BATON ROUGE, La. – With the LSU football team enjoying a record-breaking and undefeated season, Louisiana’s lawmakers have a special perk that gives them access to postseason game tickets at face value that regular fans can’t easily obtain before they hit the pricey secondary market.
The longstanding tradition is particularly fruitful this year, as LSU is within striking distance of the national championship game, being held in January in New Orleans. If LSU defeats Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl semifinal in Atlanta this month and reaches the College Football Playoff’s championship game, many Louisiana lawmakers will be in the Superdome to watch the Tigers in person on Jan. 13, on the same day the House and Senate are sworn in for the start of the new term.
The Advocate reports two dozen Louisiana House members and 20 state senators –- some of whom will have left office by the time the national championship game takes place –- have bought end zone tickets for $600 apiece from the game’s host committee. Similar tickets were going for upwards of $2,000 on StubHub.
Meanwhile, 95 of 105 representatives and 38 of 39 senators opted for a similar offer from LSU to buy tickets to at least one postseason game, which includes the Southeastern Conference championship game, Peach Bowl and potentially the national championship game. They won’t pay for the championship game tickets unless LSU makes it.
“There are very, very few perks in the Legislature,” said Sen. Conrad Appel, a term-limited Republican from Metairie who steps down on the morning of Jan. 13 and bought the tickets for the championship game that night. “It costs a fortune to work in the Legislature … If there are a couple perks, I don’t think it is a really bad thing.”