Ah, the supposed “free market,” where one can quickly turn a profit without making or doing anything. And in this case, a profit of 400%!
Ticket scalpers are perhaps the greatest example of making obscene profit without actually producing or contributing anything of worth. And there’s nothing wrong with making money in this, our system of “pure competition,” (cough cough). But have you seriously ever met anyone who worked for Stub Hub that wasn’t a socially retarded douchebag?
When it comes to college football, perhaps the situation is a little different. Most college kids are piss poor, swimming in debt, and will soon experience the joy of post-graduation job-hunting in the Second Great Depression (thank you banking crisis of 2008!). So we should cut them a little slack.
Then again, the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl, is still the Wisconsin Badgers in the freaking Rose Bowl. So whether you find this practice to be just capitalism in action or true holiday season extortion, you’ll find the Badger Herald’s reporting of the secondary Rose Bowl ticket market amusing.
The Badger Herald is an independent student student daily at the University of Wisconsin, the largest independent student daily in the nation, and they just went Keith Olbermann “WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD” on a few members of the student body.
From an Op-Ed in today’s Herald:
Wisconsin had 5,800 student tickets to sell. They went up for purchase on uwbadgers.com at 9 p.m. Sunday and were sold out by 9:20 p.m.
The above students had the nerve to put their Rose Bowl tickets up for sale on Facebook Marketplace within two hours of tickets selling out. Face value was $150. Some were trying to get the tickets for more than $400 a pop.
Truly, there is a special place in Hell for people who buy Rose Bowl tickets with the sole intention of profiting from them. It is entirely unfair to those who actually love this football team and were counting on a cheap face value ticket in order to make the trip to Pasadena an economic reality.
We’ll keep printing names of those we catch on Facebook marketplace. And feel free to send an email to editor@badgerherald.com
Pretty radical huh?
Well according to the website’s about page:
The Badger Herald debuted in fall 1969 as an alternative voice on campus. Born to cover and combat the turmoil of the Vietnam protests, the Herald maintains its maverick spirit, though it has shed the “alternative” reputation.
Next time I leave the mothership to visit Madison, I’ll have to party and get all anti-establishment with you guys.
Paul M. Banks is CEO of The Sports Bank.net , a Midwest webzine. He’s also a regular contributor to the Tribune’s Chicago Now network, Walter Football.com, Yardbarker Network, and Fox Sports.com
You can follow him on Twitter @thesportsbank
He also does a regular guest spot each week for Chicagoland Sports Radio.com