The start of the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Trials has spurred an underground market for tickets, as ticket holders try to sell unwanted passes. Ticket holders are trying to sell tickets outside the Trial entrance, through the UO ticket office and on the Web.
While tickets were easily being sold in early June, the sheer volume of last-minute scalpers has driven down the demand and price for third-party tickets.
Law enforcement and University officials warn about the dangers of third-party purchases as there is no way to know whether tickets are valid.
Most of the ticket sellers interviewed by the Emerald did not want to provide their full names. Though selling tickets online is not illegal, it is against University policy to sell them on the University grounds outside the Trials and the Eugene 08 Festival area.
“If somebody is trying to sell tickets on campus outside the Trial entrance, then either the (Eugene Police Department) or campus security will inform them that they cannot sell them on campus,” University spokesperson Phil Weilersaid .
Despite this policy, scalpers were anxiously trying to sell tickets to people exiting the Lane Transit District shuttles at the main entrance to the Trials on Agate Street Sunday.
Eugene 08 volunteers stationed at the bus stop said University Department of Public Safety officers had been by several times to stop the street ticket sales, but once the officers left more scalpers would appear.
Don, a Eugene resident who did not want to provide his last name, said that his son was able to sell two of his unwanted tickets “on the street, near the (Trials’) entry.”
Don also advertised two sets of tickets for June 28 and 29 for sale on Craigslist in addition to the ones his son sold.
“The first set went in the first five minutes,” said Don. “I didn’t expect them to be sold; it was too short of notice.”
More than 100 advertisements for Trial tickets have been posted since June 27 when the Trials began. In the week prior to the start of the Trials, there were nearly 200 postings for tickets on Craigslist.
This high ticket turnover so close to the event has made it increasingly difficult for people to sell unwanted passes.
“On Monday they had a flood of tickets go on sale” through third-party ticket sellers “that completely destroyed the market,” said Brandon, a recent college graduate living in the Portland area who did not want to provide his last name.
Brandon said that shortly after Trial tickets went on sale, an underground market for them emerged online.
“A week after the first tickets went on sale they were going for double or triple their value online,” he said. He recently sold two tickets through Craigslist for less than face value.
Paul Sikes has sold numerous tickets and other passes related to Eugene 08 on Craigslist.
“The amazing thing is that there are so many tickets available,” he said. “On the street they are going for $10 or $15.”
Sikes has also advertised and sold several parking permits for the Bean Complex parking lot next to Hayward Field.
Parking permits for University lots during Eugene 08 are not allowed to be sold through third-party members, said Julie Brown, a University spokesperson.
Brown said the permits are printed with a written warning that they cannot be transferred between persons without the consent of the Eugene 08 Local Organizing Committee.
Sikes said that the parking passes were sold “for most of the days.”
Both Weiler and Melinda Kletzok, the Eugene Police Department spokesperson, said that online and street ticket sales is a “buyer beware” situation.
Weiler said that the only way buyers can be sure the ticket they are purchasing is valid is to go through the University Ticket Office. Brown said that the office collects unwanted tickets and resells them on the University of Oregon Track and Field Ticket Marketplace, an online forum on the GoDucks.com Web site.
“It’s probably in the best interest of the seller to go through the ticket office,” said Weiler, because the tickets are more likely to be sold when the buyer is assured that they are authentic.
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