The Ohio State University said it intends to release some information about season ticket holders for its football and men's basketball programs after a court rejected the school's appeal of an anonymous public request.
The university said it would release the names and seat locations for football season ticket holders for the 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons, as well as the 2022-23 and 2023-24 men's basketball seasons. The information is being provided to an unnamed person who filed a public records request for the information, according to the university.
The university sent an email to ticketholders on Aug. 18, alerting them that the information was being publicly released as a result of a decision by the Tenth District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Court of Claims.
The university identified the person who filed the initial public records request as a "ticket reseller/broker" who had filed suit against the university for denying access to the records in response to a request.
While the university's notice does not identify the specific court case the order came from, documents filed by the Tenth District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Court of Claims show it relates to a case filed by a "John Doe." Ohio public records law allows anonymous requests.
According to court records, the information, initially requested in 2023, included the mailing addresses, email addresses and telephone numbers of people who bought season tickets for those seasons. The initial requests sought information specifically about donors to the university who purchased season tickets, as well as faculty and staff.
To purchase or be on the wait list for season tickets, a donation to the Buckeye Club is included in the cost, according to Ohio State's publicly available ticketing information. This makes all season ticket holders donors to the university.
A special master with the Ohio Court of Claims determined that Ohio State should be required to fill a portion of the records request. The university would be allowed to redact information about students, along with the physical addresses and OSU identification numbers of the ticket holders. A judge adopted the special master's report and ordered the university to turn over the information.
Ohio State appealed the decision to the Tenth District Court of Appeals, which handles cases in Franklin County. In December, the appeals court sided with the university and expanded the information that could be redacted to include email addresses and telephone numbers. The court said the information should not be public because it failed to "shed light on Ohio State's ticketing activities."
"Any particular ticketholder's mailing address, email address or telephone number reveals little to nothing about Ohio State's activites with regard to ticketing," the appeals court said in the December decision.
The person who filed the initial request appealed that decision to the Ohio Supreme Court, which decided not to hear the appeal.
After being asked to reconsider, the Ohio Supreme Court in July reiterated its decision not to take up the case. That ruling meant Ohio State would be required to release the names and seat locations asked for in the public records request.
Reporter Bethany Bruner can be reached at [email protected] or on Bluesky at @bethanybruner.dispatch.com.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio State forced to release football, basketball season ticket info by court
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