In an attempt to restructure the system of student football ticket sales at Penn State, UPUA passed an opinion last week outlining ways to distribute tickets and combat scalping.
The opinion suggests placing student ticket packages on student ID cards, as opposed to paper tickets, to help prevent students from scalping their entire package for a high profit.
"The athletic program would certainly rather see that money spent on football tickets than lining the pockets of some kid who sold his tickets for a profit," Frank Keller, UPUA vice president, said.
After surveying about 750 students and meeting with university administrators and members from the Council of Commonwealth Student Governments, Jack Vickrey, University Park Undergraduate Association (UPUA) College of Agriculture representative, said one of the biggest concerns is scalping tickets to make a profit.
"That was a large issue, especially this past year when they sold out so fast," Vickrey said. "People bought them so quickly, and ... resold them for large profits, so we tried to combat that as much as possible."
Along with placing tickets on students' IDs, UPUA suggests an anonymous online ticket exchange site, possibly on eLion, Vickrey said. Students could resell a maximum of three tickets per season, which would not allow elevated prices.
Vickrey said money would be transferred to students' bursar accounts, but they could request a check from the bursar.
If the selling maximum is not enacted, the opinion calls to penalize students caught selling their ticket package by banning them from purchasing tickets.
Keller said the university was aware of ticket scalping last season but could not take action because of a state law that removed price restrictions on the online resale.
"As long as it's written into the contract when you purchase tickets, and you promise not to do something like that, if you are caught scalping your tickets, you will be punished," Keller said.
The opinion also suggests tiered distribution of sales, with a day to purchase tickets for each class, starting with seniors.
Remaining tickets would be reserved for incoming freshmen, who would enter their name into a lottery system at the Freshman Testing, Counseling and Advising Program.
Greg Myford, associate athletic director for marketing and communications, said tiered distribution is something that may be worked on in the "long haul" but would have to be carefully examined and would not be ready for implementation this fall.
"The real benefit would be making sure we reduce the overall sudden rush of everyone getting tickets at the same time," he said.
Myford said there are some aspects of the opinion that may be in practice by this fall but would not comment on them specifically.
"The opinion is solid and has a lot of viable suggestions," Myford said. "I will say that a lot of what is written in the opinion is being given serious consideration."
Kimberly Kozak (senior-civil engineering) said she was unable to get football tickets for her senior year because of the quick sell-out.
She said the ideas in the opinion sound strong but would like to see a University Park student preference.
"I thought that as a senior, I should get tickets over a freshman at somewhere like Penn State Berks," she said.
However, the opinion does not exclude Commonwealth Campus students from purchasing tickets, Keller said.
