There’s no law in West Virginia that prohibits ticket scalping, but buying tickets from an unauthorized source could end in wasted money and rejection at the gate.
“I think it’s always safe to take the approach, buyer beware,” WVU Senior Associate Athletics Director Matt Wells said. “The best way to guarantee buying a valid ticket is to buy from the office directly.”
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey has also warned football fans to be careful when buying tickets.
Ticket scalping isn’t allowed on WVU property, WVU Police Chief W.P. Chedester said.
“Normally what we do is have them leave the property and if they return and continue the same activity of scalping tickets, we’ll cite them for trespassing,” he said.
For the most part, scalpers know the university doesn’t allow the practice on its property and they stay off campus, along the route to the stadium, Chedester said.
That isn’t always the case, however. At WVU’s home opener against JMU, one person was shooed off university property twice before being cited for trespassing, Chedester said.
Scalpers are normally pretty easy to spot, thanks to the iconic “I need tickets” signs — but that isn’t enough to take action, according to Chedester.
“We don’t act on that alone,” he said. “We wait for them to conduct a transaction with tickets and that’s when we move in.”
Wells said while scalpers are one way to get tickets, especially for a sold-out game, there’s no way to know if you’re getting a duplicated or stolen ticket. It’s not a common problem, but it does happen from time to time, he said.
WVU has partnered with StubHub and the school’s ticketing software is integrated with the company, Wells said.
Buying tickets through the university or StubHub is the only way to make sure there isn’t an issue with your ticket on game day, Wells said.
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