<p>I went online today to buy my son a season pass for basketball which had an Oct. 1 deadline for purchase according to the email. I had trouble getting the site to function so called the athletic office. They said the reason I couldn’t purchase a pass was they were “sold out” but my son could buy individual student game tickets one by one on a ticket website. That students who can’t attend the game post their tickets for sale. I said OK how much is a student pass so I know how much money to send said son so he can buy the student section tickets one by one.</p>
<p>I was told that they couldn’t tell me the price because the students set the price. I said,“Whoa Nelly”…and asked the guy if I was hearing correctly…that kids can buy season tickets but some kids will be denied the right to buy season tickets and then the kids that were allowed to buy can turn around and sell them at any price they desire. And the answer was that is correct. I said, they aren’t limited to selling them at face value through college sanctioned channels and I was told “that is correct.”</p>
<p>I think it’s highly unethical to allow any student discounted ticket to be sold through any channel even remotely connected to the college for greater than face value if you are “limiting” the availability to all students in any way, shape or form.</p>
<p>I think this is unethical. What do you think?</p>
<p>If students can buy more than one season ticket and do this, then I would consider it unethical. If a student can only buy one ticket, then sell any or all of them, then I don’t have an issue with it. If he goes to a “big basketball” school this isn’t a big surprise, in future years you will want to figure out when the tickets go on sale and jump on them immediately at that time.</p>
<p>Buy low sell high. Supply and demand. This is a lesson in free market capitalism. But I agree that students should not be allowed to buy more than one season pass in order to run a ticket scalping business on the side.</p>
<p>I agree that students should be limited to one pass each. Are they? If the deadline was October 1, less than a week away, it’s unsurprising that they are sold out. This is the kind of thing that you have to make sure to go online as soon as they go on sale.</p>
<p>I agree with the other respondents. If the students are limited to one season pass per student, I don’t see a problem with them selling tickets for individual games at market rate. It’s unlikely that a student can attend every game and/or they may want to sell a few individual tickets to help defray the cost of the season ticket. It seems like a normal free market to me. Sort of like StubHub . . .which I use a lot and sometimes get tickets below face value and sometimes above face value depending on the game and how close to start time I’m willing to purchase them . . .</p>
<p>I’m not in favor of middlemen and I do everything possible to cut them out, especially in a case like this, where they add no value to the item. It isn’t as if they are reselling a fine antique or a piece of furniture they hand-painted, in which case value has been added.</p>
<p>I’m not cool with it. Each student should get a season pass, but it sounds like it doesn’t work that way. I just don’t pay extra unless something is of extreme importance to me immediately (but I still resent paying middleman fees).</p>
<p>Is it likely that the basketball stadium can accommodate every student having a season pass? Like Comcast Center at Maryland seats around 18,000. Which is fewer than Maryland’s total enrollment of 37,000. So I can see how the season passes run out - -especially since lots of people in the community want to see these games as well. My bet is that most of the students want to attend most of the games, but there are going to be games that they cannot attend, and it seems reasonable to me that they should be able to sell their extra tickets. </p>
<p>The fact that all the season tickets are selling out so quickly probably suggest that the school itself should raise the season ticket prices . . .which would tamp down the demand a bit. Not sure if it matters who makes the money off the unwanted tickets - - the school or a few students.</p>
<p>Be aware at some schools you must show student id to be admitted with a student ticket. The purpose is to discourage this, or at least limit it to other students. </p>
<p>Also even if the ticket is sold its probably in the student section which may not be attractive to some. </p>
<p>Ethical or not, its virtually impossible to stop this. I live in a state with anti-scalping laws and it still happens all the time.</p>
<p>So you all don’t find it unethical that the college discriminates…because not all students can purchase a discounted ticket…and unethical because it legitimizes buying a ticket to turn around and sell at a higher price against a discriminated student? Also a student cannot purchase any other seat in the arena at a student discount…only “certain seats.” Why is that not discriminatory? Maybe I’m just too midwest moral, but it feels wrong to me. I’m wondering also how this is not a violation of Title IX. I think a ticket exchange for face value is ethical even if the process of gaining a season ticket feels discriminatory. But allowing a student to purchase a ticket and sell it to a discriminated students feels unethical to me. It’s not a public event, it’s not “free market” if that were the case then they should not have a “student discount” at all they should have a discount available to anyone who is lucky enough to score a ticket during a certain period of time…it is a university function with facilities supported through tuition dollars so why is it OK to allow students to do this and not only allow but “sanction” through the web links, advertisements to students and parents? Call me naive but I had no idea this stuff was going on in large public universities.</p>
