Serving the UMN community since 1900

The Minnesota Daily

Serving the UMN community since 1900

The Minnesota Daily

Serving the UMN community since 1900

The Minnesota Daily

Daily Email Edition

Get MN Daily NEWS delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday!

SUBSCRIBE NOW

Gopher football tickets being sold for big profits

Ticket holders are paying off an entire season’s costs with one game’s ticket.
With a new stadium that has fewer seats and an increase in demand, some students are selling their tickets to games for more than $100.
Image by Matt Mead
With a new stadium that has fewer seats and an increase in demand, some students are selling their tickets to games for more than $100.

Vic Ellison is a 54-year-old Gophers football season ticket holder. He also has yet to attend a game at TCF Bank Stadium. Ellison is one of many fans cashing in on a new stadium with fewer seats and increased demand. Capacity for the University of MinnesotaâÄôs new on-campus stadium is 50,805, roughly 14,000 fewer seats than the football teamâÄôs previous home, the Metrodome. Combined with increased demand, ticket holders like Ellison are choosing profit over football on Saturdays. Ellison has six season tickets in section 113. Paying $310 per ticket for the entire season, Ellison said he has already made nearly that entire cost back from the game on Oct. 3 against the University of Wisconsin alone. Ellison said he has already sold four of his six tickets for the Badgers game for $225 per ticket and is only considering actually attending a few of the Gophers games. âÄúIâÄôll probably go to two or three games,âÄù Ellison said. âÄúI havenâÄôt gone to any games yet; I can sell [the tickets] for enough to cover my costs.âÄù Students are cashing in as well, offering up their seats for more than $100. Art sophomore Aaron Schmoll has his student ticket listed on the popular Internet classifieds Web site Craigslist.org. Along with his roommate, Schmoll said he is seeking $200 for the pair or $125 for one ticket. With student season tickets costing $79 for the season, the opportunity to pay for the season by selling one ticket might be worth more to some people than watching the game in person. âÄúI have a nice TV that I can watch the game from at home with my friends,âÄù Schmoll said. âÄúI donâÄôt have to fight the crowd, and I can make quite a bit of money selling the ticket.âÄù Selling tickets to the games are not the only way people are making a profit. Season parking passes are also providing many season ticket holders with an extra source of revenue. Athletics Director Joel Maturi said that while he anticipated ticket scalping due to the smaller stadium, the selling of parking passes was not something he foresaw. âÄúI think probably a new phenomenon has been created in Gopher athletics,âÄù Maturi said. âÄúI think thereâÄôs a value to the parking, a value to the ticket. I have to be honest with you, I didnâÄôt anticipate the parking [scalping], but thatâÄôs obviously whatâÄôs happening.âÄù Maturi said there isnâÄôt much the University can do to discourage ticket holders such as Ellison and Schmoll from continuing the trend. âÄúItâÄôs out of my control; I have a lot of challenges I have to be concerned about âÄî this is not one of them,âÄù Maturi said. âÄúI donâÄôt mean that in a disrespectful way. If somebody owns it, they can do what they wish with it. We just hope that we fill the stadium next week with Gopher fans.âÄù Whether or not the stadium remains filled with Gophers fans remains to be seen. For Schmoll, selling his student ticket to an archrival âÄî specifically a Badger fan âÄî remains a possibility for one simple reason: economics. âÄúA hundred dollars is a hundred dollars,âÄù Schmoll said.

Leave a Comment

Accessibility Toolbar

Comments (0)

All The Minnesota Daily Picks Reader Picks Sort: Newest

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *