Money Talks: Why are college sports tickets so high?

Earlier this semester, I was looking for tickets to the upcoming USC-UCLA game — which is going to have serious implications for the Pac-12 Championship and College Football Playoffs. Since the game was away at the Rose Bowl, my student season ticket that I already paid for would not work for this game. So, I went on ticketing sites like StubHub, Ticketmaster and SeatGeek only to find that the prices were exceeding $100 , and now the lowest ticket price sits at a whopping $176 —  which is almost the cost of my entire season ticket pass — at the time of me writing this column. I understand that it is one of the biggest games of the season for both teams, but that is simply too high for college students. 

Luckily, USC’s ticket office had a lottery for USC students to get up to two  tickets for the upcoming game at $65 each, and I was able to get the two entries. What is bewildering was that I paid a total of $130 for these two tickets, while people who were not lucky enough to get a ticket through this lottery will have to pay $40 to $50 more for just a single ticket. 

Compared to other colleges across the country, a ticket under $200 is a steal. For instance, the No. 1 University of Tennessee vs. No. 3 University of Georgia game in Athens, Georgia had its cheapest ticket at $568.  To get better seats near the 50-yard line cost  over $3,000. Looking forward to the Big Ten matchup between Ohio State and Michigan in Columbus, Ohio a few weeks from now on Nov. 26, the cheapest ticket on VividSeats is $429. 

These prices are just for regular-season games. If I wanted to check out early prices for games like the Rose Bowl next year, they start at $461 on Ticketmaster. Additionally, the College Football National Championship starts out at $684 on the same site. 

This issue doesn’t only affect college football but other sports, like basketball, as well. Even though home games are free for USC students, if I want to go to an away game, prices are going to go up again. For example, the cheapest ticket for our first matchup against UCLA at Pauley Pavilion is $64.  It’s not terrible, but pretty expensive compared to the free home games.

What is even more frustrating is that the prices I have been listing don’t include the processing fees, an additional charge that is often a percentage of the ticket cost. Fees range from $12 to $50, or even higher. 

So, there are two ways to combat these high prices. One is obviously removing these processing and other fees. The Biden Administration is already investigating the removal or lowering of such fees for entertainment and travel tickets which can save over $1 billion for purchasers. The Biden Administration hopes to minimize the power of these ticket companies,  who can  add surprise fees however they want and allow Americans to save money as well. Hopefully, at the federal level, this issue can be dealt with properly. 

Then, the other way is to limit the resale of tickets. The ticket resale business is huge, with companies mass-buying tickets early on and raising the prices so they can make a profit. Also known as ticket scalping, there are no major federal laws that prohibit the process. At the state level, the laws are pretty lenient and mostly directed toward people who resell tickets illicitly outside venues.

Overall, by challenging processing fees and ticket reselling practices, the prices for college athletics can be affordable. This will help out college students who are already paying so much for tuition, housing and other expenses, watch their peers compete.