Yankees game spurs ticket controversy As thousands of disappointed Virginia Tech faculty, students, staff and alumni checked their e-mails last Monday and saw nothing about the March 18 Yankee game, many of those who did receive the coveted e-mail were faced with a choice: attend the game or give in to the temptation of desperate Facebook messages offering money for the seats.

Every qualified person who registered in the lottery for a chance at the tickets was required to check a box before proceeding that warned those registering that it is against the athletic department's policy to sell or attempt to sell a sporting event lottery ticket above the value it was bought for. Since the Yankees are donating their performance to the school in light of the events of last April, tickets to the event are free for all attendees.

Despite the controversy about who should have been eligible for tickets, the bigger concern for students now seems to be the number of offerings to purchase tickets from lottery winners that began to pop up on Facebook marketplace only hours after the winning ticket e-mails were sent out Monday.

"I don't think its right to sell tickets for profit, especially for a something being donated; that's a charitable event," said sophomore English major Zaki Barzinji. Barzinji himself didn't register for the Yankee lottery, but didn't think selling a free ticket to classmates was fair.

The Facebook marketplace is a relatively new feature on the social networking site that allows students to buy and sell personal items, similar to bidding Web sites like eBay. Offering prices for the tickets had topped $200 on Tuesday, and any amount of money earned on the tickets would be 100 percent profit.

Though ticket scalping for normal season athletic events at Tech is often rampant, the athletic office has begun pursuing students who attempt to make profit on their sporting event tickets.

"We started (monitoring buy/sell Web sites) back during the football season. We first included a dialogue box when students signed up for the lottery that indicates it is against the athletic office policy to resell a ticket above the ticket value," said Stephen Medley, associate ticket manager for the athletic office. "We want to make sure there isn't a student using it to profit off something they haven't paid for. That is not the intention of the lottery."

Medley said that the names of students who had posted offers to sell their tickets on the Facebook marketplace were collected with the help of the IT Department, and those people identified will be receiving an e-mail from the athletic office in the next few days informing them they have gone against the office policy and will be denied entrance to any athletic lotteries in the future for an undetermined amount of time.

The lottery access suspension has been the standard penalty for students being caught attempting to make a profit off an athletic ticket since the new system was enacted during the 2007 football season.

"Our main concern is the selling of student tickets above their face value," Medley said. "A ticket sold for face value we don't have an issue with that, and students are free to give their (Yankee) tickets away."

Ryan Hunt, a freshman communication major, registered for the lottery but didn't receive a Yankee ticket.

"I think it can get a little out of hand," Hunt said. "(The Yankees) are coming for a good service, and if you're selling your ticket, you're abusing that, especially at some of the ridiculous prices. They're doing the school a big favor, and you're abusing that."

E-mail requests for interviews to several students found selling tickets on Facebook marketplace Monday were not returned.