Host Matt Pezzino talks to UConn students Delaney Wilkins and Isabella Bravo about ticket scalping at UConn and how that affects students.
Transcript:
Matt Pezzino: Hello. And you’re listening to frequently unasked questions. Where we go in depth about questions you don’t really think about, today we’re going to be talking about scalping and really its effects on college life. This week I’m joined by two very talented UConn students and without further ado, let’s get right into this episode. So guys, I guess we’ll start off. What is your experience with scalping?
Delaney Wilkins: I have not personally been a victim of scalping, but I’ve seen more than enough of it happen.
Isa Bravo: Yeah. Just like Delaney said, I think, I’ve seen, I have friends that have been scalped before and their stories are just like. I mean it’s crazy. It’s insane that this is even happening.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah. So I guess before we continue, I should have defined what is scalping? And Google wants to define it as someone who buys high demand items with the sole intention of immediately turning it around and selling it. And I think that high demand item on campus. Basketball tickets.
Delaney Wilkins: 100% yes, I agree. Basketball capital of the world.
Isa Bravo: Exactly, exactly.
Matt Pezzino: I personally have noticed that since I work at the games and men’s hockey or actually both hockey that the tickets will sell out instantly. But like the student section’s not even full.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah, I was gonna say especially at hockey games. I’ve been to a couple with my family and it’s usually pretty empty. But I’m like nobody else was able to get a ticket.
Isa Bravo: Right. It’s an issue especially for the people who actually want to go to these things and they can’t because they were sold out. But then you’re there and turns out they didn’t even show up.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah, it kind of kills the energy in the room too.
Delaney Wilkins: Oh 100%.
Isa Bravo: You need that student body, you know.
Matt Pezzino: It’s home court advantage it’s a real thing.
Delaney Wilkins: It really is, cause if you were playing and you got no student section, then
Isa Bravo: Kind of a bummer.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah.
Isa Bravo: Yeah.
Matt Pezzino: So how are students getting these tickets?
Delaney Wilkins: The unscalped ones? through the UConn student tickets website which is a beast to get through cause I usually have to log on like 15 minutes before like the queue even opens just to like have a prime spot in the queue. Even though they say it’s randomized. I don’t know how much that works.
Isa Bravo: Yeah, like it’s never guaranteed for sure. You can be in that queue for God knows how long and then you get in and there’s nothing left. It’s a mess.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah. I’ve had issues too in the past like where we’ll be waiting in the queue and like, if my computer’s not working, my roommates will get in and then I have to go through their computer to get like my actual ticket. Cause theirs was working faster than mine.
Isa Bravo: Yeah, that makes sense.
Matt Pezzino: How many games have you guys been to this year?
Delaney Wilkins: One.
Matt Pezzino: One?
Isa Bravo: I’ve been to like three total. Imma say this year? None.
Matt Pezzino: None this year? Wow. Yeah. All right. Do you guys know how much tickets normally go for? Like the general admission tickets to a basketball game? Oh, cause I looked into it. Depending on the game an average game is over $100.
Delaney Wilkins: Really? Say Let me pull this up. As I read something earlier, that last year, in 2024, ticket prices for a men’s basketball game against Villanova were going as high as $3,689 a pair.
Matt Pezzino: Oh my God.
Isa Bravo: I mean, come on.
Matt Pezzino: That’s like courtside or like the high seats?
Delaney Wilkins: Who knows? I guess Yeah. Regardless, either way, that’s too much.
Isa Bravo: Way too.
Delaney Wilkins: Cause this wasn’t even March Madness. This was in February of last year.
Isa Bravo: I was gonna say, was it like.
Matt Pezzino: So have you guys been seeing where people sell tickets?
Delaney Wilkins: Snapchat stories, GroupMe group chats. Too Yeah. So I’m a part of a different club on campus and people post in there where you get donations and stuff because we raise money. Whatever. but people would be like, oh, like if anybody has a basketball ticket for like a donation, like, I’ll donate to you to get a ticket. So they’re still paying. It’s just.
Matt Pezzino: What club is this?
Delaney Wilkins: Husky, Thon.
Matt Pezzino: Oh, that’s crazy. People are donating for a HuskyTHON
Isa Bravo: That’s a new one.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah, it is cutthroat out here.
Delaney Wilkins: It really is.
