Steve Kuchera
Published: April 28 2004
Scalping a press pass to the Frozen Four cost a University of Minnesota Duluth senior his positions as a college newspaper reporter and Duluth News Tribune intern.
The UMD Statesman fired Chris Voigt on Thursday after learning that he had sold his press credential to the NCAA Division I championship game April 10.
Voigt was covering the tournament in Boston for the Statesman.
“He was terminated because he violated our code of ethics and the university student conduct code,” Statesman Editor in Chief Grace Peterson said Friday. “We sent him to Boston to cover the story, and he ended up selling his pass for money.”
Voigt had written for the Statesman for two years and was a sports intern at the News Tribune since mid-January.
The News Tribune discontinued his internship Friday morning.
“We’re very disappointed it came to that,” said Mark Emmert, the News Tribune’s assistant managing editor of sports and editing. “We expressed to him that he had crossed a line you just can’t cross.”
Voigt, who is majoring in communications, said selling the press pass was an impulsive act.
“We were on our hotel shuttle going to the Red Sox game and a lady I had talked to earlier in the week, she knew who I was and how I was getting into the games, asked me if I would take $100 for it,” he said. “It just kind of happened like that.
“I never thought about the repercussions,” he said. “It was a real quick, spur-of-the-moment thing. I never went out there with any intention of wanting to sell it or screw people back here.”
Mark Bedics, who handled media relations for the tournament for the National Collegiate Athletic Association, learned about Voigt’s infraction when a reporter told him a press pass had been posted on eBay. Bedics called the UMD athletic department after learning whose pass it was. The athletic department, in turn, informed the Statesman.
Peterson said the Staesman has talked to the NCAA about Voigt and the paper’s response.
“As a newspaper, we didn’t want to lose credibility so we followed procedures in letting him go,” she said. “It’s too bad, and we’re hoping we’ll be invited back to future NCAA events. We hope it doesn’t affect our credibility too much.”
Bedics said potential ramifications for the Statesman could have included not receiving credentials for future NCAA championships.
“I appreciate the actions the student newspaper took,” Bedics said. “I feel their actions were appropriate, so nothing more will happen than that this will be noted.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t anything malicious; it was just a student who made a poor decision and a mistake,” Bedics said. “We all learn from our mistakes. Hopefully, he’ll learn from this.”