Bill sponsor says LSU should be 'ashamed' of its student football ticket policy

(The Times-Picayune) Print By Lauren McGaughy, NOLA.com | The Times Picayune The Times-Picayune
Email the author | Follow on Twitter
on April 18, 2013 at 12:02 PM, updated April 18, 2013 at 4:25 PM View/Post Comments

In an effort to ensure that all LSU students have the opportunity to purchase tickets to football games in Tiger Stadium, Rep. Terry Brown, I-Colfax, has introduced a bill requiring the LSU Board of Supervisors to offer incoming freshman tickets to every home game.

LSU football tickets are prized commodities. Although Tiger Stadium boasts a maximum capacity of 92,542 -- with a planned expansion in the works -- the student section seats only 14,600. Incoming freshman, who are given the chance to buy tickets to games after upperclassmen and members of the public purchase theirs, often end up paying exorbitant prices for scalped tickets from their peers.

Brown, who waited to file the bill until his child graduated from LSU, said it was "a crime" that freshmen pay up to $300 for tickets scalped from upperclassmen for the most popular games.

"LSU should be ashamed of themselves for doing the students that way. It's about fairness," Brown said Thursday. "All I'm asking is for those children, students who made the score to get into the flagship university, (to be) allowed the privilege of sitting in Tiger Stadium."

Brown's bill is on hold right now as he discusses the issue with LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Garret "Hank" Danos. It would require every incoming full-time freshman at LSU to be offered the opportunity to buy "at least one" ticket to every home game. The purchase period for freshmen would be five days before the start of the football season.

Any tickets remaining unsold after this five-day purchasing period would be made available to the general public for purchase, according to the bill's language.

Brown said he has received many emails from students complaining about the cost of tickets for freshmen. He has also received communication from upperclassmen who are nervous about being prosecuted for selling tickets at an inflated price, a crime for which they can be arrested.

"Legislators are allowed to buy (tickets). Governmental officials are allowed to buy them. So why not students that attend the university?" Brown asked.

Brown hopes to reach an agreement with Chairman Danos, who he expects to talk to again on Friday, before advancing the bill.

Danos told Brown he was unaware freshmen did not have the opportunity to buy tickets to all games. Brown said he believed what the chairman said, but if a compromise could not be made, he will introduce his bill into the education committee next week.

"I'll bring it up. I may get kicked. But at least everyone will know they're being unfair," Brown said.

LSU Associate Vice Chancellor for Communications Herb Vincent said with a student body of over 30,000, "the math becomes the problem here." He said of the 92,000 seats, 69,000 are held by season ticket holders and another 7,000 are reserved under required contracts. More seats are set aside for recruiting and other purposes.

Vincent added that since every incoming freshman student who has requested a season ticket in the last three years have received one, "the system is obviously working."

"We think we have a very fair distribution system," Vincent said Thursday. "We work with students on it," he added, noting that the student government set the current policy allowing upperclassmen to buy tickets before freshmen. Any decision to increase the size of the student seating section, however, would be up to the Board of Supervisors.

Currently, season tickets for students are made available first to upperclassmen, who are given a one-week window purchase them. After the ordering periods for all returning students have expired, any remaining tickets are made available to freshman through a lottery process. Around one-third of freshman students receive tickets through this process, Brown said.

Season ticket holders are given the opportunity to renew their packages in May before the student purchasing period. Any season tickets that are not renewed are put into the public ticket pot. Student ticket seats become available for purchase in July.

"I've always been the champion of the underdog, the dispossessed," Brown said. "And I hate to know someone is thumping people on the ear that are paying the price to go to that university."