Isa Bravo: And then I’m in the Army National Guard, so, in the veterans’ office they usually have tickets that are like free. They’re just right there on the table. And we’ll get an email saying, hey, we left these tickets for anyone who wants to go to the games. And one day I walked in there and there was just a stack full of tickets for the women’s basketball game. this was like two years ago and I grabbed two from me and my sister. But then I start to wonder, like, what happens to the rest of those tickets? Like, do they get distributed somewhere else, you know, or does someone take a whole bunch and then they only end up using a few? It’s crazy.
Matt Pezzino: My dad works here and he gets tickets like sometimes. And he usually they’re to Give away, like to people, he works with. But most of the time he just gives it to friends. Cause no one at his place wants to go. Cause they’re all for XL games.
Speaker D: Oh.
Delaney Wilkins: Because that’s also a big thing is when they’re at the XL center, do they get as many people going?
Matt Pezzino: I don’t think so. Games are usually never packed at XL
Delaney Wilkins: Really? I’ve never been, so I wasn’t sure.
Matt Pezzino: It’s a very. Yeah, it’s a very small student body that’s like.
Delaney Wilkins: The hard thing is like when some of our sports like they have like, they play at like a different arena or something like transportation then. So like you get like less people buying those tickets, which then increases the surplus of like buying tickets for a home game.
Isa Bravo: And the thing is too, with like the different campuses for UConn, there’s the UConn Harford, you know, the XL Center. Being in Harford, most of the people that go there would be the students from Hartford. But even then, I don’t know if you guys have ever been there. But it’s very small. Literally it’s one building, just one building where all the classes are. So it’s not. It’s not much.
Matt Pezzino: I know football is also in Hartford and I’ve never had trouble getting a football ticket.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah, I’ve never been to a football game in my three years here.
Matt Pezzino: I worked one game and I gave my ticket to a friend for another game and I got the ticket an hour and a half late and I still was able to get it. I know bus tickets sometimes go quick. Cause I mean like, it’s kind of like that, like freshman experience, I don’t think.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah. Which I’ve even seen people selling bus tickets.
Matt Pezzino: I feel like those don’t get bought. I’ve never heard of anyone who wanted to buy a bus ticket besides maybe like I would assume a freshman would
Delaney Wilkins: Have no other way of getting there unless you Uber. But who’s paying like 30 bucks or however much it would be?
Matt Pezzino: so yeah, mainly the events we’re seeing people go to is basketball and like sometimes hockey. I don’t think any other sport gets scalped.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah, I don’t think so. I’ve basically mostly see just basketball, sometimes hockey. If it’s like a big game, like UMass.
Matt Pezzino: Usually like UMass we had a good turnout for. And still the student section wasn’t even like shoulder to shoulder. Cause it’s like benches there. But it was like you could sit a person apart from Everyone you were near. So if that was our biggest home game, how many of those tickets got used my friend couldn’t even get a ticket to it. I had to. I had to get one from my job to give to him. Yeah, I’d be like, hey, can we give my buddy a ticket to the game? They’re like, yeah, sure, whatever.
Matt Pezzino: I was like, okay, thank you.
Delaney Wilkins: Thanks.
Matt Pezzino: I wasn’t even supposed to work that game. I had to ask to get on the staff for that game to get him a ticket
Delaney Wilkins: What’s your exact job there?
Matt Pezzino: I don’t know my exact title. Cause it’s like some stupid, like, long thing. Student, athletic trainee, facility, whatever. But it’s I work with video, so I man the cameras
Delaney Wilkins: Exciting.
Matt Pezzino: So what personal experiences do you guys have? Like, any friends have any horror stories? Cause I have one, but I’ll save it for after you guys.
Isa Bravo: Yeah, like, unfortunately, I can’t really remember, like, the specific details, or like, for what game it was. I know it was women’s basketball. And I want to say this was like also two years ago, around the same time that I went to the XL1. but yeah, she was in the queue waiting for this so she can get these tickets. And she kept waiting and waiting. And I was like. I was looking at her phone and I’m like, we should pull it up on the laptop. Maybe it’ll work better there, work faster there. And so I pull out my laptop and I’m scrolling and I’m scrolling, I’m scrolling. And then it’s the same thing. It just, it wouldn’t. And I’m like, okay. And so we refer to the Snapchat stories because she was desperate to go to this game. And she was like, you think anyone is posting or like selling their tickets on there? And I’m like, they 100% are selling on there. I already know when they are. And so she goes onto the story and she sees that someone is sign she’s selling like two of them. And so she only bought one. I mean, thankfully she did end up going, but, you know, at what cost at the end of the day? Cause you could have just gotten of through the website and gotta go through all this trouble, all these loopholes and weird steps to get these tickets.
