The recent resale of tickets for last month's Snoop Dogg concert left the College “concerned,” according to Dean of Student Activities Keith Tannenbaum.
One ticket for the show was posted on Craigslist for a price of $150, resulting in a significant profit at the expense of the College. However, according to the online auction site eBay, “scalping,” or the resale of a ticket above face value is not prohibited in the state of Maine. The only restriction in the state is a local statute banning “street scalpers” on the premises of entertainment venues. Other states enforce more stringent regulations. In Massachusetts, ticket resale is limited by regulations stipulating that a resold ticket must not be priced more than $2.00 above the face value of the original ticket price.
The Chase Hall Committee contributed $33,000 to the total cost of the $83,000 show, thereby allowing lower ticket prices that were more accessible to both the College and Lewiston/Auburn communities.
These artificially cheap, College-subsidized tickets prompted some students, such as Brendan O’Brien ’11, to resell his student-rate ticket at a market price of $90. O’Brien earned a profit of nearly $70 in the transaction. “The resale was justifiable,” he stated, “as someone else valued the ticket more than me.”
Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, said he was only abiding by the “free market forces of supply and demand” when he resold his ticket at a markup of 200 percent.
CHC Co-President Evan Hanock ’10 noted that ticket scalping is not uncommon for high-profile events. “The Snoop Dogg concert was an enormous success enjoyed by both the campus community and general populace,” he said. “It saw no higher incidence of scalping than any other similar, high-demand event.”
The issue of scalping is not addressed in either the College handbook or Code of Conduct,” said Director of Campus Security and Safety Tom Carey.
Tannenbaum, however, did remark that in a hypothetical situation where scalping occurred on campus, the College would act in accordance with the Maine state law by banning scalping on the premises of entertainment venues. Tannenbaum noted that the College assumes most students would understand that profiting at the College’s expense is “inappropriate,” but despite the widespread scalping of tickets, the College’s current policy of allowing student discretion for ticket resale will remain. “We are not in the process of writing or implementing a policy, but may consider doing so for future events,” stated Tannenbaum.
Tannenbaum acknowledged that, because there is currently no policy on scalping under consideration, “future sanctions and enforcement would be impossible to answer until potential future discussion.”
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