agreement, you would think he would at least have the foresight to use an eBay user name that is not identical to his University computing ID. One third year in the engineering school was clever enough to do just that, selling his student guest tickets under the user name of wahoofootball. Unfortunately for the would-be profiteer, simply clicking on an icon next to the user ID reveals that up until a few days ago this individual was registered as drm9r. The auction for his two tickets ends this afternoon, and as of last night the winning bid stood at $248.50.
There are several other student guest tickets up for auction on eBay, they just aren't tied to any specific U.Va. computing ID. It has to trace back to Virginia students at some point though, because they are the only ones who have access to these tickets.
One eBay seller, going by the name frontline4life has several student tickets on sale right now. He is selling each one separately, trying to maximize his profit, and is currently the high bidder for drm9r's tickets. Another individual with the user ID of maspaintbal will be paid at least $255 for his student guest tickets. The price likely will continue to climb throughout the afternoon before the auction ends tonight.
This is just a random sample of what is on the market right now. Who knows how many tickets have been sold over the past eight weeks since the 3,000 student guest tickets sold out in less than two days, let alone how many more will be auctioned off in the next 16 days before kickoff?
There is nothing illegal about selling tickets to sporting events on eBay. In many ways, it seems like a win-win situation: The seller makes a profit and the buyer gets the tickets he is looking for. But in this case, it's not that simple. Students waited in line for up to four hours to get these tickets, and hundreds, if not thousands, of students who wanted to purchase tickets were unable to because of how quickly the 3,000 passes were snatched up by the student body.
Student ticket scalping received some attention in the media two years ago, the last time the Hokies visited Charlottesville, and the Athletic Ticket Office thought it was a serious enough problem to require students to sign an honor pledge for the tickets to see Virginia Tech and Florida State. This certainly sounded like a good idea to me, but it's useless without enforcement. "Honor" is not a word you throw around lightly at this school, and for good reason.
If the Athletic Ticket Office was just trying to use scare tactics, it's clearly not working. In addition to the seven tickets currently up for auction on eBay, there are likely countless others that have been auctioned off earlier, sold to ticket brokers or will be sold on the street on the day of the game.
Any student who wants to look into making some cash by selling Virginia football tickets should look into becoming a season ticket holder and selling those tickets on eBay. Blatantly ignoring an honor pledge to make a few quick bucks is not the way to go. With these obvious violations going on, the Athletic Ticket Office has an obligation to enforce its policies. Any students violating the agreement could be issued some sort of fan suspension, revoking their privileges to attend games for free and get access to student guest tickets. At the very least, their access to the game in question should be revoked, and their student guest tickets should be declared null and void.
Even if the bulk of the damage has most likely already been done for this year, the Athletic Ticket office should consider more effective alternatives for the future instead of making students sign a pledge that does little to deter them anyway.
Instead of receiving the tickets in hand at the moment of purchase, there could be some sort of will call system opened up a couple of days before the game, making it more difficult for students to put the passes out on the black market. This would inevitably lead to a high volume of students trying to claim their tickets but doesn't seem like an undue burden on the buyer.
Another option could be registering the guests when the tickets are purchased, requiring those holding student guest tickets to show IDs at the gate before entering the stadium. Making it mandatory for guests to enter the stadium in the company of the student who is hosting them could solve some of these problems, too.
One of the things that makes being a Virginia football fan great is how easy it is to get access into the games. If you show up early enough and have a valid student ID, you could be in the first row on the 35-yard line of every game for four seasons and not have to pay a dime to get in the gates. If you want to bring a friend along to share that experience, you can buy a ticket to any game for a reasonable price. It's one of the perks of being a student here, and for a true football fan, it's an incredible opportunity. When students take advantage of this privilege with so many unable to purchase guest tickets, it shouldn't be something that is just ignored or shrugged off.
Presumably, the Athletic Ticket Office had us sign an honor pledge for a reason, but I'm not convinced it was anything other than a bluff. Until there is some accountability for the students who violated the pledge and a more effective policy established, I have no reason to think otherwise.
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