Student Life Archives

Andrew ODell

St. Louis: home of the Gateway Arch, Forest Park and of course one of the sporting world’s most hallowed shrines-the Bowling Hall of Fame. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, just where is the Bowling Hall of Fame and can I make plans to visit it? I can’t honestly say I know exactly where it is, but I think we will all sleep better at night just knowing that it’s there.

But there is a reason why St. Louis was named 2000’s Best Sports City by The Sporting News, and it’s probably not the Bowling Hall of Fame. It probably does have a lot to do with St. Louis’ teams, fans, and players. St. Louis has long been the home of a slew of sports icons-from Bob Pettit of the old St. Louis Hawks (NBA) to Al Macinnis of the Blues, to grocery boy turned quarterback Kurt Warner, and of course the Cardinals’ Mark McGwire.

When I was in my junior year of high school, I came to visit Washington University and decided to attend a Cardinals game. I expected big things from the larger-than-life McGwire and the slugging first baseman did not disappoint. On the first pitch he saw that day, he blasted a mammoth home run.

Mark McGwire has since retired, with Albert Pujols filling his shoes in the lineup card. Of course, McGwire left an indelible mark on the city’s sportscape that will not easily be replaced; I think they even named a highway after him.

But thanks to a supportive fan base, St. Louis will always have new sports heroes like the aforementioned Warner, who went from stocking shelves as a grocery clerk to Super Bowl MVP. In truth, Warner’s star has faded as of late, as he is coming off a disappointing, injury-plagued campaign. There is even speculation that Warner’s backup, Marc Bulger, will supplant him as the team’s number one quarterback this season. And sure Bulger throws nice, crisp passes and handles pressure in the pocket well, but how well does he know his way around the produce section? Even if Warner never regains his magic tough, it is undeniable that his rags-to-riches story stirred our imagination.

St. Louisans are quick to embrace their sports stars. Even the average St. Louisan supports the St. Louis teams and even the city’s casual sports fan seems to know most of the players on a St. Louis team. And when you go to games, everyone wears the team’s jerseys.

St. Louis athletes and sports teams seem to make an effort to be a part of the community. The Cardinals give out free tickets to high school honor roll students. And on one occasion, I was lucky enough to see the St. Louis Blues president speak at the business school. He, too, dispensed free tickets to anyone wearing Blues apparel. Is it a rule in hockey that all those involved in player personnel and management must have long hair-preferably of the mullet variety?

But that’s splitting loose ends. All jokes aside, St. Louis has been a pretty cool sports town in my experience-even without an NBA team. Games are big events in the St. Louis community and at school. Some students from outside St. Louis choose to stay true to their home team, some root for the St. Louis teams, and many students from areas without pro franchises choose to adopt the St. Louis teams as their own. In any case, there is healthy population of sports fans at the University.

St. Louis should continue to offer great sports action this next season with the Rams, Blues and Cardinals all expected to be in championship contention. If it’s NBA action you crave, you can always make a road trip to Chicago or Memphis. Even if you’re not a fan of the St. Louis teams, go see a game when your team comes to town. All of the St. Louis sporting venues are easily accessible by MetroLink, and it’s easy to get tickets on your hands, especially with many school subsidized trips offered. And if live sporting events are too wild for you, there’s always the Bowling Hall of Fame.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2003 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

KRT

Dejection? Annoyance? Aggressiveness? All are major symptoms of the ticket disorder, a disease that affects millions of couch potatoes nationwide. Some claim sporting events 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 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, although I’ll admit the procurement of those little pieces of paper is not as easy as it used to be. The catch is understanding when to buy them, where to buy them, and what kind to buy.

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.

Most Major League Baseball 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.

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 Web 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 avoid 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 understand. 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 (especially in sports-crazed St. Louis). The best way to find out when tickets go on sale is to surf team Web sites, which nearly always provide detailed information on when and where 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 (the Cardinals put tickets on sale at 8:00 a.m.).

Once you know the time and location of the ticket sale, you need to do additional research into which games you want to attend and where 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 (e.g. the Mariners, Giants or Red Sox), baseball tickets are readily available. In St. Louis, the best deal for Cardinals seats is the bleachers, which run $14.00 a pop and afford a Redbird fan a great view at the right price. The Rams and Blues are a little more expensive and a lot harder to get because they play fewer games and have many season ticket holders. Yet, you can still get to a Blues or Rams game for about $40.00 during the regular season.

Postseason pressure

The Cardinals and the Blues 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 $50.00 a pop for the Rams and Blues and they range between $20.00 and $100.00 for the Cardinals (depending on the round and the seat type). Typically Cardinals playoff tickets go on sale the Monday after they clinch a playoff berth. Playoff tickets are also hard to get unless you log on right at the time the tickets go on sale.

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 E-bay and premiertickets.com both have tickets for every event, but they are out of most people’s price range (they were asking $250.00 for 2002 Rams playoff tickets).

Since I’ve been in St. Louis I have gone to every Cardinal playoff game (some 5 games), a Rams playoff game, and Blues games-all acquired over the Internet. Now admittedly I am 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, click and buy. So get off your couches and go buy some Cardinals tickets; they are already on sale!

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 25th, 2003 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.