Flipping Football Tickets Is Flawed And Fraud
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Flipping Football Tickets Is Flawed And Fraud

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Flipping Football Tickets Is Flawed And Fraud

The collective prayers of the University of Florida's student body have finally been answered -- the Gators are good. We're making a trip to the SEC Championship game for the first time since 2009. We have a very real shot at making the NCAA Playoff this year. You could say the Gators finally have their swagger back.

No matter how the rest of the season plays out, it will be one to look back upon fondly. The Swamp was an amazing place to be on Saturdays in September 2015. The energy of the place has never been crazier -- everyone wants to be a part of it, and rightfully so.

But, unfortunately, not everyone has been given the opportunity to enjoy this year's games the same as everyone else. This is because our newfound success on the football field has brought about an unprecedented amount of demand for student football tickets, and this demand has become something a lot of business-minded nerds have come to take advantage of.

For those of you not in the loop, let me fill you in on how student tickets at the University of Florida work. At the beginning of the season, students can enter into a lottery for season tickets; winning this lottery grants you access to all of the University of Florida's home games for an average of $15 per game. If you don't nab them at this point, your only chance to attend games in the student section of the Swamp lies with people who have student tickets that can't attend the games you want to go to.

I'm in the unique position of being a season ticket holder, but having to rely on ticket sellers for almost every game, simply because I have friends who want to go to the games but have already graduated and no longer have the option to buy tickets at student rates. For the Tennessee game this season, I bought three tickets from kids who were selling their student tickets. How much did those three tickets end up costing? $140. Yes, $140. I spent $140 on a purchase with a value of $45.

This practice of flipping student tickets for a massive profit has caused a bit of a debate amongst anyone (and seemingly everyone) that is part of the UF Football Ticket Exchange page on Facebook. On one hand, if you can get more money for something, why shouldn't you? Supply and demand is a crazy thing. On the other hand, is it fair to charge your fellow students so much money for something you yourself only paid a minimal amount for?

I consider myself a pretty right wing guy -- pro-capitalism, and all of that. But, to me, UF isn't a market place; rather, it's a community of people with common interests and common goals. People should look at fellow students of their schools as family. Sure, not everyone is going to get along but at the end of the day, we're all here to see our Gators win.

That type of community dynamic, to me, is not conducive to flipping tickets for a profit. Fellow Gator fans don't exist to make money off of, they exist to help support our favorite team. UF doesn't sell tickets with the goal of filling the Swamp with the richest people on campus, they do it to fill the stadium with the fans with the most passion and the most pride.

The biggest issue here are people who buy tickets with the sole purpose of making profit, with no intention of even attending some of the games they're buying access to. That's not what the student ticket system is there for -- it's not a business opportunity, it's a way to make sure you can support the best team in the state of Florida. People will proudly brag on the ticket exchange page about how they've never attended a game but have made exorbitant amounts of money off of kids who buy tickets from them.

Now, to be fair, everyone who wanted season tickets for $15 a game could have gotten them, fair and square, before the season started, as the lottery's capacity was larger than the amount of applicants -- but what if that hadn't been the case? Those people who buy tickets for the sole purpose of turning a profit didn't know that that would be the case. For all they knew, they were snatching tickets from someone who genuinely would've ended up using them for each and every game.

What's even worse than those who flip tickets are the people who will gladly pay them. It just further perpetuates this culture of greed. Newcomers to this school will see people gladly buying FSU tickets for $150, and buying season tickets to flip for profit could become a widespread habit to the point that the lottery will, once again, become a lottery, and ticket flippers will make up a significant portion of "winners".

At the end of the day, this is something that doesn't affect me in the slightest. I pay my $15 per game and what my friends pay for the tickets I'm forced to get them is their business. But it's alarming that there are students who exist just to screw others, and use the season ticket system to do so. It's not what this University is about. Everyone here should have an equal chance to see their team play, and it's sad that someone may not be able to simply because they lack the financial means to pay someone demanding a 900 percent mark-up. Tickets shouldn't be a way for people to make money. They should be a way to help everyone enjoy watching the old Gators play.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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