The NCAA needs tickets

For those of you wondering, the NCAA is not in business to split up dollars from TV contracts, March Madness and bowl games. How do I know? Myles Brand tells me so everytime he is interviewed and because they say so right there on their website.

Our purpose is to govern competition in a fair, safe, equitable and sportsmanlike manner, and to integrate intercollegiate athletics into higher education so that the educational experience of the student-athlete is paramount.

So it has nothing to do with making money hand over fist for “member athletic departments”, right Myles? Srr50 thinks so.

Why would a college football playoff system crush our poor student athletes and ruin the profitable bowl system? Maybe that is why ESPN just announced that they are creating a 33rd bowl game in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Which brings me to this year’s Final Four tickets for San Antonio…

The NCAA is having its official ticket package provider, RazorGator, move large blocks of prime tickets online at markups of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. Most of these blocks come from tickets purchased by RazorGator from the NCAA at face value, says Jeff Lapin, chief executive officer of RazorGator. That is also known as ticket scalping, Guido.

I decided to check out the options on RG and the cheapest seats are $324. The good news is that they are in a different zip code. To actually see one of the games, the tickets range from $3,000 to 11,000.

The NCAA entered the ticket resale business last year. It did so to protect its financial interests and to protect fans from counterfeit tickets, says Greg Shaheen, the NCAA’s senior vice president for basketball and business strategies. Greg thinks you are an idiot.

The NCAA and RazorGator are splitting the proceeds. I assume the additional proceeds are in the 10-15 million dollar range. Don’t worry. Next year’s Final Four (and every year thereafter) will be in mega-stadiums with a minimum seating capacity of 70,000 or another 30,000 seats from this year’s venue in San Antonio.

Ironically, the coaches’ association strips members of Final Four ticket privileges for five years if they are caught reselling their tickets. Ask Mike Tice — the NFL does the same for its Super Bowl tickets.

Last year, the men’s tournament generated $503 million in television revenue and $47 million in ticket sales.