JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARBULLETIN.COM Hawaii football fans shook noisemakers during Friday's showdown between the Warriors and Boise State at sold-out Aloha Stadium. Tickets for Saturday's finale against the University of Washington are in high demand; let the buyer beware.

‘Tickets now are out of our control’

Be wary of resold game tickets, UH officials warn

Tickets to Saturday's sold-out University of Hawaii football game against Washington continue to sell for many times their face value on the Internet.

But UH officials urge fans to make sure that any tickets they buy from scalpers are valid. At least 10 fans were turned away from the game against Fresno State Nov. 10, officials say.

"If fans did not purchase their tickets from an authorized outlet, it is not known if the tickets are valid until they attempt to pass through the scanners at the turnstiles on game day," warned Aloha Stadium Deputy Manager Lois Manin.

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All football fans with a ticket got into the Hawaii-Boise State game, but the university is warning about counterfeit tickets that prevented at least 10 people from watching the Warriors play Fresno State two weeks earlier.

"The tickets now are out of our control," John McNamara, UH associate athletic director for external affairs, said yesterday about Hawaii's final season game against Washington on Saturday. "We are not selling any more tickets."

On Nov. 10, stadium attendants refused ticket holders to the Hawaii-Fresno State matchup because they were for another game or duplicates, he said. Counterfeit tickets are rarely a problem, McNamara said, especially since a scanning system was introduced at UH games two years ago.

Meanwhile, tickets to this weekend's game are selling for hundreds of dollars on the Internet as Hawaii competes for a perfect season.

The only way to buy tickets is through secondhand sellers or at the UH ticket marketplace,www.hawaiiathletics. com/tickets-tm.html, where season ticket holders can resell their tickets.

"If fans did not purchase their tickets from an authorized outlet, it is not known if the tickets are valid until they attempt to pass through the scanners at the turnstiles on game day," said Aloha Stadium Deputy Manager Lois Manin.

At the stadium, attendants scan tickets to prevent counterfeiting by reading individual bar codes. Before the system was installed, attendants would only tear tickets. The university also uses printing stock that makes it harder to duplicate tickets, although there are no holograms to distinguish authentic tickets.

Season tickets have a glossy cover, while both regular and season tickets have printing on both sides, making them difficult to copy, said Derek Inouchi, UH Athletics Department spokesman.

Still, secondhand buyers have to be cautious about duplicate tickets, he said, which are created when a lost ticket is replaced or when season ticket holders sell their tickets through UH's Web site. The original ticket's bar code will be invalidated, but that ticket could still be sold to an unknowing individual. He added that buyers should purchase the original ticket and not the print-at-home copy.

Ticket seller Lance Jones was asking $500 for a pair of tickets on www.craigslist.com. He said by phone that anyone who buys his tickets would not have to worry because he would be sitting next to them at the game. He would also let the buyer check the tickets at the box office.

"That's the best way," he said. "Any day, you just go to the box office and tell the lady check the tickets for you."