Alright, I am now absolutely pissed that the tickets for the Frozen Four going up and down and up and down for no reason. I want to go to Saturday's game, but now, I don't think so.
When I got to the X it became very clear that the $113.50 I paid for the Semifinals was way too expensive. Not only was I able to find a ticket for those games for almost $40 less, when I said hi to my scalper just outside the arena, he told me he'd be willing to take $30 for any of the tickets he had in his hand. Fuck.
I am willing to forgive myself for this. How was I supposed to know the floor was going to give way underneath the market for these games the week of? All I knew from past experience -- which was the Frozen Four from 2011 -- was that it was going to be expensive. I didn't know that the inflated prices back then were primarily due to the presence of North Dakota. I thought that Minnesota-Duluth fans and alums in the Twin Cities would buy up a healthy portion of the tickets. Michigan and Ohio St. are big schools; Notre Dame is a national school and I thought there would be enough transplants and fans who live here that they would help sell out the arena, too -- and if not, there would be enough fans who would fly in to watch it. According to my guy, that was far from the case.
I wouldn't say I felt burned, but during the games I resolved to beat the market. I had panicked and bought too quickly. And now, knowing that neither Ohio St. nor Michigan will be in the final and that a small (albeit Minnesota) school will face a private (albeit national) school for the title, it is now a buyers' market. So I will wait. Well, I'll try and buy a ticket from a fan of a losing team on my way out (that didn't work, like it serendipitously did seven years ago), and then I'll check the scalper sites the next morning (as in this morning), but I'll probably wait until the day of, when the market drops again, and I'll clean up.
Well, fuck me again, because I never thought a ticket for the final would shoot up to $150. But it did. Just checked. I can't fucking believe it. These were tickets that were going for about, oh, $70 on Wednesday. And I have to say that even though all-session tickets were going for about the $175 I spent for both semifinals and the final for the 2011 Frozen Four, if I bought tickets for each session separately, I think I could have gotten them for, oh, $130, $150. But that $150 is now the floor for Saturday? Between two teams whose fans didn't buy up the price on Thursday?
Maybe demand doesn't spark up until people know for sure their teams are playing in the final. But I really, really thought that prices would drop this morning. And I didn't think for a second they would skyrocket. I still don't believe it. But I'm really pissed that the prices of these tickets go down and up and down and up with no rhyme or reason. I ain't falling for this bullshit any longer.
So this is what I pray I will do. I will check and see if tickets fall in price. If they do fall to a number I like, I'll buy one over the Intenet. If they don't, I'll go over to St. Paul and see my scalper and, if I can tolerate them, see the other scalpers. There has to be tickets available, but I will be goddamned if I am paying more than $175 for both sessions. And since I spent $113.50 on the semis, that leaves me ... $60 for a single. That's the number. That is the most I will pay.
It kills me to know I could have seen a great tournament for about $130-50, but I'm also tired of being jerked around and thinking I will get a bargain when the market jacks up the price like this. So, if the price of a ticket isn't cheap enough, I'll walk away. I really don't want to, and I sure as fuck didn't plan on doing so, but watching a great sporting event in my hometown isn't worth parting with more of my money than I should have spent. And more importantly, going to it isn't worth parting with more of my dignity and self-respect after I have given away so much already in the pursuit of a bargain I still feel entitled to. I can't, and I won't.
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