So you still want to go to Saturday’s TCU/Texas Tech game? You may need some deep pockets.Tickets for the game at Amon Carter Stadium, which seats more than 44,000, have been sold out for three weeks, say university officials. But electronic ticket outlets like eBay and StubHub! have been offering 50-yard-line seats this week for as much as $300 each. A search Tuesday on StubHub!, a Web site that offers tickets for sporting events and concerts, displayed four tickets in Section V, Row 45 that were selling for $300 each. A search Thursday afternoon indicated that those tickets were no longer being offered.
Section V is a designated student section in the stadium, and associate athletics director Ross Bailey said somebody purchasing those tickets might not make it into the game.
“The student ticket is marked in bold letters ‘student ID required’, so if somebody was to show up with that ticket and not have an ID, they would not be admitted,” Bailey said.
Students were given until 2 p.m. Thursday to pick up one free ticket each in the Student Center with a valid student ID. Approximately 6,000 tickets were set aside for students, and as of yesterday’s deadline, all had been accounted for, said Sean Conner, director of ticket operations.
“We have used every single ticket in the stadium,” Conner said. “We ended up guessing the amount of tickets needed pretty well.”
Tech fans are apparently as eager as TCU students to get into the game, and quickly sold out of their allotted 5,000 tickets in the northeast corner of the stadium, Bailey said.
Brad Beard, president of the Texas Tech Alumni Association in the Fort Worth area, has been planning what he calls the “Southwest Conference Reunion Weekend” since the spring. He said he hopes the game will bring back the rivalry of the Southwest Conference.
“It’s that in-state rivalry that we miss – we’re definitely going to draw a crowd in there,” Beard said. “We expect to have half the stadium filled with Texas Tech fans.”
Beard said he wasn’t surprised by the price ranges quoted on the StubHub! Web site.
“I have not talked to anyone who’s paid that kind of money, but I’m sure people have,” Beard said.
Beard said he has heard of Tech fans buying TCU season tickets just for this one game but hasn’t heard of anyone reselling their extra tickets on eBay.
Some Tech fans appeared to be purchasing the TCU season ticket package just to get the Tech game ticket, and then tried to sell the rest of their tickets on eBay, Bailey said.
“I saw one set on eBay for sale that said, ‘excludes Tech game,’ and a guy from Lubbock was bidding on them,” Bailey said. “I hope he doesn’t end up with five more TCU games and no Tech game ticket.”
When sophomore business major Weston Gouger heard how much tickets for the Tech game were going for, he said he would have considered scalping his online.
“My ethics teacher might be (upset), but yes, I would sell my ticket online,” Gouger said.
Fort Worth Police Lt. Paul Jwanowski said that if people want to scalp tickets or pay high prices online, that’s their business. If people are caught scalping tickets in the city, however, Jwanowski said the Fort Worth Police Department will issue a general complaint citation for violating a city ordinance.
“I’m going to have a couple of undercover officers out to enforce the city ordinance against scalping,” Jwanowski said.