4 Page C-6 - The Michigan Daily, Thursday, September 8, 1983 Students cash in on 'M' football tickets By BARBARA MISLE Trading baseball cards in sixth grade might seem like a distant memory, but the skills you gained haggling and bargaining could turn into big bucks in college. At the University, there's a more sophisticated game of ticket trading you can find in play any day of the week in front of the Michigan Union. Ticket scalpers prowl the sidewalks on State Street pawning off football tickets to the highest bidding Wolverine fan. But scalping tickets can also be lucrative part-time work for students - and is probably more exciting than flipping burgers at a ;fast-food restaurant. DEALING WITH only five to 15 tickets a game, some student scalpers say they turn a $200 weekly profit for only a few hours work. "It is addictive when you are not losing money," said one student scalper who asked not to be identified. "The police never look around, the law is on a. ' s .< /. ._ A f... ::. vim.. , <:. ' ° , ,, ,x . . ': Scalping isn't a problem at the University. It (a problem) doesn't exist. Maybe at other schools, but not here. -Don Canham, University athletic director from $40 to $100, bringing skilled scalpers $30 to $75 a sale. Professional scalpers who purchase 100 season tickets, can haul in about $10,000 a season. "The profits add up if :you know what you are doing," said an Ann Arbor professional scalper who asked not to be identified. BUT STUDENT scalpers said that if spending money is all you are after, dealing in large volumes is not necessary. One University student who has scalped tickets for two years worked 'It was amazing. In aI turn into $200. It was in -a out a fine-tuned strategy with a partner for football Saturdays. The farther away a seller is from the stadium the cheaper the tickets are, the student ex- plained. His partner would buy tickets around the hill dorms for $6 a piece and then shuttle them to the stadium where he would re-sell them for three times as much. "FOR GOOD games, OSU, Notre Dame, and MSU you can charge $20 to $40, if the weather is nice," the LSA junior said. "I sell my ticket, then buy another which is cheaper. There is always someone trying to get rid of tickets. You buy cheap and sell high. "Some friends thought it was terrible, but I didn't care because I was making money. "It's practical," he said. Most student scalpers fall into the profit-making game after one lucky escapade. The same student began scalping at the 1980 Notre Dame game and was so successful he continued for the next two years. "I BOUGHT two Notre Dame tickets for $20, sold them for $60. I made $40 bucks and me and my girlfriend went out to dinner," he said. "The next week we bought two tickets for $25, and sold them to a business man for $90." On some Saturdays, "it was WHILE THE GOAL of trading baseball cards was filling at least three shoe boxes, football ticket scalpers want to get rid of their collections - by taking a bite out of your paycheck. A student ticket costs $6.50 this year, compared to $13 for non-student tickets. But on the average, scalpers charge $20 a ticket and up to $90 for popular games. There are scalpers of all ages, students, old men, amateurs, and professionals. And although the prac- tice is illegal, punishable by a 90-day jail sentence and $100 fine, the Ann Ar- bor police rarely enforce the law. THE CLAN which decorates the steps of the Union every fall is evidence of the lax enforcement. There are also professional scalpers who advertise daily in local newspapers and purchase 50 to 100 tickets every season to re-sell for a profit. The professionals usually have a large clientele and some work an 80-hour week, according to one local scalper. They spend thousands of 'dollars to make the original ticket purchases and buy newspaper ads, he said. paper, but in practice, it is not enfor- ced." Catching scalpers is "not a top priority," said Captain Kenneth Clinge of the Ann Arbor Police Department adding that he has never seen anyone jailed for scalping tickets. "There are not a lot of cases, but there are cases," Clinge said. "It's en- forced as workload permits. We don't have a big detail out looking." THERE ARE police around the stadium, but they mostly leave scalpers alone, said several local scalpers. The University's athletic department also tends to ignore scalping and the laws barring it. Unlike most schools, which check student identification at the gate, the University makes no effort to prevent non-students from using student tickets. University Athletic Director Don Can- ham said his office is not concerned with ticket scalping. "SCALPING ISN'T a problem at the University. It doesn't exist. Maybe at other schools, but not here," he said. "Students want to use their tickets because we have a winning team." amazing," he said. "In a half-hour, we saw $50 turn into $200." "It was insane," he said. ATTEMPTING TO cash in big a few times, however, is something professionals