Curb on scalpers

With a sigh of relief, University Athletic Association of the Philippines (UAAP) president Sonny Paguia of host school National University (NU) said scalpers failed to corner a sizable share of the tickets sold for the dream bill at the Big Dome last Saturday.

The blockbuster attraction featured a pair of men’s seniors basketball games–University of the East (UE) versus University of Sto. Tomas (UST) and La Salle versus Ateneo. The Araneta Coliseum was packed to the rafters. But the UAAP missed out on a golden opportunity for a windfall. A UE versus UST stand-alone contest would’ve whirled the turnstiles crazy just like a La Salle versus Ateneo confrontation. Imagine doubling the gate receipts if only the UAAP Board agreed to break tradition.

La Salle and Ateneo tried to disengage from the doubleheader. Their argument was more fans would be able to watch the game, meaning more income for the UAAP. The UAAP Board, however, wouldn’t budge. Besides, the ABS-CBN network liked the concept of two seniors games for its Saturday afternoon coverage.

Paguia admitted he backed up the proposal to split the games as it would’ve put a lot more cash into the UAAP coffers to support the 13 sports other than basketball in the varsity calendar. The Board ruled out "preferential treatment" for Ateneo and La Salle, being non-founding members, as after all, they are just two of the eight schools in the UAAP.

"It’s like an old boys club," said a disgruntled La Salle alumnus, referring to the UAAP Board. "Sometimes, you’ve got to be a little creative and depart from tradition to be in tune with the times. ABS-CBN would’ve surely supported the idea of a Saturday doubleheader featuring the juniors and seniors teams of either UE versus UST or La Salle versus Ateneo. Just because Ateneo and La Salle aren’t founding members is no reason to reject a proposal that would’ve meant a tremendous boost to the UAAP."

On Sept. 14, La Salle and Ateneo face off in the second round. Once more, they will share the bill with two other schools–Adamson and Far Eastern University.

Ateneo and La Salle are again trying to convince the Board to split the bill. They’re not likely to succeed. Paguia said the Board’s decision is final. Too bad. Missing the boat once is forgivable. But missing it twice?

La Salle team manager Manny Salgado even suggested to double the ticket prices for the second round match against Ateneo with the increment to be donated by the UAAP to the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) for the national athletes bound for the Asian Games in Busan on Sept. 29-Oct. 14.

"If there are buyers for a P200 patron ticket at P3,000, why not increase the face value price to P400," said Salgado. "Instead of the scalpers making such a big profit, why not the UAAP get a share of the increment?"

Paguia said the Board wouldn’t agree to it either. "The league caters mainly to students so we want the tickets to be affordable," he explained. "The UAAP isn’t just Ateneo and La Salle. The Board wouldn’t like to make exceptions to the rule only for two schools."

Paguia estimated that only three percent of Saturday’s tickets fell into scalpers’ hands. Discounting general admission tickets, the take would’ve been over P250,000 in the black market–assuming Paguia’s estimate.

Paguia said NU, as host school, made sure the distribution of tickets was strictly controlled. It was so strict, he said, that in the end, he still had four patron and four lower box tickets on hand–they were reserved for buyers who failed to pick them up.

Paguia said the Big Dome ticket office took 20 percent of the total, 10 percent went to "committed" groups (like the other schools in the league, the PSC, ABS-CBN and sponsors), and the balance or 70 percent divided equally among the four participating schools in the bill.

Araneta’s seating capacity for basketball is 16,795–including 1,000 SRO upper box A and 1,200 SRO upper box B tickets. Aside from the SRO seats, the breakdown is as follows: 64 press, 1,130 patron, 958 lower box, 2,727 upper box A, 4,896 upper box B, and 5,000 general admission.

Face value prices for Saturday’s games were P200 for patron, P150 for lower box, P100 for upper box A, P50 for upper box B, and P20 for general admission. Confirmed scalpers’ prices were P3,000 for patron, P2,000 for lower box, P600 for upper box A, and P400 for upper box B.

La Salle Alumni Association president Lito Tanjuatco provided the breakdown of the allocation for his school–145 patron, 178 lower box, 500 upper box A, 900 upper box B, and 100 general admission or 1,823 tickets. La Salle’s allocation was 10.8 percent of the total. Assuming the four participating schools had the same allocation, their total would be 7,292 tickets or 43.4 percent of the entire lot.

Of the patron tickets, the four schools took in 580, leaving a balance of 550. If the UAAP Board got a 10 percent allocation, it took only 113 patron tickets. If Araneta’s share was 20 percent, then it took in 226 patron tickets. The figures don’t add up to 1,130. What happened to the unaccounted 211 patron tickets? If they were gobbled up by scalpers, the take would’ve been some P633,000. And if half of the SRO tickets went to the black market, the scalpers’ pot could’ve hit P1.17 Million.

Paguia said Araneta’s share of tickets was sold to the public before the schools got their portion. So it’s highly possible that scalpers lined up for the Araneta tickets which found their way to the black market.

Paguia said it’s impossible that the complimentary tickets to the PSC were sold in the black market because they were given directly to chairman Eric Buhain and they were less than 20. Non-participating schools got only 10 tickets so they couldn’t be a major source for scalpers. ABS-CBN got about 50 complimentary tickets but Paguia said they were all accounted for, too. Paguia figured that spillage from Araneta’s share was the primary source of black market tickets and he stressed, that couldn’t have been more than three percent of the total.

Last Saturday’s ticket was the hottest in town since the Corrs concert. On Sept. 14, the demand for tickets will probably be bigger because Rich Alvarez will be back in harness. Thousands will once more be disenfranchised from watching the game because of lack of tickets. And scalpers will be back with a vengeance. What a pity that the UAAP Board isn’t receptive to the idea of a two-school, stand-alone format.