“How many ya need?” said the man who only referred to himself as Big Daddy in a loud, muffled voice. “Two, three? I got lower level. That’s what’s up.”
The unassuming Bulldog fan, accompanied by his female companion, waved his fingers in front of his throat in a choppy motion and quickly shook his head, “I’m good man,” he said while continuing past the practice facility construction site at the Hump to watch the Bulldogs open their basketball season versus Rider.
This conversation, more or less, repeated itself a few times until Daddy got a bite.
A burly State fan approached Daddy in front of the Hump’s east side. “You need these, man?” he said, holding two tickets.
“Yeah, I’ll take ’em off you for $10,” Daddy said.
“$10?” snapped the fan. “Really? The price is $18 for one.”
“It’s too close to tipoff; that’s all I can do, brother – can’t get rid of what I got,” Daddy said.
“Fine, take ’em,” said the fan, knowing Daddy was his best option.
Daddy, an avid ticket scalper from Starkville whose hobby calls for travel to schools within the immediate region – namely Alabama, Ole Miss and Memphis – said his trade is nothing more than a “side hustle” for him.
“Us older cats, we are just trying to make an extra dollar, to feed our family and keep our bills paid, that’s it man,” he said. “We aren’t trying to start trouble. We are just coming out there to enjoy the atmosphere and make a few extra bucks. I have a job. It’s just a way to make a little extra money.”
Daddy said, especially during basketball season, he usually buys tickets from various community members prior to games for under face value. He said his connections know to come to him with their various ticket needs, and a half-price purchase is not uncommon for him. He said, in turn, he usually sells tickets on game days for close to the printed price, unless the contest is of high caliber.
In essence, the definition of a ticket scalper is one who sells tickets for more than face value. Mississippi law states selling tickets for athletic events at a price “in excess of the price printed on the face of the ticket” is unlawful and worthy of a misdemeanor offense.
Daddy said he believes the illegal status of ticket scalping is ridiculous in its nature. He said he fails to understand why tickets can be sold over the Internet, legally, at Web sites like Ebay or Stubhub in excess of $1000 for major sporting events, but he could possibly be arrested for selling a ticket for $10 over its value in face-to-face scenarios.
Currently on Stubhub, upper-level section 214 tickets for the Kentucky at MSU basketball game are being sold for $200 each.
Daddy said reaching the $100 per game mark is a standard industry goal for scalpers.
“It’s just like the market. If you have a liquor license, you buy the liquor wholesale, turn around and make a profit, right? That’s the American way,” he said. “This is just like going to work; it’s a job to me.”
Regardless of intentions, fan’s encounters with ticket scalpers are not always of a cordial nature. Bobby Tomlinson, associate director of game operations, said MSU’s athletic department has received several calls of complaints over the years in reference to scalpers’ obnoxious behavior, which sometimes borders harassment.
“We have gotten numerous complaints of people being bothered from all directions as they approach the stadium as people try to either obtain tickets or sell tickets,” he said.
Will Staggers, a senior majoring in physical education, said he experienced an unpleasant encounter with a scalper about 2 p.m. the day of the Alabama football game. He said a man barged into his tailgating tent, announcing to him and his friends he had a $100 50-yard line ticket for sale. Staggers said he quickly discovered the ticket was for standing room only, meaning the ticket only allowed for people to sit in fold-out chairs on the east side of Scott Field where the top of the lower level meets the club level.
“Really, he was just saying you can walk over to the 50-yard line and stand,” Staggers said. “If you are going to approach me, without even asking me if I need a ticket, don’t come at me with this 50-yard line s—.”
In fact, the old 50-yard line mantra notches as fairly mild when it comes to scalpers’ most recent deceptive tactics leading up to MSU games. Tomlinson said fans should be weary of counterfeit tickets coming from scalpers, as a handful were discovered during the Alabama game. He said his staff became aware of the problem when tainted tickets registered as “already used” after scanning. Game-day security staff was promptly informed, who now possess a keener eye for wayward tickets, he said.
Brian Hadad, manager of a Columbus restaurant who has been attending MSU athletic events since he was 5, said he despises ticket scalpers for their loud, boorish behavior. He said the only way to effectively eliminate scalpers’ presence is via technology.
“I think ticket scalping will become a thing of the past. The university will come to a point where you print your ticket off from a computer, and if you aren’t going to make the games, there will be a way to transfer them electronically,” he said. “I think paper tickets will become a little less prevalent in the next five to 10 years.”
For now, scalpers seem likely to be mainstay at all significant MSU athletic contests. Daddy said his kind, which blankets all races, genders and ages, grow in numbers every year.
MSU police officer Thad Edwards said at a day’s end, ticket scalping has always been a secondary issue for his department.
“If you tie up all the officers, ya know, just dealing with scalpers, we wouldn’t be able to handle all the other situations that come up,” he said.
Edwards said since selling tickets for face value or below is legal, the only way to break the scalping ring would be through undercover work, which would be an overzealous use of police resources.
Tomlinson said the athletic department is currently defining a perimeter around athletic facility ticket offices where ticket reselling will be prohibited.
“Well, if they are right there by the ticket area, we’ll run em off,” Edwards said. “Tell them, you know, you need to find somewhere else.”
Daddy said he believes scalpers get stereotyped and do not deserve all of the negative sentiments some fans and the administration hold toward them.
“I mean, we aren’t bothering nobody; we aren’t pullin’ no gun on nobody; we aren’t selling drugs,” he said. “It’s not like I enjoy walking around for two hours. I go out there and make me a few dollars, and then I go home.”