Changes in policy by Ticketmaster and the University of North Dakota mean that students who purchase season tickets for the school’s men’s hockey program will not be able to resell them for any games they cannot attend, according to reporting by the Grand Forks Herald.
Students learning of this new policy expressed their displeasure.
“I thought it was kind of a rip off,” UND freshman Abby Heilman told the Herald. “I just think it’s still really unfair that this is happening. It’s just kind of like they’re just taking our money.”
In the past, UND students with season tickets had been able to post them for sale on a closed system powered by Ticketmaster, where other students could purchase them. But Ticketmaster opted to shut that system off for the upcoming season. That meant that any tickets posted for sale by students would be purchasable by anyone – student and non-student alike – and the school decided it didn’t want to let that happen.
“Really the decision was made for us and Ticketmaster made that decision,” said Kyle Doperalski, an associate athletic director.
“We want to make sure we keep the fan experience, for everybody, as best as it possibly can go,” he said. “So, we want this student section to be exclusively students. We don’t want any non-students in there. We want to make sure we keep that student experience true to the students at The Ralph.”
UND has long been one of the most successful programs in collegiate ice hockey, skating to eight NCAA championships, most recently in 2016. Playing in the 11,634 seat Ralph Engelstad Arena, the team has had the highest attendance in the NCAA for the past eight years, drawing 216,570 fans in the 2018-19 season.
Photo via UND Athletics website at https://fightinghawks.com/news/2019/8/20/mens-hockey-und-rea-announce-new-long-term-extension-to-usage-agreement.aspx