Fans heading out to see Vanderbilt University play football this season will notice a whole different look around the Commodores’ stadium. In response to past game day issues and complaints from patrons, the university has teamed up with ISP to regulate all game day sales around the various Vanderbilt athletic venues.
Taking a cue from the other sports programs around the country, both collegiate and professional, Vanderbilt believes that this new policy will protect both fans and licensed merchandise agents from counterfeit goods as well as unfair competition.
“Vanderbilt decided to create this policy to combat challenges we have had the past few years with unlicensed products being sold on our campus, counterfeiting ticket sales, and unfair competition with companies who have a contract to sell/display products in our concessions and game day activities,” explained Maggie Huckaba, Director of Trademark Licensing for the university, in an e-mail to TicketNews, “Moving forward, anyone interested in participating in game day activities, will need to contact our media rights provider, ISP. ISP oversees all activities on game days.”
Under the new policy, “any and all sales on game days” will be handled through ISP, according to Huckaba. However, fans wishing to exchange tickets to upcoming athletic events may also do so through the university’s Seat Exchange program. Similar to sites such as StubHub, the Seat Exchange allows for the posting and reselling of tickets over the internet, thus saving fans from having to haggle with street scalpers and risk buying counterfeit tickets. “Fans who make a late decision to attend a game, will often be able to purchase a ticket from our own box office,” Huckaba added.
In terms of the legal right to resell tickets within the city of Nashville, those laws will not be affected by this new policy. While the resale of tickets is legal within Nashville as long as the vendor possesses the correct permit, there are specific regulations regarding where such resale is allowed. The athletic facilities of Vanderbilt University are located outside the boundaries where ticket resale is permitted.
The ultimate goal of this new policy is to protect fans and ensure that their experience at Vanderbilt sporting events is safe and enjoyable. According to Huckaba, “Our hope is that this new policy will help ensure that fans who have purchased official tickets to our games, will be able to enter without a problem.”