BYU Fans Scammed Out of Tickets but Witness a March Madness Miracle

“We traveled so far. We were so excited. I’ve never been to March Madness before, I grew up watching it as a kid, so this was magical to me,” said Joey Hill, a BYU student. After driving eight hours to Ball Arena to support the BYU basketball team, Hill and his friends found out they had been scammed. Fortunately, the BYU community stepped in to assist them.

Outside Ball Arena on Saturday afternoon, excitement was in the air as fans of all ages proudly wore their team’s colors. However, a group of BYU supporters was frantically trying to figure out how to get inside after discovering that their tickets were fake.

Joey Hill, a junior at BYU, shared that since there was no school on Friday, he and three friends decided to make the long drive. Hill mentioned they had been following the team all season and had attended all the home games, making this a game they couldn’t miss.

“We were so excited, so we started looking for tickets on different platforms,” Hill explained. “We found some on Facebook Marketplace that seemed like a good deal, messaged the seller, and thought the tickets were real, but they weren’t.”

After the long drive, Hill and his friends were ready to cheer on the Cougars and experience the thrill of March Madness. However, when they tried to enter, they realized the situation was far from what they expected.

“We walked in and approached the ticket staff to scan our tickets, but they didn’t work. They took us to another person, and it still didn’t work. We showed them the seats, but they told us someone was already sitting there and said there was nothing they could do,” Hill recalled.

Kyle Bird, Hill’s friend and fellow BYU student, explained they had thought the tickets were real and took extra steps to ensure their authenticity. He said they had paid for one ticket first to verify the legitimacy before buying the others. Unfortunately, they soon realized they had been deceived.

“We went to the ticket help office where they scanned the tickets and said, ‘These have already been checked in; someone’s sitting in those seats.’ When we gave them the seller’s name, they told us it didn’t match the one on record. So, we went outside, but Joey wasn’t ready to give up,” Bird said.

Hill’s parents shared their ordeal on CougarBoard, and the generous BYU community quickly came to the rescue, sending money via Venmo to help them get inside.

“I think BYU fans are amazing. Of course, fans from all teams are great, but I just love the people in our community. They’re sending us money, hoping we can get in and watch a great game with the hope that BYU wins,” Hill said.

Although these fans experienced their own version of March Madness, they too had a Cinderella story. Hill managed to purchase tickets for himself and one of his friends, and they were able to watch a victory.