By
Collin Binkley
A high-stakes football game between Ohio State University and the team’s top rival today hasn’t translated to the stunningly high ticket prices of some past years, brokers say.
The average cost to nab a seat has been around $350, ticket brokers say, ranging from $225 for the worst seats to $1,200 for club seats. Prices are slightly higher than games against the University of Michigan from the past few years. However, demand is nowhere near what it was in 2006, when the teams were the top two in the country and ticket prices were nearly double what scalpers and online sales are asking this year.With disappointing sales for some games this season, brokers say they’re happy with a $350 average, about five times the ticket’s face value.
“It’s not the biggest game of the world,” said Ryan Forgacs, president of the Main Event Ticket Service in Columbus. “But it’s a good OSU game, and fans are geeked up about it.”
The average ticket sold by the online seller StubHub was $347 yesterday, which is $116 more than the average from last year but just $6 more than the average from all four years before that.
Interest hasn’t been through-the-roof partly because of a lackluster Big Ten Conference, but also because many Buckeye wins have been painfully close, said Tim Louters, manager of Tickets Galore in Dublin.
Then there’s the sour taste in fans’ mouths from the costly tattoos-for-memorabilia scandal.
But there’s extra weight to the game today: It’s a chance for the Buckeyes to notch an undefeated record against their top rival in a game that NCAA sanctions ensure will be the last of Ohio State’s season.
With no bowl game possible this year, fans have extra cash that they might have used to travel across the country for a postseason matchup.
“They’re taking that money that they typically would have spent, and they’re putting it in the Michigan game,” said Jamie Kaufman, president of Dream Seats Inc. on the Northwest Side.
More buyers have been Michigan fans this year, too. They’re more willing to travel for a Wolverines squad that has improved in recent years.
There are other sources of tickets besides brokers. Dozens were listed for sale on Craigslist and eBay yesterday, priced as low as $70 for student tickets. The catch is ticket-takers will ask for a student ID, without which the person can’t get in with a student ticket.
Scalping tickets is legal in the city of Columbus, although Ohio State prohibits it on university property.Buying tickets from a scalper can be a roll of the dice.
“It’s basically impossible to guarantee what you’re purchasing from someone is truly what it is they’re representing to you,” said Edward Early, chief investigator in the consumer-protection section at the Ohio attorney general’s office.
Ohio State-Michigan ticket buyers have been pretty lucky this year, it seems: The consumer-protection division has had just one complaint from someone who was duped. That person had paid for tickets to The Game using a prepaid debit card and is out a few hundred dollars now.
Early said online buyers should avoid paying with those kinds of debit cards because, unlike traditional credit cards, prepaid cards come with no buyer-protection clause. And buyers should steer clear of sellers who ask them to wire money.
Many fans wait until game day to buy tickets, brokers said, hoping sellers will lower prices to get rid of their stock. But in this case, Kaufman said, the stock was already thin.
“This market has been drying up,” he said. “There won’t be much for them to get any kind of deal.”
Dispatch reporters Jennifer Smith Richards and Encarnacion Pyle contributed to this story.
cbinkley@dispatch.com
@cbinkley