Scalping student football tickets has been an ongoing occurrence with University students for years.
And why wouldn’t it be?
It provides an easy way for students to capitalize on the opportunity to buy cheap tickets to football games.
And since not everyone gets tickets, some students who want them will pay outrageous prices to attend. I’ve witnessed this numerous times throughout my career at the University. And with the new school year, the scalp-a-thon has begun again.
In fact, I was confronted by it last week while attempting to find a ticket for a friend to attend the Northwestern State game.
Just to get it out of the way, last year I was caught scalping a ticket to the Alabama game, so I know the consequences, and I clearly wasn’t going to pay more than $12, the price of each ticket sold to students.
I came across numerous people asking for up to $50 outright for their tickets. But there were other kinds of offers. I found many proposing to sell me a sleek LSU ink pen or a rare pencil eraser for $50. They also came with a free football ticket.
In the 2006 Louisiana Criminal Code, RS 4:1 states that it is illegal to sell a ticket for more than its face value, which seems to give a vague validity to this loophole since it’s a pen, not a ticket, that’s being sold.
But thinking back to my experience when I was caught scalping, I actually asked somebody in Student Advocacy and Accountability about this “loophole.” The representative said it was still equivalent to blatantly selling an overpriced ticket. I just assumed it was a lie.
But with the 2011 football season starting, I witnessed the “expensive-as-hell ink pen trick” again, so I figured I should investigate further.
I contacted a few people, asking each of them if it’s “illegal to sell an ink pen for $100 with a free football ticket worth $12” — I’ll refer to this as the “loophole” for the rest of the column.
What I’ve found is not what I had expected.
First, I looked to Brian Broussard, the assistant athletic director of ticket operations. In an e-mail, he simply told me that there was no loophole — that was that. I also figured he was lying, assuming he has a bias because of his position.
Next I went to Jennie Stewart, assistant director of Student Advocacy and Accountability, asking her the same question.
“There is no legal loophole,” Stewart said. “The primary reason [of selling a $100 pen with a free ticket] would be to sell the ticket” because the market value of the goods being sold is not equivalent.
She explained to me that Student Advocacy and Accountability treats violators using the “loophole” the same as any other ticket scalpers.
At this point, I had found the answer: It’s not OK in the University’s eyes to sell your pen (or other cheap object) for more than $12 with a free football ticket.
The University not only frowns upon it, but there can be consequences from Student Advocacy and Accountability.
But being the inquisitor I am, I decided to look to the legal eagles to find out if you are actually breaking state law by loopholing your ticket. I contacted prominent Baton Rouge attorney Nathan Fisher.
He explained to me that since selling a ticket for more than face value is illegal, using the “loophole” is simply “a ruse and is still illegal.”
So there you have it — there is no loophole and we shouldn’t try to find one.
All laws can be interpreted differently, but students shouldn’t try to find ways around this one. The University doesn’t want you to do it and doesn’t tolerate it if they catch you — you get community service, put on disciplinary probation and have to attend an ethical decision-making meeting.
Trust me, it’s not worth it.
The University gives its students the privilege to purchase student tickets for $12 a piece, totaling $72 for six home games.
The cheapest general-admission tickets are $40 for non-SEC teams and $70 for premier SEC games. Tell me you’re not getting a good deal.
Just because you get a sweet deal on tickets doesn’t mean you should rip off your classmates by trying to be a smartass and using the nonexistent “loophole.” Just go the games — they provide much more fun than you’ll get anywhere else for $12.
Chris Grillot is a 20-year-old English and mass communication junior from New Orleans. Follow him on Twitter at @TDR_cgrillot.
 
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Contact Chris Grillot at [email protected].