Ahead of Longhorns first football season in the SEC, Texas addresses ticket brokers

The 2024 football season doesn't kick off for another six months, but Texas has already claimed a victory over one formidable foe.

The topic of ticket brokers was brought up at this past Tuesday's Texas Athletics Town Hall. Texas athletics director Chris Del Conte told those in attendance at the Hogg Auditorium that UT was able to reclaim 4,102 season tickets that were destined to hit the secondary market for the upcoming season.

According to Del Conte, Texas identified 197 accounts and the average account had purchased 21 season tickets to re-sell.

"I wanted to make sure that we got tickets into our fans and not into brokers," said Del Conte, who added that there are over 3,500 people on the wait list for season tickets. "When you look at the pricing of tickets that go on the secondary market, they're outrageous and I hear about them all the time. I'd rather get these tickets into you directly and that you and your families can enjoy coming to a game and not have to go to a secondary market to buy a ticket and maybe only get one game a year because you couldn't afford it."

According to a Texas spokesperson, the school doesn't have a policy against the re-sale of its tickets, and Del Conte wrote in his Forty Acres Insider on Jan. 30 that this "doesn't change anything when it comes to a time where you may need to work through our identified channels for a game you are not able to attend and need to exchange or sell your game ticket." But UT has made it clear that the school just won't be selling its season tickets to the aforementioned brokers in the first place.

Texas sent out a letter on Tuesday to inform brokers about the reclaimed tickets. Del Conte told a story about a broker who reached out to ask for Texas to reconsider since he had already re-sold 100 tickets. Del Conte said he understands the broker business but responded by saying, "Sir, I'm not your personal business person. I appreciate what you've done but those tickets belong to the University of Texas and we want those to go to our fans."

Texas has sold out of season tickets in each of the past two seasons. Texas sold more than 68,000 season tickets last year, which was a school record and a number that didn't include the tickets set aside for university students. The average attendance of 101,625 for UT's home games in 2023 ranked fifth nationally.

During what will be its 100th season at Royal-Memorial Stadium, Texas has seven games on its home schedule. The featured attractions in Austin this fall for a Texas team that is joining the Southeastern Conference will be the Georgia and Florida games on Oct. 19 and Nov. 9. The Longhorns are also scheduled to host Colorado State (Aug. 31), UTSA (Sept. 14), Louisiana-Monroe (Sept. 21), Mississippi State (Sept. 28) and Kentucky (Nov. 23).

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas addresses brokers as demand for football season tickets rises