By Matt Goldberg
Dejection? Annoyance? Aggressiveness? All are major symptoms of the ticket disorder, a disease that affects millions of couch potatoes nationwide. Some claim sports in the 21st century are just too expensive. Some claim the view is better at home. And some claim it is just impossible to get tickets. These are all excuses. Cop-outs.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to be just another sorry loser sitting at home while your favorite team drives for victory. Trust me, you can get tickets.
Buying tickets to sporting events is simple. The catch is understanding when to buy them, where to buy them, and what kind to buy. I’ll admit the procurement of those little pieces of paper that gain one entrance to sporting events is not as easy as it used to be.
Get Those Fingers Warmed Up
No longer does the studious sports fan need to stand in line or try to dial through endless busy signals. Over the last couple of years the sporting industry has computerized most ticketing systems, making them easier to use and diversifying the options teams have for selling tickets.
Some teams like the Cardinals have brought their ticketing operations in house-so they can pocket the infamous shipping and handling charges-which has resulted in horrible server problems. Other teams like the Rams and Blues have stuck with ticketing leader Ticketmaster, which has its own ticketing issues. Still others like the San Francisco Giants and the Salt Lake City Olympics have posted their ticket sales with newcomer Tickets.com.
Despite some security and server problems, the best way to buy tickets is over the Internet. Sure, servers may lock you out of sales, and too many times sites tell the would- be ticket buyer that “we cannot process your order at this time, try again later.” Yet, it is still the wisest road to avoiding the couch potato state. In my experience, I’ve only missed getting tickets twice-both on Ticketmaster.
Not that I hold a grudge against Ticketmaster, but they have some problems the sports fan needs to be aware of. Ticketmaster will only ship to the billing address no matter what address is indicated on the order. Also, Ticketmaster only allows five minutes between the time it brings up your seats and the time it puts them back in the pool. So enter your information quickly, and if you plan to buy tickets on multiple occasions, set up an account to save you time and tickets.
Knowledge, Readiness and Execution
So how do you know when and where tickets go on sale? Well, the sports fan needs to stay very well informed. The best way to find out when tickets go on sale is to surf team websites, which almost without exception, provide detailed information on when and where (i.e. which web site) the tickets will go on sale. A word of warning to all of you partying fools out there: most teams start ticket sales early in the morning.
Once you know the time and location of the ticket sale, you need to do additional research as far as which games you want to go to and where you want to sit. If you want to buy tickets for St. Louis sporting events you need to act early because the Cardinals, Rams, and Blues sell very well. But you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg to buy your way out of a vegetative state.
The cheapest tickets will be for baseball games, and unless you plan to see a very select group of teams (i.e. the Mariners, Giants or Indians), baseball tickets are also the most readily available. In St. Louis, the best deal for Cardinals seats is the bleachers, which run 10 bucks a pop and afford a Redbird fan a great view at the right price. The Rams and Blues are a little bit more pricey and a lot harder to get because they play fewer games and have many season ticket holders. Yet, you can still get out to a Blues or Rams game for about 35 dollars during the regular season.
Postseason Pressure
All three major sports teams in St. Louis made the playoffs last year, so playoff tickets can be a major concern. As one would expect playoff tickets are more expensive, but not entirely out of reach. They run about 50 bucks a pop for the Rams and Blues and they range between 20 and 100 for the Cardinals (depending on the round and the seat type). Playoff tickets are also harder to get and unless you log on right at the time the tickets go on sale forget about going (the Rams playoff tickets sold out in 3 minutes!).
So what happens if you are shut out but still want to go to the game? Well, you can still go for the right price. Sites like Ebay and premiertickets.com both have tickets for every event, but they are out of most people’s price range (they were asking $250 a pop for Rams playoff tickets). Yet Ebay is worth a look because there might be some idiot seller out there who is willing to sell tickets for face value.
Since I’ve been in St. Louis I have gone to Cardinal playoff games, Rams playoff games, and Blues games-all acquired over the Internet. Now admittedly I am somewhat of a sports fanatic, and I budget my money accordingly, but anyone can score tickets. All you have to do is research when the tickets go on sale and then log on and click buy. So get off your couches and go buy some Cardinals tickets, they are already on sale!
Contact Matt at matt.goldberg@studlife.com