Archive for October, 2009

With EBAY having a handful of Big Blue Madness tickets on sale as well as other sites, it is frustrating for people who really want to see Madness. Is there something that can be done in the future to prevent this? Is this really an issue? Should UK and the State of Kentucky be more strict on scalpers?
For many years I have attended UK football and basketball games and it has always bothered me to see the scalpers making money off of fans. With scalping being “basically” against the law it would seem the officials would do more to cut down on the amount of scalpers. I have seen the same guys buying and selling tickets since I can remember. UK even has their ticket policy on their site…which I have to admit is pretty lame at best.

“Important Ticket Office Policies

Scalping: Act 436, 155-Scalping of sports tickets. Any person who sells a ticket to any sporting event at a price in excess of the price appearing on the ticket shall be fined not less than fifty dollars nor more than one hundred dollars.

Scalping (selling a ticket above face value) violates University policy and Kentucky law. Selling or soliciting the sale of a ticket (even at face value) on campus without a permit also violates University policy. Therefore, a violation of these University policies or this Kentucky law may result in your ineligibility to purchase basketball or football tickets even if criminal charges are not filed against you. The Athletic Department reserves the right to declare you ineligible to order tickets if we receive sufficient evidence that a football or basketball ticket assigned to you was sold for greater than the face value of the ticket.

Counterfeit Tickets: Only tickets purchased directly from the University of Kentucky Ticket Office or Ticketmaster are guaranteed to be valid. The UK Ticket Office urges fans “Buyer Beware” when purchasing tickets on the secondary market. Counterfeit tickets have been reported at several games this season. All football and basketball tickets are barcoded and will be scanned for validity at the Commonwealth Stadium and Rupp Arena gates. Patrons with invalid tickets will NOT be admitted to games.

Transfer of Tickets: The purchase of season tickets is not a property right but rather a privilege that is assigned annually to you by UK Athletics. Season ticket holder privileges may only be transferred one time to a spouse or child. Questions regarding this policy may be directed to the Ticket Manager.

Infant Tickets: For Football, Men’s Basketball, and all Post-Season events, EVERYONE must have a ticket regardless of age.

Refund Policy: There are no refunds or exchanges on ticket purchases from the UK Ticket Office. All ticket sales are final.”

A maximum fine of $100? I know the University of Kentucky is not giving support for scalpers nor do they condone them, but I think they should put a little more effort into stopping it.
The biggest issue that is now faced with scalping is the ability to scalp online. Ebay does have some restrictions, but there are always ways to get around them. Craigslist has no real regulations that could help the situation.
Even if there was a solution to scalping tickets around an arena or online there are still going to be those who can get away with it. However, shouldn’t we try to cut it back as much as possible? If scalping is illegal and people are supposed to get fines (no matter how small), then shouldn’t that happen? It has bothered me to see UK alum searching for tickets and to see people who have served as the mascot being sold tickets for ridiculous amounts of money.
Scalping is a problem, and it should be noticed by the authorities. UK can only do so much to help the process, but the real problem comes with enforcement. WHile there are undercover police at every concert searching for people selling bootleg clothing, I have to wonder if they could put some effort into writing citations for scalpers.
The University wants to sell tickets for these events and it gets done when scalpers buy the tickets. The other part is that we want to fill the stands…this does not happen when scalpers sit on tickets because they do not want to get rid of them for a reasonable price. The only reasonable price is face value! Should these people held to a different standard than other people breaking the law? Why do they get overlooked? It is no secret who these people are, they are at every game and have been for many years.

So what is the solution?

Pat Forde has become the number 1 hater of Kentucky basketball surpassing all others of the past. There have been many over the years that have used their platform at ESPN or CBS to make their strong feelings about heard. Forde is now trying to separate himself from the rest of the pack. There could be many reasons that Forde is taking on the Big Blue Nation at every opportunity but most of all it is frustrating to him to see UK getting so much love. With UofL struggling in the early rankings for this basketball season I am sure he is steaming. Does he really just have a true hate for UK or is it trying to make up for his past and wanting to promote his personal ventures?
Forde certainly would like to move all of the negative attention off of Pitino and all that has gone on around the UofL program with football thus far this season. He tries to use rankings and false allegations as the tool to get negative attention away from Louisville and get fans focused on pointless battles. The only problem is that Coach Cal and his huge recruiting class is bigger than anything Forde can say. The attention will not be drawn away from what is going on in the Bluegrass right now. While Forde publishes his opinions we can all sit back and be happy that we have the best coach in America and the number 1 recruiting class in America as well as Patrick Patterson!

UK Fans…let Forde be frustrated that he can’t bring down the Big Blue Nation’s level of excitement for a tremendous upcoming season! Great video…Here’s to the haters and to Hubert!

With the recruiting season in full swing everyone is wondering who will join Stacey Poole in the upcoming recruiting class. Kyrie Irving remains a top name that everyone is discussing. Most believe that his commitment will be to Duke at some point in November. While he does have ties to UK it seems to not be the deciding factor for him. Many of the UK blogs want to see Irving commit to UK and although I have not posted much recently I think it is clear that I would much rather see some other guys commit to UK instead of Irving. Irving is a good player but he could be an instant distraction and could cause problem. Other big recruits include Brandon Knight, who will most likely wait until the late signing period before he makes his commitment. Doron Lamb is probably another recruit that will be a late period kid.

The names that could possibly be in the early period are CJ Leslie, Adreian Payne, Jelan Kendrick and Josh Selby. I do not expect all of them to make commitments in the early period but it seems that they are more likely to than some of the other big UK recruits. Adreian Payne has been mentioned for as a long time “UK lean”. Payne is a great athlete and would have a lot to offer but only time will tell.

Big Blue Madness will probably bring a lot of excitement from the upcoming recruiting classes as there will be a good number of them at Madness and I know the word will travel fast to other recruits about the experience of attending. Probably the two biggest names attending Madness are not in the 2010 class but rather the 2011 class. Marquis Teague and Michael Gilchrist are probably the two most talented that will be attending. Tobias Harris is the highest rated for the 2010 class attending (according to Rivals and Scout). After Madness there could possibly be a commitment but do not expect it to happen right away. I have been told and I believe that a lot of recruits are waiting to see how the UK players mesh and how well Coach Cal is able to get this team rolling.

Another big part of waiting for the upcoming class is to see who is leaving and who is staying. There is no one at this point that would expect John Wall and Patrick Patterson to be back for the 2010-2011 season. The big question is who will join them? Cousins is probably the next likely in just pure speculation, but another possible could be Orton.

My predictions for commitments are Adreian Payne, Brandon Knight and Josh Selby. Take that for what you will…CJ Leslie has been a favorite of mine for a long time and I would love to see him at UK. Tobias Harris would be a very nice addition but I have a strong feeling that he will end up at Syracuse.

Here are some more Selby and Leslie dunks…enjoy!

Check out the interviews from Tom Leach today…Tom spoke with Coach Brooks today with Coach confirming Lindley being out for the South Carolina game Saturday. Tom also has an interview with Neloms who will be filling in for the thinning secondary.

KSR and other blogs are in full basketball mode getting ready for the upcoming season…looks like I am not the only one.

This is a new YouTube video…background music does have some foul language, so if you find that offensive or if you are in your work place I would suggest you turn the volume off.

As it has been a while since I have had very many posts…I am off work currently with knee surgery and have been spending a lot of time looking at videos and will be adding videos periodically throughout the day.
The first video is from HoopMixTape, which usually has the best high school basketball videos on the internet. This is a group of 2010 recruits which they have ranked as the best 10 dunkers in the class.