Hot Ticket

As the associate athletics director for ticket operations at Boston College, Jim O’Neill has spent the past thirty-seven years overseeing ticket sales for all Eagle teams. During that time, he has supervised the sale of millions of tickets across hundreds of sellouts…and endured countless pleas from disappointed fans who couldn’t get passes to the big game. As we look forward to fall and Boston College football’s blockbuster 2025 home schedule, we caught up with the man on the other side of BC’s ticket sales window.

What’s the toughest ticket at BC?

It’s any time we play Notre Dame here in football. The first time that we played them at BC was right after Alumni Stadium had been rebuilt [an October 8, 1994, game that BC won 30–11]. That was a very, very tough ticket. We’re playing Notre Dame at Alumni again this year, and my phone is already ringing. BC and Duke in basketball has been a tough ticket lately, but back in the days of the old Big East Conference, games against Georgetown and Syracuse were instant sellouts. Those were great games—BC was often nationally ranked in those years. And any time you have BC-BU in hockey, it’s a big game. In the old Boston Garden, the Beanpot tickets were tough ones to get.

How did you end up in ticket sales?

I always wanted to work in sports. I wound up in the sports management program at the University of Massachusetts and became a student manager for the UMass basketball team. In my senior year, one of my responsibilities was taking care of the game tickets for the players and staff. After I graduated, I went to West Point. Army was having a resurgence in football, and they realized that they needed more help in their ticket office. They created a position for me. While I was working there, Army installed the new Paciolan computer-based ticketing system, and I learned it inside and out. To this day Paciolan is still the leader in college athletics. We use it here at BC.  

What was BC like when you arrived in 1988?

When I got to BC, Conte Forum had just opened, and the entire athletics operation moved in. I always like to say that Conte Forum and I started at the same time. Back in those days, your whole stadium was printed tickets. Boxes and boxes of them. Every game, every section, every row, every seat. We had these enormous filing cabinets, divided up by game and section order. Once you got an order, you would go and pull the tickets and mail them out. It seems so archaic now, but that’s what it was like.

How have things changed since then?

Now, everything is in an electronic, digital format. If a person loses tickets now, if they were purchased through the venue or an authorized seller, we can track them and probably take care of it. It’s all based on bar codes now—if the ticket scans, you’re in. If it doesn’t, you’re out. That’s today’s ticket business world.

Nearly four decades later, how do you feel about taking the job at BC?

The two best decisions in my life were coming up here to BC—no, maybe that was the best one, because that’s how I met and later married [in 1991] my wife, Kathleen [Grady]. Kathleen was the secretary to BC football coaches Jack Bicknell and Tom Coughlin. We got married at St. Ignatius Church and had our wedding reception in McElroy Commons. Kathleen is a double Eagle; she finished both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees while working in the football office. Our son, Trevor, graduated from BC last May and is now at Washington & Lee Law School. When I came to BC, I never expected to be here for thirty-seven years. This has been a great place to work, and it’s a great community. It has all turned out so well. We have no regrets whatsoever. I’ve got a lifetime of memories, a lifetime of friends, both inside and outside of the athletics world. BC is a place that I love. ◽