Company bets students want tickets to Final Four

A Chicago-based company is betting that basketball fans have a crushing desire to travel to… A Chicago-based company is betting that basketball fans have a crushing desire to travel to San Antonio and cheer on their favorite teams in the Final Four and National Championship games.

In the past, such a trip might have been out of the question, but The Ticket Reserve will try to turn students’ dreams into reality — for a price.

According to NCAA rules, each school in the tournament must purchase at least 350 single-session tickets for the first and second rounds, with the option of purchasing an additional 200.

Though Pitt took the full allotment, the tickets are already gone.

But students have another option. The Ticket Reserve has bought the equivalent of 12 tickets per team for the Final Four, 48 for the semi-finals and 24 for the championship game — and they’re looking for students to buy them.

The process that takes place on their Web site, www.ticketreserve.com, lets students follow a process similar to buying and selling stock. Customers purchase “event certificates” for any of the 64 teams in the NCAA tournament. The initial prices for the certificates vary between $25 and $100, according to how likely The Ticket Reserve thinks the team is to make it to the Final Four.

The initial cost of a Pitt certificate is $50.

Having purchased the certificates, students are allowed to sell their own certificates on the Web site for any price they choose to set.

Of course, they also have the option of holding onto them, too.

If a student’s team makes it all the way to the Final Four, the student can then present her event certificate and purchase tickets at face value from The Ticket Reserve.

Duke, UConn, Stanford, Arizona, Louisville and Kentucky are the only teams with initial event certificate costs of $100. The Ticket Reserve keeps all of the profit from the cost of the certificates, as well as 10 percent of the commission for every resale.

“To me, the Web site is confusing,” sophomore Kelly Wawrzeniak said. “Then again, I’ve never heard of it before or had experience with a Web site like that. After going through all the trouble of figuring it out, I’d probably enjoy watching the game on TV just as much.”

People are currently bidding between $50 and $110 on the site for Pitt certificates to the Final Four games, and sellers are asking $135 for their certificates. Bidders are offering to pay as much as $75 for Pitt certificates to the National Championship game and between $175 and $220 to sell them.

“I think it’s great that students can actually go cheer and make some noise in the crowd for [the teams],” sophomore Curtis Atchison said, discussing the idea that the Web site might allow more students to be able to attend the games.

The Web site provided the ticket service for this year’s Super Bowl game. The process went very smoothly, company representatives said. The markets will open in April for the Indianapolis 500 and next year’s Super Bowl.

Meanwhile, most Pitt fans are out of luck if they hoped to purchase tickets through the school. Most tickets have been promised to season ticket holders and the school’s top donors, though there will be a limited number of student tickets available.

The same situation applies if the Panthers make it to the Final Four.

“I don’t think it’s fair, because the top donors and season ticket holders get the top choice,” said Pitt junior Mike Sweeney, discussing the distribution of tickets for the NCAA tournament.

Although some of Pitt’s tickets went to the players’ guests, the vast majority were given away based upon a points system, on a pre-order basis. This is done according to the order of the highest-ranking Team Pittsburgh members.

A small number of student tickets were sold early Tuesday morning at the Petersen Events Center.

If Pitt wins its first two games, the University will have to purchase 500 all-session tickets, with the option of purchasing 750 for the third and fourth rounds. If that option arises, Pitt will likely purchase all 1,250 tickets.