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Help! Need someone who understands F4 ticket racket

fowl_mood

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So, ordered 4 through gamecock club knowing I could cancel before noon Tuesday. Now I cannot go and there is this whole will call thing. My four buddies want those tickets but it's looking like that's not gonna work.

Online the prices appear double the cost. Besides my attendance problem, I now understand the schools get a whole 8000 tickets cumulatively, rest are "corporate." Plus double demand here will limit priority to possibly two.

Questions...will prices come down during week....will tickets be on-sale outside the game...how do you work the secondary markets. Like many gamecocks, this is new to us.
 
So, ordered 4 through gamecock club knowing I could cancel before noon Tuesday. Now I cannot go and there is this whole will call thing. My four buddies want those tickets but it's looking like that's not gonna work.

Online the prices appear double the cost. Besides my attendance problem, I now understand the schools get a whole 8000 tickets cumulatively, rest are "corporate." Plus double demand here will limit priority to possibly two.

Questions...will prices come down during week....will tickets be on-sale outside the game...how do you work the secondary markets. Like many gamecocks, this is new to us.

Might need to go to the KY, Wisconsin, or Michigan St. board to try to get answers to these questions.
 
So, ordered 4 through gamecock club knowing I could cancel before noon Tuesday. Now I cannot go and there is this whole will call thing. My four buddies want those tickets but it's looking like that's not gonna work.

Online the prices appear double the cost. Besides my attendance problem, I now understand the schools get a whole 8000 tickets cumulatively, rest are "corporate." Plus double demand here will limit priority to possibly two.

Questions...will prices come down during week....will tickets be on-sale outside the game...how do you work the secondary markets. Like many gamecocks, this is new to us.

UK fan here, have done this many times before. Here is my best thinking:

1) If you can get tickets through USC, do it. You'll pay face value. The only negative is that some of the seats may be in upper locations (hopefully you'll be in the section either right behind your team's bench or on the other side of the court direct or diaganol where the place all four fanbase sections close to the floor). It may be a risk, but I don't think it's a high one.

2) If you can't buy through USC, I recommend Primesport b/c it's the official NCAA site. In other words, you will not be scammed like you might through other sites.

3) Tickets are expensive, especially to saturday games. If you win on Saturday, I'd expect monday tickets to be MUCH easier to get, especially given that no local team made it. I paid $12,000 for four seats in 2015 (and that was at a location close to all four teams that were playing) and then had to dump the Monday night tickets for $3,200 when Wisconsin was playing Duke.

4) Tickets can always be had outside the stadium closer to gametime for a decent price, but the downside is counterfeit tickets are on the rise. In 2015 in Indy, I saw many people show up only to find someone in their seat and then the ushers had to figure out which tickets were real and which ones were fake. BEWARE.

5) I think all of the primesport tickets are e-tickets, so you should be able to do all transactions (buying and then selling if you happen to lose on saturday) over your phone or on your computer.

Good luck! Go Cocks
 
UK fan here, have done this many times before. Here is my best thinking:

1) If you can get tickets through USC, do it. You'll pay face value. The only negative is that some of the seats may be in upper locations (hopefully you'll be in the section either right behind your team's bench or on the other side of the court direct or diaganol where the place all four fanbase sections close to the floor). It may be a risk, but I don't think it's a high one.

2) If you can't buy through USC, I recommend Primesport b/c it's the official NCAA site. In other words, you will not be scammed like you might through other sites.

3) Tickets are expensive, especially to saturday games. If you win on Saturday, I'd expect monday tickets to be MUCH easier to get, especially given that no local team made it. I paid $12,000 for four seats in 2015 (and that was at a location close to all four teams that were playing) and then had to dump the Monday night tickets for $3,200 when Wisconsin was playing Duke.

4) Tickets can always be had outside the stadium closer to gametime for a decent price, but the downside is counterfeit tickets are on the rise. In 2015 in Indy, I saw many people show up only to find someone in their seat and then the ushers had to figure out which tickets were real and which ones were fake. BEWARE.

5) I think all of the primesport tickets are e-tickets, so you should be able to do all transactions (buying and then selling if you happen to lose on saturday) over your phone or on your computer.

Good luck! Go Cocks
thanks stuck..it's been a real education In a ticket market for big events....truly a volatile market in every sense, with the time between initial sales and the game.
 
So, ordered 4 through gamecock club knowing I could cancel before noon Tuesday. Now I cannot go and there is this whole will call thing. My four buddies want those tickets but it's looking like that's not gonna work.

Online the prices appear double the cost. Besides my attendance problem, I now understand the schools get a whole 8000 tickets cumulatively, rest are "corporate." Plus double demand here will limit priority to possibly two.

Questions...will prices come down during week....will tickets be on-sale outside the game...how do you work the secondary markets. Like many gamecocks, this is new to us.

