I've seen some of the ticket listings say session 3 is 6:00 CST. Do you think they know that or are just guessing?
What's the best way to buy tix for first weekend of tourney?
- Thread starter pharoutengineer
- Start date
Took a chance and bought some tickets for Saturday. Can't make the Thursday game. Purdue better win round one!!
Nice you'll have to report back on how that turns out. Were they selling tickets for round 1 and 2 together, or just round 1 alone?
Just the first round. Im hoping to find seats in the section next to vermont. I dont think the arena will be full.
Ditto. I would not count on a lot of empty seats - there's a reason there's not thousands of tickets for sale online, and our session is after work. Our game is the first, so people will be arriving throughout.
You'll probably be in the "rear" of Vermont's section as having no affiliation with the school and wouldn't be surprised if there are some other fans in similar cases as you.
If Purdue does get upset, it'll be a bitter pill to swallow - the loss AND you'll automatically be charged for the next round! haha
That is NOT accurate. If you look on Vivid Seat's website, every single second round session starts at 6 pm. Very misleading.
If you buy tickets through a school, you get tickets for the first round and if that team advances, you automatically get charged/receive tickets for the next round. So yeah, hopefully they don't receive tickets for the next round!
Oddly enough, the Saturday tickets are cheaper than the Thursday tickets. Guess Iowa State and Purdue fans are nervous about an upset...
That is incorrect they are only offering first round tickets and i don't ever recall seeing a first round game that was completely full. Im fine with sitting in the back of the 200 section still good seats.
That's some interesting economics. These resellers essentially have to predict how many tickets are going to get dumped Thursday night by the losing teams fans, in order to set Saturday ticket prices before the Thursday games even take place.
Weird, I wonder if prices will go up or down after the Thursday games. On one hand you've got fresh interest from the winning teams, but also probably lots of people dumping tickets if their team lost. Probably depends highly on whether or not there are upsets. I was able to get a pair for Saturday in the 3rd row of the upper deck near center court for $135 each. Seemed pretty good compared to other prices I've seen. I think face value was $100 including service fees.
Well, they're assuming they are going to lose. Because if a school advances, they automatically get their ticket allotment for the next game they are responsible to sell.
As someone who's been to many first round games, the arenas are mostly full of people there just to watch basketball. Unless you are significantly close to a school, it's not often an arena is full of people rooting for the teams actually playing. So if a team loses, you aren't going to see a bunch of tickets go on the market - unless perhaps it's a local team. But a majority of tickets are sold prior to team's being announced, so it's not like 10,000 people bought tickets hoping Wisconsin would play and since they're not there, they aren't interested in going. The school allotments only account for about 10% of the arena capacity.
That being said, Minnesota, Iowa State and Purdue all have healthy fan bases in the surrounding areas and could have some demand. I'd expect prices to go up - especially as there aren't a ton of tickets on the market for such a large arena.
I've been to a few tournaments too. People may buy from the secondary market, but they often purchase them in strips, from brokers. So, once you lose, and realize you don't care about watching anymore games you dump them leaving the stadium. They'll be scalpers lined up and ready to buy. Then the demand for the next game is all dependent on matchup, and fan's willing to travel on a days notice. I've been on the end of giving my tickets away after the first round loss, and the going to the second round game and picking them up cheap. However, tickets just before tip time are always the cheapest. The second round matchup isn't going to fill every seat unless it was a Duke Vs NC matchup, or something to that extent.
