Athletics Ticket Operations: It’s a Tough Job but Somebody’s Gotta Do It - Why Not You?

June 18, 2019

If your institution has an athletics department, it is likely a major revenue generator for your school, and with major revenue comes major risk. The NCAA focuses on areas such as recruiting, financial aid, academics, and eligibility; however, they are not looking closely at ticket operations. This is where you, as an internal auditor, come in. Below are steps to guide you through the process of executing an athletic ticket operations audit:

Step 1: Get Insight from Key Stakeholders

Start by speaking with the Athletics Director, asking him or her about any major areas of concern that warrant review. Next, speak with other high-ranking individuals within your institution’s athletics department, such as an executive staff member, to gain additional insights into areas of concern. Also, meet with key individuals in the athletics department who have significant interaction with the ticket office staff, as they might know of areas needing improvement or areas where the ticket office excels.

Step 2: Scope it Out

Once you gain insight from key stakeholders, use this information to make scope decisions. Here are some questions to consider:

Is someone else looking at the area or has Internal Audit already reviewed it?
Have there been prior external audits?
Is it outside the purview of the athletic ticket office area (e.g., marketing, stadium security)?
Is it an NCAA compliance area?

If your answer is “yes” to any of the above questions, consider keeping these areas outside of your audit scope; however, if there were major issues identified in one or more of the areas above, include them in your audit.

Step 3: Identify and Assess Risks

To assist in developing an audit program, perform a risk assessment. A risk assessment will identify which areas are the highest risk and what audit steps will help determine if the department is addressing risks adequately. The ACUA Risk Dictionary is a valuable resource to use during this process. To best visualize your risk assessment, in a spreadsheet, document all potential risks, expected controls, actual controls, risk classifications (i.e., financial, operational, compliance), risk ratings (i.e., high, medium, low), and the rationale behind including or excluding risks in the audit. Keep in mind the level of risk that the department is willing to accept.

Some areas of high risk to consider are:

Information Technology: safeguarding confidential information, PCI, access to systems, disaster recovery plan/backup procedures, and user profiles
Ticketing system (e.g., Paciolan): priority points and seating for season ticket holders, manual entries, and external printing of season tickets
Paid Tickets: fraud, cash handling, taxes, accounts receivable, and pricing
Complimentary Tickets: staff (including coaches’ contracts), visiting team, and player-guest
Game Day Operations: adequate staffing at ticket booths, transfer of money and supplies to ticket booths, ticket accountability (player-guest complimentary tickets, ticket sales and printing of tickets, will call, cash handling, etc.)

Step 4: Build Your Audit Game Plan

ACUA provides several audit tools, such as the Resource Library and Kick Starters that members can use to help build their audit game plan. Utilizing these resources and the risk assessment you conducted, you are now ready to build your audit program. For each risk identified for testing in your risk assessment, document the test steps necessary to evaluate whether controls in place mitigate risks to an acceptable level.

Final Thoughts

Performing an audit of athletic ticket operations can seem like a daunting task, but having a place to start and some ideas of what to keep an eye out for can make the task a little less overwhelming. Once you have completed the steps noted above, everything else is downhill from there. Get out there and audit, audit, audit!

About the Author

Jana Clark

Jana is the Chief Audit Executive at Kansas State University. Jana began her tenure at Kansas State as a staff auditor in 2013 and has previously served as Senior Auditor, Audit Manager, and Interim Chief Audit Executive, before being appointed to the permanent position in 2020. Jana received her Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education with an emphasis in Biological Sciences from Kansas State University. She also received her Master in Business Administration from Emporia State University. Prior to working at Kansas State, Jana was Controller for a rural health clinic and began her career in internal audit and finance working at a publicly traded retail company managing their Sarbanes-Oxley efforts.

Jana has been volunteering with ACUA since 2014, with most of her time spent on the Professional Education Committee (PEC). In addition to her active involvement with the PEC, Jana has participated in numerous Quality Assurance Reviews for her ACUA peers. Jana was recognized as the ACUA Rising Star Award winner in 2019 for her personal initiative and commitment to positively impacting higher education auditing. Jana is a Certified Internal Auditor, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Internal Controls Auditor, and holds a certification in Risk Management Assurance. jjoy@ksu.edu

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Athletics Ticket Operations: It’s a Tough Job but Somebody’s Gotta Do It - Why Not You?