Students have been illegally reselling the increasingly in-demand student tickets to the game against UNC-Chapel Hill Saturday, an issue that hasn’t gone unnoticed by University officials.
In addition to this being illegal under North Carolina state law because the tickets have a zero face value, it is also in violation of the Student Body Statutes, according to Associate Athletics Director Dick Christy.
Christy said students who sell the tickets will face internal ramifications.
“If they are caught, they will have to go in front of [Director of Student Conduct] Paul Cousins and Student Conduct,” he said.
Christy said he has received reports that students have been selling these tickets on The Wolf Web and Facebook, sites that tend to patrol themselves.
“Students who know will kind of turn other students in,” Christy said. “Obviously with big games like this, the demand is high and the temptation is there.”
According to Matt Potter, chair of the Student Senate’s Campus Community Committee, he was not prepared for this situation. The committee works with athletics on student ticket policies,
“Members of The Wolf Web alerted Student Government officials,” Potter, a senior in political science, wrote in an e-mail. “The link to the TWW post was e-mailed to me this afternoon.”
Potter said he then sent an e-mail to various University and Student Government officials to figure out how to deal with the matter.
“The Wolf Web, from my experience, has done a great job of policing itself and its users, and keeping illegal ticket exchanges from taking place,” he said. “I have not contacted Facebook.”
Although Potter said solutions to the problem have not been thoroughly discussed, some of the suggestions include placing warnings on the tickets prohibiting that they be resold or having a message pop up on the ticketing Web site about reselling tickets once a student claims a ticket.
Christy said Athletics began hand-stamping student ticket holders and barcoding the tickets to prevent counterfeit tickets. But he said it is not always possible to catch every student who resells a ticket.
“If someone wants to sell their ticket ahead of time, it’s really hard to patrol what people are doing in their house or online,” he said.
According to Ashley Tugman, a senior in business management, even when students give away tickets, they sometimes give them away to the rivals — Carolina students.
“I’m frustrated because here I am a senior and I haven’t missed a Carolina – N.C. State game since I was one [year-old], and I’m not going to be able to go Saturday where idiots from Carolina get to,” she said.
Tugman said whenever she went to UNC-CH games, she would purchase her own tickets.
“No N.C. State player should have to look into our student section and see Carolina blue,” Tugman said.
According to Christy, Student Government has approved all policies and bylaws of ticket distribution, which are stated on the ticket distribution Web site.
He said if students try to sell tickets at the game to non-N.C. State students, they will be caught and Public Safety will handle the situation.
“If they make it to the stadium game and try to sell tickets outside to people who don’t have valid student IDs, then we’ll patrol at the gate and pass it on,” he said.
Christy said the athletics department has collaborated with Potter and the Campus Community Committee on several occasions to find the best way to deal with this issue.
