A bill is currently moving through legislation that would prevent a team or artist from punishing fans who resell tickets. The bill has already moved through one House committee.
FAMU Athletic Director, Milton Overton, said the best thing for FAMU to continue building the fan base is really to allow season ticket holders.
“As long as the tickets were purchased from the institution I don’t see anything wrong with it,” Overton said. “If they buy it from us for $10 and sell it to their neighbor for $15, I would prefer the neighbor to come to us for the general price, but if they can make money off of it I don’t have an issue with it.”
However, in Chapter 817 Title XLVI of Fraudulent Practices in the 2015 Florida Statutes, it states that a person or entity that offers for resale or resells any ticket may charge only $1 above the admission price charged therefore by the original ticket seller of the ticket for the following transactions.
Overton also stated that while he served as the senior associate athletic director at his previous institution, University of Alabama, they would allow the tickets holders to donate their tickets back to the athletic department. The athletic department then donates the tickets to needy children and to organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club, and Big Brother & Big Sister.
“It’s really helpful and they can actually get a donation credit for the value of the ticket, so [it’s] a tax write-off,” Overton said.
Marcus Owens, a Miami Hurricanes booster club member, said he also doesn’t see anything wrong with ticket scalping.
“People should be able to do what they please with the tickets that they purchased. If you know somebody that wants to go to a particular game or event you should be able to sell it to them since you paid for the ticket,” Owens said.
Rodney Anderson, a FAMU Alumnus, said that he supports the hustle.
“I feel the extra fee is understandable, from a business aspect. There have been times, few, but time that I have had to purchase a ticket from a scalper and I enjoyed the event. So I’d say it is an equal exchange for the extra fee,” Anderson said.
However, Geraldine Fox, a local resident, feels that it isn’t fair to the buyer.
“If you are a person that wants to get rid of tickets, I think they should sell them for the same price they bought them. Unless the buyer really wants the tickets then that is fine, but I personally wouldn’t buy them,” Fox said.
Fox also stated that even though she feels this way, if the buyer is willing to pay the set price for the ticket that the seller made it’s a win-win situation for the both of them.
The proposal already has support from StubHub, a ticket reselling company, but box office giants like Ticketmaster are opposed.