Beginning next month, Kansas University basketball fans who don’t have a ticket to the next hot game won’t have to stand outside in the cold to buy a ticket from a scalper.

They can make the transaction in downtown Lawrence.

Overland Park-based Ace Sports & Tickets is expanding into the Lawrence market beginning Nov. 1. The company is leasing vacant space in between the Starbucks and Abercrombie & Fitch stores at 647 Mass.

The 15-year-old company bills itself as the largest broker of KU basketball and Kansas City Chiefs tickets in the country. Owner Hal Wagner said it was time for the business to expand beyond its Oak Park Mall location because it had an increasing number of customers outside the immediate Kansas City area.

“We just had a lot of situations where people in Lawrence and Topeka either needed tickets or wanted to sell tickets but didn’t want to drive all the way over here,” Wagner said.

The company acquires most of its tickets from season ticket holders who can’t go to a particular game. Wagner said the company generally pays ticket holders above face value for their tickets, though the rate varies depending on the game. He turns around and sells them at rates sometimes well over face value.

For example, Wagner said his company usually had from about two dozen tickets to upwards of 100 tickets, depending on the opponent, for each KU home basketball game. Prices range from $30 to “several hundred dollars,” depending on the game and seat location. Face value for KU basketball tickets range from $30 to $35, according to the KU ticket office.

The business doesn’t thrill everyone.

“We’re not excited about it,” Jim Marchiony, KU’s associate athletic director, said. “We don’t want to see Kansas tickets being sold for more than face value. We also would like the tickets to be used by the people who they are intended to be used by.”

But the business is legal. Unlike in Missouri, laws do not prohibit ticket scalpers in Kansas. Marchiony said KU’s athletic administration hadn’t been in place long enough to discuss whether the department should lobby legislators to change that law.

“I don’t know if there is any thought to try to change that law, but personally, I would welcome that sort of change,” Marchiony said.

Wagner, though, said he doesn’t view his business as detrimental to KU.

“We’re not in competition with Kansas University at all,” Wagner said. “We help guarantee that every seat will be filled, and that helps concession sales, merchandise sales and lots of other things.”

Marchiony said he would prefer to see a system established that would allow season ticket holders to sell tickets they can’t use back to the university at face value. The university then would sell the tickets, at face value, to other KU supporters who are on a waiting list.

Ace won’t be the first company to try to make the ticket business work in Lawrence. About five years ago, a ticket broker briefly set up shop on New Hampshire Street.

Wagner, though, said he thinks his store will be a success in Lawrence because he already has customers in the area, and a Lawrence location should increase his access to KU season ticket holders who were looking to sell an occasional ticket.

“Without a doubt, we’ll have a lot more KU tickets to sell now,” Wagner said.

The company also sells tickets for concerts at area venues and shows on Broadway, Las Vegas, and other national venues.