Ticket Hopes Not Rosy for Many

WOODLAND HILLS — Right after Michigan scored the winning touchdown against Ohio State that put them in the Rose Bowl, Angie McIntire of Westland, Mich., was on the telephone making travel plans to Pasadena.

McIntire shelled out $3,000 for air fare, a hotel room and tickets for the parade and game for herself and her 10-year-old nephew, Luigi. She was told by tour operators Premier Sports Tours of Tampa, Fla., that she would get her game tickets at Detroit Metropolitan Airport when her flight departed late Monday night.

At the airport, McIntire was told by ticket broker Worldwide Sport Travel Inc. of Atlanta that the tickets would be waiting at the hotel Tuesday.

By Tuesday evening, however, the tickets had yet to arrive and McIntire found herself among 300 Wolverine fans at the Warner Center Marriott Hotel whose vociferous complaints had prompted hotel managers, fearing a possible riot, to call police to the scene.

Wednesday morning, McIntire and several others from the tour group decided to salvage their trip by buying tickets on their own--at $250 a piece on top of the $225 per ticket they had already paid.

“This is a trip of a lifetime because the winner will be national champion,” McIntire said, as she waited with Luigi to board a bus for a pep rally at Citrus College in Glendora. “After all we’ve been through, they better win.”

She and other fans speculated they were victims of the mercurial tides of sport-ticket supply and demand. As ticket prices soared from their $75 face value to as much as $950, fans said, Worldwide Sport Travel probably could no longer buy tickets for tour group members at the contracted price of $225. Company representatives would not comment.

Although McIntire was among the lucky few to get any tickets, Doug Stevens of Harrison Township, Mich., and his golfing buddy, Blair Willard of Sterling Heights, Mich., still weren’t sure on Wednesday if they’d be in the stadium for today’s 2 p.m. kickoff.

If Worldwide didn’t come through with seats for the Michigan-Washington State matchup, Stevens said they’d try to get tickets outside the stadium.

“I’ve been a season ticket holder since 1976,” Stevens said. “At the start of the season I said, ‘If Michigan goes all the way, I’ll be at the Rose Bowl.’ ”

The Michigan fans’ chances of getting into the game improved somewhat Wednesday afternoon when Countrywide Home Loans of Pasadena donated 10 tickets for a drawing among tour group members. Meanwhile, executives of the Warner Center Marriott Hotel were scrambling late Wednesday to find a big screen television for guests unable to get into the game.

Wolverines’ fans were not the only ones affected by the snafu. Washington State fan Judy Canfield of Tacoma, Wash., booked her trip through Premier and Worldwide, and ended up at the wrong hotel--the Marriott, teeming with Michigan fans.

And another Wolverines crowd, a 900-member group organized by AAA Michigan, was notified only last Friday that its tickets, reserved and paid for weeks ago, had not been purchased by the ticket agency.

“Needless to say we were surprised and disappointed,” said Nancy Cain, a spokeswoman for the group.

She said Collegiate Athletics, the ticket broker for the group, and representatives of AAA frantically called other brokers and finally secured enough tickets for the group by 1 p.m. Wednesday.

“We’ve been scrambling,” she said.

In 1993, 1,000 or more Wisconsin fans were denied a chance to see their Badgers defeat UCLA, 21-16, when ticket brokers were unable to supply what turned out to be an overwhelming demand for seats.

Several ticket agencies were sued for damages, and the California Legislature responded by passing a law that makes it a crime for brokers to sell or advertise tickets they do not possess or have an option to buy.

Los Angeles police officers, who returned to the Warner Center Marriott on Wednesday to ensure order, had this bit of advice for their disappointed charges: “Show up before game time and see if they can buy tickets . . . from someone who might not have any use for them,” as LAPD spokesman Anthony Alba relayed it.

Of course, if those holding extra tickets sell them for more than their face value, Alba said, it’s a crime of a different sort. Scalping.

Times staff writer Richard Lee Colvin contributed to this story.