Sept. 15, 2006

By John Heisler

Josh Berlo may have one of the most intriguing jobs around.

On one hand, Notre Dame’s director of athletic ticketing may have the best job in athletics. He’s master of a domain that features close to 81,000 tickets to seven Irish home football games in 2006 – and it’s safe to say that all 565,565 of those tickets are hot commodities.

On the other hand, he may have the worst job in the world. Accelerated – record, in fact — interest dictates having to say “no” much more often than saying “yes.”

Still, Berlo hasn’t had to opt for an incognito existence – at least not yet. He hasn’t had to resort to disguises around the office. Now, he also doesn’t feature cell or home phone numbers on his business card – or even a published home number. But he certainly doesn’t shy away from the issues at hand.

His main interest – as assistant sports information director Chris Masters documents in his question-and-answer piece with Berlo elsewhere in this program – is putting football tickets in the hands of those who deserve them.

That’s why Berlo spent a significant amount of time last Saturday assisting Notre Dame security police and South Bend and St. Joseph County police in a ticket counterfeiting sting operation that resulted in one arrest and may result in others.

Berlo and his staff had surveyed six other major schools to discuss counterfeiting issues – and they had consulted with the NFL, through a retired FBI agent. Berlo spent several hours the day before the Notre Dame-Penn State game briefing South Bend police on how to spot counterfeit tickets – and they created a map and timeline off which to work on Saturday. He then spent several hours Saturday morning on a plain-clothes basis assisting with the sting operation.

“Our message is that Notre Dame is not the place to do these things. We’re not going to let our fans be victimized,” Berlo says

He’d like to create a culture where all involved police the marketplace in such a way that scalping, counterfeiting and other ticket subterfuge are snuffed out. In other words, make sure that those who have access to tickets actually use them – as opposed to treating them as some sort of currency or extra source of income.

Every time an alumnus calls Berlo’s office to turn in a client he knows is disposing of tickets on the open market, Berlo rests a little easier. Those things continue to happen – but plenty of ticket privileges have been revoked. In these cases, the sellers need beware. Berlo and his staff have become experts at running down eBay.com ticket offerings.

But, it’s no easy task. An ESPN GameDay report last Saturday reported the average selling price of Notre Dame-Penn State tickets on the secondary market (StubHub.com) was several hundred dollars higher than those for the Ohio State-Texas battle. One Notre Dame-Penn State ticket-holder innocently wandered through a Stadium parking lot last Saturday and immediately was offered $1,000 for a pair of seats. That’s all you need to know about how badly fans want access to Notre Dame Stadium space.

“We receive all kinds of letters and pleas,” says Berlo

“They all say why we should help them. There are a lot of dying wishes. The theme is, `Here’s why I deserve tickets.’ A lot of them are so far-fetched you would never believe them.”

Berlo says his staff ran down one individual who sent 100 separate e-mails this year to Notre Dame administrative staff members all over campus looking for tickets.

Another fan walked up to one of the ticket windows last Saturday and offered to pay $1,000 for a Notre Dame-Penn State ticket.

“I sometimes think people believe we have piles of tickets sitting around that we just sell to our friends and families,” says Berlo with a shake of his head.

It’s hard to get away from the ticket sub-culture. Berlo’s wife, Meg, stopped at the dry-cleaners last week — and mention of the Berlo name prompted enough name recognition that a request for tickets ensued (“I really need some Penn State tickets”).

A brief look at StubHub.com a week ago showed 219 separate offerings of Notre Dame-Michigan tickets – starting with a parking pass that was going for $147, all the way to four front-row seats in section 26 for $3,500 each. Twenty-three of the listings featured asking prices of $1,000 per ticket or more.

Meanwhile, Berlo and his staff have confiscated 800 tickets already this season, 400 of them before they were issued – with the tickets coming from a variety of Internet sites (StubHub.com included), classified ads and ticket brokers.

The good fight continues.