Delaney Wilkins: Ye, it’s insane I did just remember my story. like, one of my old friends, he like, showed me like this picture of somebody and he was like, wait, do you know this guy? And I go, yeah, like, he doesn’t go here anymore. Like, he got Kicked out or something, I don’t know. Or dropped out, long story. But he. And this was like way before the game too that he was gone and yet he still scalped like my friend because he was like yeah, I paid him like 40 bucks and I never got my money back and I didn’t get a ticket. He yeah. And he was like guys, I like stopped hearing. Like he didn’t respond to me or anything and like yeah, wow. And I was like yeah, he doesn’t go here. So you got scammed. Yeah, that was rough. I felt really bad.
Matt Pezzino: My brother paid hundred dollars for a watch party ticket to last year’s national championship game for his now ex to go. And she didn’t pay him back.
Isa Bravo: Y no.
Matt Pezzino: She was looking, she was really desperate like her friends cause she was a freshman then we were sophomores. and her friends all got tickets like they all got through the queue somehow and she really wanted to go and he was being a good boyfriend and you go say Matt can you spot me $100? I was like what do you mean spot you $100? And he’s like well you got a credit card right? I’m like yeah, but what for? He goes can you buy a ticket for me? I’m like all right. Okay he did pay me back but she never paid him back.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah I know a lot of people that didn’t get watch party tickets and they just had to go to the bar. Even people that did get scammed like at that point you paid money and now you just have to go to the bar cause got scalped. Yeah yeah. And most people have just accepted it at this point.
Isa Bravo: Got scammed. your in your head like I took an L. You know, what else can I do?
Matt Pezzino: So another topic is scalping on the rise after big games. Cause the big games are when people usually are like I got tickets who want who need on the Snapchat stories that we’re on the like class Snapchat stories that somehow we’re on every other classeses doesn’t matter.
Delaney Wilkins: I don’t know how that works but.
Matt Pezzino: It was cooler when it was just a one class thing. But I digress. Have you guys also noticed that the rate of people selling and or requesting to buy like skyrockets?
Delaney Wilkins: Mhm.
Matt Pezzino: The next game.
Delaney Wilkins: Yes, 100% like that’s all you see is just a black screen with DM me for tickets or $100 for.
Delaney Wilkins: A ticket or some or they even like take pictures of the tickets.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah. And like they blur out the actual QR code so people can’t use it.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah, I know, for hockey at least. Cause that was the last time I had to get a ticket. They’ve not done QR codes anymore. They changed it to be an RFID scan on your phone.
Isa Bravo: Oh yeah, yeah.
Matt Pezzino: I mean it doesn’t work. You just give login details. Because that’s what I had to do for my friend. I just give them the login details to my account. So if you set the password something stupid for like an afternoon because it’s just to download tickets, it’s like a different account. Another topic I wanted to bring up is have you guys had any fun ideas for dealing with scamming and scalping with the tickets? Like if you were in charge, how would you stop it?
Isa Bravo: That’s a really good question.
Matt Pezzino: Cause my personal idea would be cause we already allow people to be reported for scamming and scalping on tickets. Cause the tickets are supposed to be non transferable. but you still can. My idea was we already allow reporting and you can still get in trouble. Let’s put a bounty on anyone’s scalping. If you have proof that someone is scalping and they’re trying to get rid of their ticket for money and they have no intention of going, then you can report them and then you’ll get a ticket as a reward.
Delaney Wilkins: Oh, a reward system seems to work in a lot of cases. So I think that could be a good idea.
Matt Pezzino: The only issue is they can’t ever take that reward away. Then no one would do it again. Yeah, like psychology thing of you give if you’re rewarding someone for something that you already want them to do and then you just take it away once they start doing it, then they lose the motivation to do it. Even if they already had motivation.
Isa Bravo: But I mean consequences definitely have to be taken when it comes to this because it’s ridiculous and it’s unfair and it’s just.
Delaney Wilkins: It would be different if it was just like a few people doing it. But the amount of people scalping is just. It’s ridiculous. It’s too much.
Matt Pezzino: So another one. How much have you guys seen someone actually pay for a ticket? Cause the most I’ve seen is my brother’s 100 and my girlfriend sold her watch party ticket for 75 before he was even looking to buy one.
Delaney Wilkins: I’ve heard of over 100 before
Isa Bravo: I feel like I’ve seen 110 before. I wanna say. Yeah, I mean people really be pushing it people do.
