It’s the Hottest Ticket in Town

With the demand for Rose Bowl tickets at an all-time high, several area ticket brokers said Monday they are asking as much as $900 apiece.

“Its unprecedented,” said Brad Schy, president of Brentwood-based Musical Chairs ticket agency. “The Rose Bowl game between UCLA and Wisconsin a couple of years ago didn’t get close to this.”

Fueling the demand is heavy interest among fans of both teams in Thursday’s game. No. 1 Michigan is playing for a national title, and Washington State is returning to the Rose Bowl game for the first time in 67 years.

Rose Bowl and Pacific 10 Conference officials have also noticed a difference.

“This probably beats the Wisconsin game for the amount of ticket requests,” said Jim Muldoon, a spokesman for the Pac-10. “I was bombarded with requests. Usually, I have 15 to 20 tickets in my pocket when I come to Pasadena the day after Christmas. This year my tickets were gone by December 1.”

Washington State received 350,000 ticket requests for the 35,000 tickets it received. Michigan, which averages more than 106,000 for home games, received an allotment of 26,000 tickets.

“There is a lot of interest back home,” said Michigan Athletic Director Tom Goss, who has complained about not being able to meet the demand of Wolverine fans. “We have a shot at a national championship, a Heisman Trophy winner and coach of the year.

“If tickets really are selling at those prices, I have a real problem with our fans having to pay $600 and $700 to see their team play.”

Calls to several area ticket brokers Monday resulted in prices that ranged from $750 to $900.

Richard Marlowe of Star Tickets in West Los Angeles blames the high price in part on brokers, who take orders for tickets at a promised price, then must deliver no matter what the cost.

“Some of these guys set a price and didn’t foresee the demand,” Marlowe said. “Now, they don’t want to face the repercussions of not meeting their obligations so they are scrambling to find tickets and paying a lot of money for them and losing their shirt in the process.”

Marlowe said the practice of taking orders for Rose Bowl tickets isn’t unprecedented and sometimes is very profitable.

“When Penn State came out, they didn’t have huge support,” Marlowe said. “That worked out well for some brokers. You took advance orders, you bought them at a reasonable price and were able to earn some profit.”

Schy said he began taking orders for tickets in November, before who would be playing in the Rose Bowl had been decided.

Schy set his price at $225, as did numerous other brokers, thinking he could get his hands on tickets for less money as soon as they became available.

“I’m paying $600 and more for tickets that I have to sell at $225,” Schy said. “I’m taking a bath on this. The market was set too low. To meet my obligation to the customers I promised tickets to last month, I’ve got to pay the going price and it hasn’t stopped climbing.”

Rose Bowl, Pac-10 and Big Ten officials take precautions to limit tickets that go to the “secondary market.”

To keep students and faculty honest, Goss made them accept vouchers for their tickets until the day before the game, when they will receive the real thing.

“I took some heat from the faculty,” Goss said. “But I wanted to ensure that the people who really wanted to go, and not those who just wanted to make a buck, got tickets.”

Muldoon said he thinks the tickets, which have a face value of $75, are underpriced.

“Raising the price is something we’ve talked about for a while and we’ll probably do in the near future,” Muldoon said.

The price was last raised for the 1996 game, from $48. If another increase sounds unreasonable, it’s a bargain when compared to Super Bowl tickets, which have a face value of $275.

*

ROSE BOWL

Michigan vs. Washington St.

When: Thursday

Time: 2 p.m.

Where: Pasadena

TV: Channel 7

* ROLE PLAYING

Washington State is part Dangerfield, part David as underdog against No. 1 Michigan. C5