Little secret, the athletic department won't turn your friends away if they show up to pick up your tickets because the athletic department won't be able to sell them to someone else.
 
$12,000 for 4 seats????? I'm laughing at $1200. No thanks. I'll just have to survive on Verne.
I have had some informative discussions with club personnel the last two days and eventually canceled. One discussion convinced me that the NCAA and site push this will call is solely because of scammers. I'm not sure the archaic non transferrability character of club membership is as much a factor. From looking at other school approaches it's apparent that changing a name on an order can be done----in this case they cannot guarantee it will work is what they themselves have encountered.

Bottom line, the schools and fans of participating teams get the worst deal of all market participants. When tickets are sold they go for much cheaper....by school distribution they are 150% of original price it seems. They get sold and resold by speculators and the price eventually ends up punishing the real fan, by increasing cost and aggravation to get a ticket, and late market entrant. What's new?

Of course this is new....we are in the freaking final four. Go COCKS!!!!
 
3) Tickets are expensive, especially to saturday games. If you win on Saturday, I'd expect monday tickets to be MUCH easier to get, especially given that no local team made it. I paid $12,000 for four seats in 2015 (and that was at a location close to all four teams that were playing) and then had to dump the Monday night tickets for $3,200 when Wisconsin was playing Duke.

Ouch. I felt a pain in my stomach reading that paragraph. That's a lot of money to have paid to witness one of the toughest losses in school history.

I can't imagine tickets prices to this Final Four to be close to that number. Indy's proximity to Kentucky must have drove up prices considerably.
 
The tickets are paid for by the time they are at will call. The university has already sold them. They don't need to resell them.
Right, so it doesn't benefit them in any way not to let your friends use them. Though publicly admitting that that was the case would be unfair to people without enough points to get tickets.
 
thanks stuck..it's been a real education In a ticket market for big events....truly a volatile market in every sense, with the time between initial sales and the game.

Agreed, it's insane. I've sat in the worst seats (1997) and i've sat in the best seats (2015) and it's cool to be there either way. Any more, I'm willing to pay for convenience and a good viewing experience, but the whole thing is a racket.
 
$12,000 for 4 seats????? I'm laughing at $1200. No thanks. I'll just have to survive on Verne.

Didn't say it was smart (especially given that we ended up losing to Wisconsin in the semis) but seemed worth it at the time to have great seats to see one of the best teams in school history have a chance to go 40-0. Didn't work out, so I look like an idiot. If we had won the title, would have been the best money ever spent.
 
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Also - The GCC was selling tickets at the Marriott in Times Square the morning of the Elite 8 for $125 (stub hub and the rest were well over $200 for the same section). I wouldn't count on it. But that did happen.
 
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Ouch. I felt a pain in my stomach reading that paragraph. That's a lot of money to have paid to witness one of the toughest losses in school history.

I can't imagine tickets prices to this Final Four to be close to that number. Indy's proximity to Kentucky must have drove up prices considerably.

Yes, I'm numb to the pain now :) We do have a great traveling fanbase that tends to drive up prices, but definitely was magnified b/c the final 4 was in Indy and so easily accessible to UK fans (along with MSU and Wisconsin fans who were also reasonably close).

If you win on Saturday, I'm guessing that it will be relatively cheap to see your team play in the title game. Big bet, but could pay off.
 
Stuckinbig10 hit the nail on the head again. When UK lost in New Orleans in the Final Four I got nothing for my tickets compared to what I payed for them. I payed top dollar for top of the Superdome. I learned after that on how to work the system.
 
$12,000 for 4 seats????? I'm laughing at $1200. No thanks. I'll just have to survive on Verne.
For $12,000, I could buy a Kawasaki Concours or Yamaha FJR on Saturday that will definitely still be in my garage on Monday night (and many weekends and miles thereafter). If you aren't a multi-millionaire, there comes a point where fandom becomes unhealthy.
 
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Bottom line, the schools and fans of participating teams get the worst deal of all market participants. When tickets are sold they go for much cheaper....by school distribution they are 150% of original price it seems. They get sold and resold by speculators and the price eventually ends up punishing the real fan, by increasing cost and aggravation to get a ticket, and late market entrant.

This. For all the hype and hoopla that surround the NCAA basketball tournament, the simple fact is it's merely a great TV event and not a practical in-person experience for actual fans of a participating team.
 
UK fan here, have done this many times before. Here is my best thinking:

1) If you can get tickets through USC, do it. You'll pay face value. The only negative is that some of the seats may be in upper locations (hopefully you'll be in the section either right behind your team's bench or on the other side of the court direct or diaganol where the place all four fanbase sections close to the floor). It may be a risk, but I don't think it's a high one.

