A little over a year after a ticketing scandal rocked the school’s athletic department, the University of Kansas is turning to StubHub and Paciolan to launch a new ticket resale marketplace.
The new exchange will allow fans to resell Kansas sports tickets at market prices, and the athletic department emphasized the system’s openness.
“This integrated solution will provide our fans with a safe, guaranteed, and transparent ticketing platform,” Terry Mohajir, senior associate athletics director, said in a joint statement this week.
Last year, several former athletic department employees were convicted on federal charges for their roles in a multi-million-dollar scheme to siphon tickets out of the department, resell them to area brokers and pocket the profits.
The former employees reportedly used fake or abbreviated names to create fictitious accounts in the system where they redirected tickets. Five received prison sentences as a result of their convictions, and two received probation.
The school’s athletic department instituted several safeguards to make sure nothing like that ever happens again, including the hiring of a forensic auditor. Additionally, the department more closely scrutinizes ticket requests, and it has separated various responsibilities in the ticketing office.
The StubHub/Paciolan deal was negotiated on the school’s behalf by its marketing partner IMG College, which has worked with both companies on similar deals in the past.
“Certainly, University of Kansas and IMG College wanted to provide fans an efficient, safe and easy-to-use secondary ticketing marketplace, and StubHub and Paciolan have provided that,” IMG College spokesperson Andrew Giangola told TicketNews. “Jayhawks fans will have a secure and reliable online solution for purchasing tickets in the secondary market.”
The deal marks the launch of StubHub’s 26th college ticket marketplace, according to Danielle Maged, the company’s head of partnerships and business development.
“As we’ve proven via existing agreements with many colleges, this technology integration adds another layer of protection to ensure all Jayhawk fans can purchase tickets on the secondary market with assurance,” Maged said in the joint statement.
“We think all Jayhawks fans will appreciate the added protection of a guaranteed valid ticket that will come with this integrated solution,” Paciolan CEO Dave Butler added in the same statement.
