ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, March 26, 1996 TAG: 9603260078
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J.
SOURCE: Associated Press
SCALPERS are asking for as much as $8,000 for tickets to the Final Four.
It was madness all right Monday for people trying to buy tickets to the NCAA Final Four without taking out a bank loan.
``I've been in business 16 years, and I've never seen anything this absurd,'' said a New Jersey ticket broker who refused to be identified. ``It's crazy. I don't want to get involved with it.''
With just 18,500 seats available, brokers' prices ranged from $950 in the upper levels to $8,000 for courtside tickets to Saturday's semifinal games and Monday's championship contest at the Continental Airlines Arena.
``It's steep compared to other NCAAs, but you've got limited capacity, an East Coast location and East Coast teams,'' said a Chicago-based broker who would identify himself only as Richard.
``Obviously getting Syracuse and UMass are going to drive prices higher,'' he said. ``Mississippi State isn't going to help you, but overall I'd say the schools are pretty good and Kentucky is a big draw.''
Only 1,000 of the $70 three-game ticket packages were made available to the public through an NCAA-sponsored lottery last year. About 91,500 applications were received
Syracuse, Massachusetts, Mississippi State and Kentucky received 2,500 tickets apiece, the NCAA controlled 3,500, the National Association of Basketball Coaches got 3,000 and the Meadowlands Organizing Committee 1,000.
Fueling the steep prices is the limited seating. By comparison, 38,540 saw last year's championship game at the Kingdome in Seattle, and 64,151 attended the title game at New Orleans' Superdome in 1993.
Beginning in 1997, arenas must have a seating capacity of at least 30,000 to qualify for the Final Four.
``They're hot. Real hot,'' ticket manager Barb Donnelly said of Kentucky's allotment.
More than 1,200 students lined up at 6:30 a.m. Monday to participate in a lottery for 800 tickets. The other tickets were split among the athletic department and administration to sell to donors and others.
``They had calls last week from people from California and beyond saying, `I'd be willing to give $5,000 or $10,000 just to get on your donor list to get tickets,''' Donnelly said.
In Starkville, Miss., students started camping out at Mississippi State's ticket office shortly after the Bulldogs beat Cincinnati on Sunday for a chance at several hundred tickets.
A Potomac, Md., man who would identify himself only as Chris, ran a $300 ad in USA Today seeking tickets, possibly from a college student looking to make some fast cash.
He spent $200 for a ticket to last year's Final Four and was willing to spend as much as $1,000 this year. He had no callers by midday Monday.
``It's in a small arena in New Jersey next to New York and everybody wants to go,'' he said. ``They have to pop up sooner or later. Hopefully the economy in Mississippi isn't doing great.''
Russell Ford, president of Syracuse's northern New Jersey alumni branch, started working the phones early Monday, trying to get tickets to the games to be played just 30 minutes from his Morristown home.
``I'm resigned to the fact we're not going to get tickets because they're just not available,'' said Ford, 30. ``Would I love to go the game? Yes, but you have to be a realist.''
The availability of tickets has been an especially controversial point in New Jersey, where critics complained the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority was hoarding 1,000 tickets for government officials and VIPs.
President Robert Mulcahy defended the authority, and said the agency was following an NCAA formula used at other Final Four sites.
The Legislature in June repealed a 1983 law that placed a cap on ticket scalping at 20-percent above face value. Under an 18-month test, brokers can resell the tickets for whatever they can get.
Richard, the Chicago broker, said he sold a pair of tickets for lower-level seats for $10,000 Monday. His prices started at $1,500.
``Most people are buying the $1,500-type seats because most people can't afford $5,000 to go to a basketball game,'' he said.
But the New Jersey broker said prices should drop throughout the week.
``People aren't dumb. They aren't going to pay that kind of money to see a basketball game,'' he said. ``You can buy an entertainment center for that.''
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