Michigan State University football season ticket renewal notices went out this week and – for the vast majority of Spartan ticketholders – nothing was different. The email was the same, the renewal process was the same, even the price of the tickets was the same.

But for 3% of MSU ticket holders, they received an alternate email, letting them know that their account is not eligible for renewal:

“This notice is to inform you of a change to the Michigan State Athletics ticketing policy that directly affects your Spartan Football account. Effective immediately, MSU will prohibit ticket purchases by account holders who are purchasing with the primary intent of reselling their tickets or have a history of reselling their tickets. We have reviewed your account and, based on your resale history, you will not be extended the invitation to renew your football season tickets for the 2023 season.”

We at Spartans Illustrated were made aware of this on our Spartans Illustrated Message Board by a few season ticket holders who also subscribe to our website.

The letter continued: “If you feel your account has been improperly identified, please click here to file an online appeal prior to Saturday, April 1, 2023, so your concerns can be addressed. For appeals that are submitted, we will provide an update regarding the status of your account no later than Saturday, April 15, 2023. If an appeal is approved, you will be contacted by the Spartan Ticket Office staff for payment for football season tickets and any applicable seat premiums that would be due.”

It seemed unusual and we had questions about it, so we tracked down Matt Larson. Larson is the associate AD of communications for Michigan State Athletics and we chatted for over 20 minutes. His answers to our questions made a lot of sense.

Before we get to that, first a primer.

In 2020, Michigan repealed its ticket scalping ban, which had been on the books since 1931. So people can now legally purchase tickets and resell them for more than they originally paid for them.

Ticket brokers are businesses that buy tickets and resell them, looking for a profit. Generally speaking, ticket brokers make their money when the amount of tickets available for a high profile game (supply) is low compared to the number of people who want to purchase those tickets (demand). Many times, though, the ticket brokers can’t get their hands on the high demand tickets without paying a high price themselves, which then eats into their profitability when they resell them.

Over the years, ticket brokers have turned to purchasing season tickets from the box office, in this case directly from Michigan State University Ticket Office. This allows them access to tickets at a reasonable cost and they can often times pay for their entire season ticket by just selling one or two of the premium games.

Ticket brokers aren’t the only people who resell tickets, though. Many MSU fans who can’t make it to a certain game will transfer them or sell them to other Spartan fans, not for a profit, but to make sure that those who aren’t typically able to get to a game have a chance to do so. Or they will transfer them to a friend or family member so that the tickets don’t go unused. Most MSU fans actually go out of their way to avoid selling the tickets to the visiting team. On the other hand, brokers certainly don’t restrict themselves to selling tickets for big games only to the home team. In fact, ticket brokers can oftentimes get a substantial high dollar premium from visiting fans who want to see their team on the road. Selling the tickets to the highest bidder often times results in a diminished home field advantage for Michigan State.

And Michigan State is doing something to stop that from happening moving forward.

Now, back to our conversation with Matt Larson, the spokesperson for Michigan State Athletics, who explained to us the reasoning behind this policy change and what season ticket holders who feel that they received this notice in error should do.

“Through data, we are able to determine individuals who are purchasing tickets for the primary purpose of reselling them,” Larson said. “There are a relatively small amount of accounts that were flagged and received [the non-renewal letter]. If individuals believe they received it in error, and that they have been misidentified, I would absolutely encourage them to fill out that appeal form. All of those will be individually looked at given each case’s unique circumstances.”