2) If you can't buy through USC, I recommend Primesport b/c it's the official NCAA site. In other words, you will not be scammed like you might through other sites.

3) Tickets are expensive, especially to saturday games. If you win on Saturday, I'd expect monday tickets to be MUCH easier to get, especially given that no local team made it. I paid $12,000 for four seats in 2015 (and that was at a location close to all four teams that were playing) and then had to dump the Monday night tickets for $3,200 when Wisconsin was playing Duke.

4) Tickets can always be had outside the stadium closer to gametime for a decent price, but the downside is counterfeit tickets are on the rise. In 2015 in Indy, I saw many people show up only to find someone in their seat and then the ushers had to figure out which tickets were real and which ones were fake. BEWARE.

5) I think all of the primesport tickets are e-tickets, so you should be able to do all transactions (buying and then selling if you happen to lose on saturday) over your phone or on your computer.

Good luck! Go Cocks

Very kind of you to share some insight with this board:)
 
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I bought tickets through StubHub because I had not gotten GCC tickets for Greenville or NYC. I found out today that I've got tickets from the GCC. Luckily, it took me 5 minutes to find a buyer.
 
Agreed, it's insane. I've sat in the worst seats (1997) and i've sat in the best seats (2015) and it's cool to be there either way. Any more, I'm willing to pay for convenience and a good viewing experience, but the whole thing is a racket.
STUCKNBIG10: Thanks for your report. I will not contemplate going to a Final Four after reading about the exorbitant prices, but in the future will make more trips to Columbia to see SEC games. There is some really outstanding talent in the SEC conference. I did see the men's USC-Texas ATM game, and even that one was great fun to watch. Also got to see Villanova play Wake Forest in Charleston. It is all about seeing good players give it their best, and not so much the hype for me. Will watch the big ones on TV.
 
Yes, I'm numb to the pain now :) We do have a great traveling fanbase that tends to drive up prices, but definitely was magnified b/c the final 4 was in Indy and so easily accessible to UK fans (along with MSU and Wisconsin fans who were also reasonably close).

If you win on Saturday, I'm guessing that it will be relatively cheap to see your team play in the title game. Big bet, but could pay off.

Thought I would share the resolution of my original post. My buddy only had to get three because one of the youngsters tagging along got a 40.00 student ticket. He went online and got club level but paid over well 500 for them. He particularly liked the seat view he found and did not want to wait out the market or mess with it this week. After 37 years this will call business is the most disappointing experience in the Gamecock club I have had. I understand the non-transferability of club membership, but whatever the cause of this its an unduly burdensome constraint on members. As we retire things like this move us out a little faster. But , I'm a firm believer that whatever gaps you leave as you move through your chosen causes in life can be filled by smarter, hungrier and hopefully even more committed folks. Meanwhile, its costs nothing to support these amazing teams. Go cocks!
 
Right, so it doesn't benefit them in any way not to let your friends use them. Though publicly admitting that that was the case would be unfair to people without enough points to get tickets.

But it does benefit them to make sure tickets are picked up by the purchaser...it's like that at ANY will call situation. You can't just show up and say "I want to get Joe Blow's tickets." If they give them to you and Joe Blow shows up looking for his tickets....situation. Have you never done a will call for tickets? Your total scenario and response is very uneducated.
 
But it does benefit them to make sure tickets are picked up by the purchaser...it's like that at ANY will call situation. You can't just show up and say "I want to get Joe Blow's tickets." If they give them to you and Joe Blow shows up looking for his tickets....situation. Have you never done a will call for tickets? Your total scenario and response is very uneducated.
Spurem...why the need to be rude? You are the one who missed the point. I was told during all my calls they could change the name but could not guarantee it would work. They were probably just trying to get rid of me. Gonzaga told their club members no name changes for this game. It all suggests the real problem is not the will call process....it's perhaps a fear of scammers but also could be a workload they could not handle in the timeframe at the clubs. Maybe that will help you understand the aspects of this discussion.
 
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For $12,000, I could buy a Kawasaki Concours or Yamaha FJR on Saturday that will definitely still be in my garage on Monday night (and many weekends and miles thereafter). If you aren't a multi-millionaire, there comes a point where fandom becomes unhealthy.
Maybe he is a multimillionaire? Never know...
 
IMO, there will be a massive sale on tickets tomorrow for folks that have tickets but cannot get flight/hotel or perhaps held out for a high dollar. I already see the trend on Craigslist / Raleigh.
 
For $12,000, I could buy a Kawasaki Concours or Yamaha FJR on Saturday that will definitely still be in my garage on Monday night (and many weekends and miles thereafter). If you aren't a multi-millionaire, there comes a point where fandom becomes unhealthy.

LOL, you guys are rubbing it in. Just called me a dumbass and be done with it. :)
 
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