New ticket policy will hurt UT Athletics Department

The Athletics Department argues that in response to the student boycott of football games, they will simply resell these overpriced tickets to the general public (“Athletics to sell unused student tickets,” April 22). Apparently the Athletics Department does not understand economics.

For many games, football tickets already fail to sell out. Wide spaces of seating often remain largely unpopulated. Now athletics wants to raise general ticket prices further as well as charge students. To pretend that the general population will buy out the regular tickets and then buy out the empty student section, even after the price increase, is pure fantasy.

Students cannot afford to pay $15 per game, on top of their high activity fees. Therefore, many students will stop attending games altogether. With the exception of certain high-profile games like Florida, significant sections of seating will remain empty.

The Athletics Department assumes that raising prices will magically generate more money, but real businessmen know better. Customers respond to prices. For example, McDonald’s cannot profit simply by charging $5 more per hamburger. Athletics hastily decided to jack up ticket prices astronomically, but they forgot to study whether the market can actually support this increase. In fact, they have no evidence at all that the price increase will even improve revenues.

In trying to rip off the student body, athletics is shooting itself in the foot.

Drew Justice

First-year law student