$100K in football tickets given
BOB LOWRY Times Staff Writer
Riley, legislators, other officials got AU, UA passes
MONTGOMERY – The University of Alabama and Auburn University together this fall gave away more than $100,000 worth of free football tickets to elected and appointed state and federal officials.
Most were elected officials – mainly members of the Alabama Legislature, while the appointed officials were primarily members of Gov. Bob Riley’s administration.
Riley’s office received 24 tickets to each Alabama and Auburn home game.
Jeff Emerson, communications director for Riley, said Friday the tickets “were distributed to some staffers and some Cabinet members who requested them.”
Cabinet members also received their own set of tickets from both schools, according to officials from Alabama and Auburn.
Rep. Alvin Holmes, D-Montgomery, this week drew attention to the schools’ practice of giving Iron Bowl tickets to lawmakers when he complained he didn’t get his from Auburn this year.
Lt. Gov. Jim Folsom’s office got six tickets to each Alabama and Auburn home game. The offices of House Speaker Seth Hammett and Attorney General Troy King each got four tickets for all home games.
By far, the largest number of tickets went to state legislators – the men and women who will dictate the state education budgets for both universities when the Legislature convenes Feb. 5.
Auburn also provided two free tickets to the Iron Bowl to each of the 12 members of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, Deedie Dowdle, executive director of Auburn’s Office of Communications and Marketing, said Friday.
ACHE will meet Thursday to discuss the unified budget recommendation that it will make to the Legislature for fiscal 2008-09 for the state’s colleges and universities.
Alabama provided two free tickets, along with one reserved parking space for each of the 140 members of the Legislature, for its homecoming game.
It also furnishes free tickets to the Iron Bowl when the game is played in Tuscaloosa, said Deborah Lane, executive director of public relations at Alabama.
Members of Riley’s Cabinet and other members of the executive branch, such as heads of state agencies also got the same deal, she said.
Lane said Alabama has been giving free football tickets to legislators for at least 30 years. “Football games provide an important opportunity for state legislators and other elected officials to visit our campus
and interact with our students, faculty, staff, alumni and fans,” she said.
Dowdle said providing free tickets to legislators is “customary for universities and colleges in many, if not most, states around the country.”
“The tickets provide them an opportunity to visit and meet with the leaders of the state’s higher education institutions, tour the campuses to see what new research, programs and facilities are in place that benefit the state, and interact with students and alumni in a relaxed, fun environment,” she said.
But not all state universities extend that courtesy.
In 2002, the University of Tennessee ended the practice of offering free football tickets to state legislators and members of Congress.
Tennessee lawmakers now pay face value for football tickets to Volunteers games, with the money going into an emergency fund to help students who need short-term financial aid.
Robert Esdale, clerk of the Alabama Supreme Court and a University of Alabama graduate, said Friday he received free tickets to homecoming games and the Iron Bowl this year at Auburn.
Members of the Supreme Court, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Court of Civil Appeals have received free tickets in the past, but they didn’t get tickets this year from Auburn.
Officials at Alabama were unresponsive when asked about complimentary tickets for the judiciary.
Lane said legislators, the nine members of Alabama’s congressional delegation, members of Riley’s Cabinet, directors of state agencies, Tuscaloosa County officials, Tuscaloosa city and Northport city officials were also able to purchase two tickets for individual Alabama home games. They also received a complimentary parking pass for each game.
Lane said the tickets were sold at face value and were not located in the “Tide Pride” sections of Bryant-Denny Stadium.
But with the demand for tickets at Alabama being at an all-time high this fall with the hiring of new coach Nick Saban, many fans paid more than $1,000 to join the Tide Pride program to earn the right to buy tickets.
And some faculty members at Alabama were not able to buy tickets this year because of the high number of Tide Pride buyers.
Lane said elected officials who purchased the Tide Pride tickets, which offer better seats in the stadium, paid the same price and followed the same guidelines, procedures and requirements as Tide Pride ticket holders.
Dowdle said Auburn gave two free tickets to homecoming and the Iron Bowl and a reserved parking spot to each legislator.
If a lawmaker called during the season and requested free tickets to other games, Dowdle said they were accommodated. No reserved parking was included, however.
Auburn, as did Alabama, allowed legislators to buy a season ticket book for all games, including away games. That gave legislators an advantage over the average Auburn fan who shelled out hundreds, if not thousands of
dollars, to join “Tigers Unlimited” – Auburn’s version of “Tide Pride” – to be able to buy tickets. Unlike Alabama, Auburn did not give any preferential ticket treatment to city or county officials.
Jim Sumner, executive director of the Alabama Ethics Commission, said Friday the state ethics law “does not come into play” as long as a school does not give a free season pass to a public official.
“The law allows an institution to provide a member of the Legislature or a public official a ticket to an athletic event as long as it is not continuing in nature,” he said.
If a university provided parking with a dollar value, entertainment, food or drinks that exceeded $250, it would have to be reported to the Ethics Commission.
“Parking has a value, but it’s hard to estimate,” he said. “Certainly, it would be worth $20 to $25 not to have to walk two miles to the stadium.”
Sumner said public officials could get in trouble if they tried to sell their tickets or parking passes on a Web site such as eBay or on a street corner.
“I wouldn’t recommend that since they are free tickets,” he said. “I think that opens up a whole other issue. That could certainly fall under the ethics law under the use of office for personal gain.”
Copyright, 2007, The Huntsville Times. All Rights Reserved.