Delaney Wilkins: And that’s the hardest part. Like, you see people, like, asking for the certain amount. Not people just, like, willing to pay a certain amount. So it’s the fact that, like, they’re already going for, like, people are saying, like, oh, like, 150 for this, like, game. But so then people are, like, comparing, and then it becomes, like, a whole market at that point.
Isa Bravo: That’s like an auction.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah.
Isa Bravo: Is what happened. Like, it’s a different thing for someone to offer something for tickets, but. But then it’s something else when you’re going on your story and you’re saying, hey, selling these for whatever. Whatever.
Delaney Wilkins: Whatever. Yeah, exactly.
Isa Bravo: That’s the difference.
Delaney Wilkins: And I even had a friend’s, like, last year for a game. I couldn’t make it for some reason. So I saw he posted on the story asking, like, does anybody have a ticket? I want to go. So I messaged him. I was like, oh, I have mine. I’m not going. And he was like, okay, how much do you want me to pay you? I’m like, you don’t have to pay me. He was like, no, these tickets are going for, like, 50 bucks at least. So, like, I’m gonna pay you, like, what’s your Venmo? And he gave me $20. Even though no matter how many times I was like, no, like, you don’t have to. It’s just. That’s the fact is, like, they’re going for so much money that people are willing to pay less even if they don’t need to.
Matt Pezzino: Moral of the story. Scalping is crazy. Alright So turning away from UConn, let’s talk about how concerts get scalped all the time.
Delaney Wilkins: Concerts scalping is the worst. And it’s so prominent, it kills the whole vibe.
Isa Bravo: Like, the process of trying to get these tickets for a concert, it is, like, ages, I feel like.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah. Which is, like, that dates back so far because people, like, it’s a lot easier with, like, online now to be scalped. But people still got scalped like, years ago, just, like, from people standing outside and being like, oh, you need a ticket. Like, I got one for you. Like, here you go. And it’s, like, fake.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah.
Isa Bravo: Yeah. I’ve definitely always wondered, like, how they did this back then without the whole ticket master thing.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah, cause, I remember seeing it, too, before. Like, phones were, like, as big. Like, my first concert was probably like, in, like, the third or fourth grade, like, 2013 or something like that. And people were standing outside, like, selling tickets. And, like, my mom was always just like, just keep walking. Don’t talk to them.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah. I know I’ve had a bunch of experiences where, like, I’ll go to buy a ticket in the Pre- sale line and the Prealee sells out instantly. even when there’s like a max of two and you’ve got like 10 minutes in the cart and it does the verify to make sure you’re not a bot, still get scalped. And I complain about it in Instagram. I’m like, hey, I know this Sinclair in Boston is way bigger than this. Why do you guys only have this many tickets at all? And then someone goes, hey, I’ve got a few tickets you wanna buy? I’m like, no, I’m not buying from some random Instagram request.
Isa Bravo: Like, yeah, and something I hate. I don’t know if you guys have noticed it, like, on Ticket Master, but, like, the closer the date gets to the actual concert, that’s when they get, like, cheap. But then, of course, knowing me, I want the tickets like, the second they sell. You know what I mean? Because, like, I’ll get anxious if I miss it. If they sell out, I’m like, oh, my God, I’m not gonna be able to see whoever it is. like, there was this one concert I went to, like last year. it’s like the Spanish group, they’re called Aventura. And they went to the XL center in Hartford. And I went with, with my sister and my mom. And the tickets were, like, pretty expensive. Cause they’re, like, very well known, and they almost never come to Connecticut. And so our tickets were like one, like 30 each, I would say. and our seats were like, all the way up, like, all the way in the back. And then I asked my friend if she was gonna be there, and then she was like, yeah, I just bought my ticket today, mind you, the day of the concert. And her seat all the way up front. I was so mad. I was like, I paid all this money way before this concert. And it’s like, what is going.
Delaney Wilkins: Which I feel like is also part of the issues. Like those places that sell. They hold tickets so that they can sell them later. Which even happened at, a UConn basketball game last year, the Watch Party. because I first didn’t have a ticket, all of my other friends got a tickets. So I was like. I was going through. And I kept trying to, like, log in and log in and log in. And then eventually they, like, sent out more tickets and I got one like 10, 10 to, like, 20 minutes after. Like, they said they sold out.