warn against. An over- confident attitude can bury students in debt. Profits depend entirely on the game and the weather, they said. If it rains "you go down the tubes," said an Ann Arbor professional scalper. When it rained at last year's Ohio State game, for example, most scalpers4 sold tickets for $6 and some gave them half-hour, we saw $50 asane.' student ticket scalper away, he said. Wolverine fans, for th most part, aren't too interested in a rain-drenched football field. There are horror stories. One in- cident told by several professional scalpers involved an out-of-state ;tudent, attending the University on grants and scholarships, who made $1,8G0 scalping tickets when Michigan played Notre Dame a few years ago. THE FOLLOWING week the student decided to use all of his grant and scholarship money to buy more tickets. When the rain poured Saturday mor- ning and no one was interested in the game, the rookie scalper was left pen- niless. There are many more students who lose money, according to the professionals, who said it takes years to make a consistent profit from scalping tickets. "Good service is the key to high profits," said one professional who ha built a strong clientele of Detroit an Ann Arbor business executives sine 1975. Instead of charging a client twice the price, this professional keeps invoices with the face value of the ticket clearly written on it and adds on a "service charge" for locating particular seats. For example, a doctor who wants two See WOLVERINE, Page 9 Daily Photo by JEFF SCHRIER Ticket scalpers like this one say they football tickets each week. "Perhaps scalping is worse for schools with losing teams when people want to get rid of their tickets," Canham siad. Professional scalpers said Canham's point of view is naive, but profitable. The "Go Blue" spirit which drives the Athletic Department to sell out the stadium also blinds the office to any methods used to fill the seats, they said. SCALPING IS widespread and un- controlled, according to several Ann Arbor scalpers. "If they didn't want scalpers, Canham could stop it," said an eight- year professional who would not give his name. "At Michigan State or Ohio State student tickets are used only by students. They check IDs or have make a big profit selling Wolverine separate admissions gate for students and non-students." At the University, he said, the Athletic Department's top priority is selling 100,000 tickets every week. If student ticket use was enforced, the scalping market would drop sharply, he said. "WHAT (CANHAM) wants is the illusion of desirability. He wants the Dublic to believe the University has no problem selling out seats. If he enfor- ced student ticket use, no one would buy tickets any more," he said. But the "big games" bring profits for scalpers as well as the Athletic Office. When the Wolverines take on Ohio State, Michigan State, or Notre Dame, a pair of scalped tickets costs anywhere Taxis, buses help stranded students By GEORGEA KOVANIS Most students come to the University without a car, but it does not mean they are marooned on campus. There are several inexpensive and sometimes even free services students can use to get around campus, downtown, or to nearby cities. The city buses, operated by the Ann Arbor Transportation Authority, are usually reliable, unless a foot of snow has just been dumped on the streets. In the winter, and especially during the holiday season, buses tend to be tardy and sometimes overcrowded. BUT THE fare is only 60 cents and the buses are heated in the winter and air conditioned in the summer. They are reasonably clean and well kept. The city also sponsors several free-fare and dime fare days throughout the year. Some popular routes among students are: . Route 6, Michigan Union to Briar- wood shopping mall - Briarwood is the average suburban shopping mall with all the big department stores such as Hudsons, Sears, and J.C. Penny's. Buses labeled "State-Ellsworth" run every half hour. Buses on this route get extremely crowded during the holdidays. " Route 9, Fourth Street at William to Westgate shopping mall - The Fox Village Theaters are located near Westgate, another major shopping cen- ter. Buses labeled "Jackson" run every half hour. " ROUTE 4, Washington Street to Eastern Michigan University - This is the bus to Ypsilanti. Pick up the bus, labeled "Washtenaw," in front of the Thano's Company Parking lot on Washington. It stops at Arborland shopping center, and runs every half hour. These are only a few of the routes; full schedules can be picked up at the Transportation Authority's main office on Fourth Street. If waiting for the city buses is too much of a hassle, taxis are an alter- native, although an expensive one. TWO CAB companies service Ann Ar- bor, Veteran's Cabs and Yellow Cab Company. Between them, they provide the city with about seventy taxis. Both are open 24 hours and will take passengers wherever they want to go, even out of state. Both companies charge a