Ticket reselling at heightened prices is a generally accepted concept. But for Northwestern football games, that was uncommon until the University implemented a highly competitive ticket claim process for students to accommodate the reduced seating of its temporary lakeside stadium.
For the past two home football games, students who could not claim a ticket were left with one semi-reliable option: haggle with other students selling their tickets online. As it turns out, this phenomenon also occurred almost 30 years ago.
On Oct. 23, 1995, The Daily published an article titled “Scalpers sell students $50 football tickets.” The previous Saturday, the Wildcats had played the Wisconsin Badgers, and scalpers lined the stadium trying to sell tickets to eager students.
The scalpers competed for customers with prices ranging from $10 to $50, a whopping $103.45 in value today. Some even impersonated customers to figure out the going rate.
This situation may feel familiar to NU students today. For the past two home football games, students have taken to online group messages to sell the tickets they claimed for free. In the Wildside GroupMe, the group messaging platform for NU’s student section, the days leading up to a game are filled with a never-ending slew of buyers and sellers. The result is a full-fledged fluctuating ticket market.
“Nine days before the game on Thursday, a friend of mine sold two of her tickets for 90 bucks apiece,” Weinberg freshman Sonny Noble said. “But then, that same day, people were also selling them for $15 to $20, so it was very much who got to who first.”
Though the student ticket market is thriving, it can also be a risky game to play. Students who claim and then don’t use their ticket incur a penalty on their account, which makes it more difficult to secure tickets in the future.
Perhaps as a result of this policy, the ticket market crashed this past Saturday morning, right before the Wisconsin game. Sellers who hadn’t struck a deal were left trying to get rid of their ticket, knowing the penalty they would face if it wasn’t used.
Weinberg freshman Rosa Saavedra said she was lucky to sell her ticket two weeks before the game, raking in $100.
“Some sellers planned to wait until just before the game to sell, hoping they’d get the highest prices from desperate students,” Saavedra said. “But in reality, what happened is that people who were holding it and couldn’t sell it were starting to drop their prices.”
In the leadup to last week’s game against Wisconsin, some students in the Wildside GroupMe urged their peers to be fair and give away their tickets for free. Meanwhile, others stand by the fact that while buyers exist, so will sellers.
The 1995 article suggested that students had accepted their situation. It seems that’s the sentiment held by many students today, too. The plethora of GroupMe resellers is matching the demand for tickets. The competition means that when one seller offers a lower price, others are incentivized to match that.
“I would think it’s unfair if they were price gouging people, but it’s people who want the tickets that are offering to pay too,” McCormick senior Cheryl Lin said. “I feel like because of it, people are more enthusiastic to go to sports games and it’s become more of a commodity.”
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