Matt Pezzino: Trying to hold the supply like that, like, only shoots up the demand more and benefits scalpers more. I know. It’s like, what they’re trying to do to keep scalpers away and be like, Oh There’ll be multiple drops of the tickets. So you make each drop smaller. That, just makes it harder to get tickets. Cause. Sorry, are you unemployed? Are you allowed to sit around for two hours waiting for this thing that you want to go do drop?
Delaney Wilkins: Well, exactly. Like, that’s part of the issue. Like, you have to take out so much of your time just to make sure you get a ticket for the thing that you want.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah. And if you’re paying for the ticket, that’s even worse than the. I get it. If it’s a free ticket to give out to, like, we have a huge student body. We had, like, what, 10,000 kids, like last year’be the new class or whatever it was.
Delaney Wilkins: I know we have close to 20,000, I think, undergrad. it’s one of the bigger schools. Yeah. Not like one of the bigger schools, but it’s a bigger school.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah. We have 25,000 from 2022 fall. So. Thank you. AI overview.
Delaney Wilkins: I know we spoke about this before, but, like, there’s not much to do here. Cause even when we get stuff like, UConnic which if nobody knows, like, that’s just like something like Subog puts on. And I know the one year I went, we got Trippie Red which was interesting. and there was nobody there. But guess what? People were still trying to resell tickets for it. And yet the entire half the floor section was missing.
Matt Pezzino: I covered that for, ah, a news project, like a BR broadcast thing in one of Kalv’s classes. No one was at that. Like, I saw that they, like, let everyone down to the first floor U. Uh-huh.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah. Like, people rushed the stage. And yet this is, like, one of the things I feel like UConn like, loses out on is that they turned on the lights and went through and checked everybody’s wristband and sent them back up to their sections. Which stuff like that makes people not want to go to these events because they’re so, like, strict about it even when nobody shows up.
Matt Pezzino: Eastern had young gravy. my freshman year, 22, 23, and it was Eastern, so no one goes. But also no one scalped those. Cause it was a different claim system. You could get those tickets whenever. My friend who didn’t go, he was an MCC student So it was opened up even to him later, he was able to get tickets, and that was, like, months after opened. So I don’t know what eastern does besides having a smaller student population to have a young gravy concert that still doesn’t sell out. I mean, it was packed. It was busy.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah, I know that they had, Ross lynch at one point.
Matt Pezzino: Yeah, they were gonna have Owl city at one point, but then he got sick and canceled. I was so sad. So I want to know what UConn could do to learn from eastern besides just culling our student population.
Delaney Wilkins: yeah, but I would assume that, like, scalping could be an issue there too. Just probably not to the extent that it is at uuon if we have.
Isa Bravo: That population, realistically, it can be a problem anywhere. I feel like it’s just because of how known uon is for the basketball, you know, that they take advantage of that. They’re like, okay, like, this is what we’re gonna do.
Delaney Wilkins: Yeah. And we’re students, like, it’s our first time, like, dealing with this type of stuff, so a lot of people don’t know better. And, like, you see freshn fall victim because they’re like, oh, like, I really want to go to a game, but I have to pay. I guess I’ll pay because all of my friends are going, so what am I gonna do, just sit in my dorm alone? No, I’ll pay money and get scammed.
Isa Bravo: because everyone wants that, like, college experience, you know, where you’re going to these basketball games and you’re cheering on your team and. But at what cost at the end of the day?
Matt Pezzino: Algh. So I think that’s all we had to talk about today. Some very unanswered questions, Very unasked questions.
Delaney Wilkins: It’s been a pleasure.
Isa Bravo: Thank you very much.
Matt Pezzino: Certainly a great cast.
Delaney Wilkins: Thank you.
Matt Pezzino: Thank you so much for tuning in this week. I hope you enjoyed as always, I am your host, Matt Pazino. Next week, catch us with a financial literacy episode about how to make money selling your tickets to uukcon students who are nonet the wiser.
Matt Pezzino: Thank you so much for tuning in this week. I hope you enjoyed. As always, I am your host, Matt Pazino. Next week, catch us with a financial literacy episode about how to make money selling your tickets to UConn students who are none the wiser.
Our research came from https://www.wtnh.com/sports/uconn-huskies/uconn-mens-basketball-tickets-skyrocket-many-getting-scammed/ , https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/uconn-29013 , https://www.fox61.com/article/news/local/ticket-scammers-target-uconn-mens-basketball-program/520–54ee90e6-5308–4f3e-80f8-71648e9cbbc6 , and personal experiences.
