The State House and Senate are considering identical bills that could change the laws regarding reselling football tickets.
Both bills would remove the restrictions on scalping tickets to any athletic contest, dance, theater, concert, circus or other amusement for a price above the face value when the tickets are resold on Internet Web pages such as Ticketmaster or eBay.
Current law makes it illegal to sell tickets for more than face value, but some scalpers use alternate methods to get around the law.
Practices that allow resellers to make a profit include buying tickets for below face value and reselling them or selling tickets at face value packaged with a “$100 pencil” or “$50 baseball cap.”
The proposed laws state that tickets could be resold if the owner or operator of the venue in which the event is held permits companies to resell them.
The bill also states that the medium through which tickets are resold would be responsible for refunding the purchaser if the event is cancelled, the ticket is not delivered in time or they are sold an invalid ticket.
Brian Broussard, ticketing director for University Athletics, said it has not been determined what impact the law could have on ticket policies for University athletic events.
In fall 2005, Athletics in conjunction with Student Government instituted a new student-ticket policy that allows students to swap tickets online at the same price the student had originally paid for the ticket.
The policy transferred tickets and created new ones with the student owner’s name printed on the ticket.
The new policy requires students to present their student ID with their ticket for admission.
The University also hosts a forum through PAWS that allows ticket holders to post extra tickets for sale accompanied with contact information.
To access the forum, users first receive a copy of the law regarding scalping and are warned of the possible $500 fine and 90 days in jail for scalping tickets.
However, during football season, posted prices for tickets exceed the prices at which people originally bought them.
 
Contact Ginger Gibson at [email protected]