flat fee of $1 then $1.10 per mile or 20 cents a minute when the cab is stopped. Charges can be cut substantially, however, by split- ting the fare between several people Veteran's Cabs allows four people to ride for the price of one, while Yellow Cab lets four. Cabs usually take about ten to twenty minutes to arrive, but during bad weather the wait can stretch to nearly an hour. TAXIS CAN almost always be found at cab stands in front of the Union, Angell Hall, or the Michigan League. To be picked up at your door call Yellow Cab at 663-3355 or Veterans Cabs at 662-4477. The University runs its own shuttle service for central and North Campus. Buses labeled "commuter" run bet- ween Chrisler arena and the medical complex, making several stops on cen- tral campus. Commuter buses stop about every ten minutes until 6:00 on weekdays, and do not run on weekends; City starved for park By GEORGEA KOVANIS Planning to bring your car to school? Like many students, you will probably find that parking it is a hassle. Ann Arbor is starved for public 2 0%OFF the SERIES 10 HEWLETT-PACKARD at the UNIVERSITY CELLAR. Series 10 Handheld Calculators for Business, Science and Engineering, or computer science from a company famous for its quality. Explore their capabilities at the University Cellar, where the staff and special Warranty Protection are the finest in town. The Cellar provides free shipping and handling of warranty-covered repairs, and a FREE loaner calculator for the duration. you're on the right track with.. Army parking spaces, especially long term ones. The city streets are lined with metered spots, but the meters don't run for more than two hours, and they are usually full anyway. Most restaurants, stores, and shops own lots, but only for their customers. The University owns thousands of spaces, but only for em- ployees. And the few long term lots in town charge more than most students can pay. SO THE MAJORITY of drivers are stuck with no where to park. So they park illegally. And the city gives them a ticket. City ticketers don't miss much. In April and May alone, they handed out 49,620 tickets, and in one three-week stretch last spring they towed away 309, cars. Parking violators pay the city about $150,000 each month. "We do pay attention to our expired meters in Ann Arbor," says city parking manager Michael Scott, with more than a touch of understatement. THERE ARE, however, ways studen- ts can avoid the parking nightmare, or at least attempt to live with it. The University operates two lots, one on North Campus the other on Central Campus, where students can park for a price. Unfortunately, that price is $110 a year. Equally unfortunate is that there are North campus buses take students to Bursley and Baits Residence Halls or Northwood apartments every ten minutes for most of the day. After 6:00 p.m. they run every twenty minutes, and after 12:30 only every forty-five minutes. The last North Campus bu94 leaves at 2:15 a.m. and is always packed on weekends. North campus buses can be picked up at the C.C. Little Building or in front of the Kresge Medical center. In the winter the University also operates a van, called the Night Owl, which students can use to get around af- ter dark. The Night Owl is scheduled to run between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. and is free. Leaving every half hour, it runs from the south side of the Un-a dergraduate Library to various points on central campus. Night-Ride, a division of Veteran's Cabs, is another way students can get home safely at night. After 11:00 p.m. See TAXIS, Page 7 -Ing spots only 347 spaces, and the people who pa that $100 are considered lucky. PERMITS FOR the lots go on sale af- ter Labor Day at the Parking Operations Building. They are sold strictly on a fir- st-come first-served basis. The University also owns two free storage lots for students to park cars. The catch here is that you can only take ' your car out once a week. City operated parking structures are an even more expensive option for students with cars. For $35 a month students can park in any one of the city's five parking structures. THE MULTI-LEVELED ramps are located on Maynard Street, Forest Ave., Fourth Street and William, Washington Street and First Street, and Washington Street and Fourth. A problem with using these ramps is vandalism, however. It is not that unusual for a car to be almost destroyed by vandals, according to Bo Duty, the city street, parking, and traf- fic officer. He cites one case of "a brand new car, (that) had 1800 miles on it. They stripped it down," he says. "We have a certain amount of van- dalism in all of our structures," says Scott. The only really cheap and convenient way, to park in Ann Arbor is to find a See CITY, Page 7 IF YOU'VE SCHEDULED ARMY ROTC INTO YOUR COLLEGE CAREER, IT'S BECAUSE YOU KNOW THAT ROTC OFFERS THE CHANCE FOR YOU TO DEVELOP LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT SKILLS WHILE EARNING MONEY AT THE SAME TIME.