<p>It’s only unethical if the college forbids the practice, but they clearly do not. (And concur with the others, that one ticket for one student.)</p>
<p>A b’ball arena only has so many seats for the student section. When they sell xx tickets, they are done selling at the box office. Obviously, the big game against the major rival will be a hot item, and be worth more than face value. But the game against SW Podunk State, a former D2 school, will not garner much interest, and tickets will be given away.</p>
<p>That is no different than alums who purchase season tickets, but may sell some of them due to travel or other commitments.</p>
<p>btw: it would be silly for a college to try to outlaw such a practice, since it would happen anyway.</p>
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<p>I must be missing something here…who is the “discriminated” student, and on what basis is s/he discriminated against?</p>
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<p>Does the school’s website not say, first come-first served, or that they have a limited number of student passes?</p>
<p>I draw a huge distinction between alumns, community members, corporate seats and students… I don’t have a problem with universities hiring outside companies to manage tickets and I have no problem with universities setting aside seats for the public, but I have a HUGE problem with students selling tickets to students above face value. As a non-student I can’t purchase seats in the student section as I don’t have a student number so this is very transparently students making money off discriminated students totally sanctioned by the administration of the university. The ethical thing to do would be to hire the company to run the ticket site, and stipulate that the “student” ticket sales to students are face value. X number of tickets $20 or whatever when they are gone they are gone. This also doesn’t then discriminate against “poorer” students. Nothing changes except preventing students from scalping tickets to other students which is unethical and repugnant. Why are we so opposed to doing “the right thing?”</p>
<p>Uhhh, how does being sold out equal discrimination? That’s not being discriminated against, that’s being too slow to place your order on an in-demand item.</p>
<p>How is a student who doesn’t get a season pass a ‘discriminated student’? I don’t understand that. Presumably, there are a limited number of passes available but once they go on sale, any student has the opportunity to try to get one, right? If so, that is not a discriminatory process. There are a limited number of seats available for these passes, and at this reduced price, which is no surprise because the rest of the arena will be sold at the market price.</p>
<p>Yeah, alwaysamom, exactly. It’s the same deal with midnight releases of new video games, last minute tickets to (any!) sporting events and concerts… if you’re slow and don’t get the jump on buying the thing while it’s available, you’re going to have people scalping at higher prices left as your only option. That’s just life, anywhere.</p>
<p>Of course we live in an increasingly unethical world. </p>
<p>Sad to say</p>
<p>Consider the should athletes be paid thread. So, basically, a student athlete could not profit but a ticket buyer could? We are ethically challenged as a culture.</p>
<p>I agree with Mom’s Op, but not the post 9.
It makes sense not all students can purchase a discounted ticket, given seating capacity and other people desiring to watch a game. It isn’t discriminatory to refuse to sell an unlimited number of discounted tickets. A student that misses out because he didn’t act quickly when tickets came on sale wasn’t discriminated against. The fact that a student gest a discounted ticket only in a certain section isn’t discrimination. Although some might argue giving a student a price break (at all) is discrimination against the public at large. A student can sit in any seat he can purchase. That’s why it isn’t discrimination. If he wants the special treatment of getting a discounted seat, that’s a different circumstance.
I might try to buy a season ticket to the G.B Packers, but they are popular in the NFL and have long since sold out. That isn’t discrimination.</p>
<p>the “poor” (post 13) are not a legally protected class of people. There are people that can’t afford to buy Cadillacs, but GM isn’t discriminating against them. Are airlines that offer a few discounted seats discriminating?</p>
<p>I can agree with much of Mom’s “ethical” argument; but when she throws in “discrimination” the argument loses credibility for me.</p>
<p>I vote unethical, assuming I am understanding correctly that there are a limited number of student tickets available and first-come, first-serve. The purpose of student tickets is to allow students to see games at an affordable price. It is very unfortunate if there aren’t enough tickets available for all students who want to see a game. If a student buys at the student discount price, then resells it at a profit that is unethical. One student is disadvantaging another. It sets up a situation where some students may buy season tickets for the sole purpose of resale. That also seems unethical to me. Because the university allows these sales doesn’t mean they are ethical. Ethical doesn’t mean according to the rules. It means according to some sort of moral standard. JMHO</p>
<p>How is that “unethical”? You were timely, you obtained a product that is in-demand, the slow others now want this product, none at original market price are available, therefore you are entitled to charge whatever you like and whether or not to buy is up to the wanter. Items are not inherently worth any set number–they are worth whatever people will pay for them, period.</p>