How Georgia Tech Plans To Compete With StubHub

Anyone who has been to a college football or basketball game has seen or been approached by scalpers. And if by chance you haven't, or don't know what it is, scalpers essentially predated services like StubHub (and still have the advantage of being able to walk up and by a ticket). It's a business, a for-profit business, although it's not legal in most states and schools tend to chase them off when they're discovered working a game.

StubHub and the like changed the perceptions of the secondary market though, to the point where schools themselves are now competing with the services and scalpers.

Enter Georgia Tech and the brilliantly named (if somewhat unsettling nonetheless) RamblinRates.com, where the university will sell you a ticket to see UNC or Louisville.

It's a bit different than scalping and StubHub: for one, everyone ultimately pays the same price, which is set by demand as defined by secondary markets  rather than set by the ticket office in August.

If your bid is higher than the final price, you get the difference back; higher bids get the best seats.

Essentially it's a way for the university to sell the tickets for the same price StubHub is getting. If you don't think that service is driving athletic departments crazy, think again.

It's an interesting concept in some ways, but Georgia Tech would probably like the results better if it were for a winning team.

By the way, if you want good value on the secondary market, there's a really solid value: Virginia is for bargain lovers.