Good luck in finding tickets.

You guys that always wait to get tix on the streets may have to rethink your strategy. Read this from charlotte.com.



Posted on Mon, Sep. 29, 2003

Not all enjoying Panthers' success
Sellout makes it hard for fans, scalpers to scratch up some tickets
CARRIE LEVINE
Staff Writer

Danny Hedrick just couldn't bring himself to root for the home team on Sunday.

The Panthers' winning streak, he said, was making it too darned hard to get tickets to resell on game day. Instead of his usual haul of 200 tickets, he only scraped about 20 tickets to resell -- and sold out right after 8 a.m.

"I wish they'd lose," he said. "If they keep winning, I'm going to quit. We cannot get tickets. If they lose, everyone gets tickets, everyone's happy."

On Sunday, many Panthers fans were forced into the shadow of the winners' circle. Fans accustomed to scoring tickets at prices below face value on the day of the game prowled around the stadium, hoping for any tickets at all to the matchup against archrival Atlanta, one of three sold out home games in the schedule.

"We haven't missed a game in five years," said Russ Martin of Matthews as he walked around the block with his 12-year-old daughter, searching for tickets. Both were clad in Panthers jerseys. "This may be the first one."

Martin said he had been looking for an hour, and had found only one scalper selling two $35 tickets for $100 each. He said he was unwilling to pay that kind of markup, especially since it is illegal to sell a ticket for more than $3 above face value in North Carolina.

"All these bandwagon fans," he grumbled. "We came to every game when (the Panthers record) was 1 and 15 and now we don't get tickets."

The sold-out game generated blocks of traffic and filled parking lots throughout uptown, all of which, some people said, was to be expected. Police said the crowd was well behaved. What Panthers devotees hadn't banked on was sticker shock.

Mike Blanton of Albemarle said he was willing to pay up to face value. But two hours before kickoff, he said, he had only found one person looking to sell tickets. The price for those was $60 each -- $20 over the face value, he said.

"It's pretty tough today. (Three) weeks ago, they were plentiful," he said.

Others were more willing to bow to the law of supply and demand.

Jenny Blackburn of Charlotte and Jamie Beaulieu of Raleigh were determined to get four tickets so Beaulieu's two sons, Corey Adams, 12 and Brandon Adams, 10, could see the game.

So even though Blackburn usually finds tickets within 10 minutes -- and for less than face value -- they looked for over an hour before finally paying what Blackburn would only describe as a greater than 50 percent markup on four $30 seats.

"We did it for them," she said with a smile.

Others held out for a deal. Bryan and Jacki Forrest were trying to get tickets with their daughter, Ali, 5, but refused to pay even face value after kickoff.

"Right now, I'd probably put an average ticket at $50, which is way overpriced," Bryan said.

Scalpers said Panthers tickets are getting scarcer, but at least one said they still hasn't attained "hot" status.

"Tickets have been easily available for $30 or $40 a ticket, so compared to big football cities like Green Bay, I wouldn't classify it as a hard ticket," said one scalper who gave his name only as Alex. "But everyone loves a winner. We'll have to see how well they do.

 

I just went to the Panther ticket office to buy 2 tickets and all that was available were single seat tickets that were not side by side. Detroit is the only game that has side by side seat tickets available.

 

I gots mines season tickets

 

Well....I'm sure they're gonna to be undercover officers out there next Sunday.

 

My point of the post was, if you want to spend $100 for two tickets side by side (which, according to the article is double or triple the face value), go for it. Just make sure you bring lots of money. I think a lot of people were hoping for ten dollar $40 tix. Those are the days of yore. I think those days are gone for a while.

I'm all for having 68,000 fans in the stands!

 

I was just talking about that with my co-worker. How hard would it be to get an undercover officer wearing a jersey? They could have a team that secured the arestee while the undercover officer went from suspect to suspect. After reading that article in the paper this morning it disgusted me that people would rip people off by asking 50% more than the printed ticket price. Charlotte-Meck needs to do something, but manpower is limited and I doubt it will happpen.

 

Doesn't bother me. They should be able to get what the market will bear. No one protects the sellers when buyers will only pay 50% less than face value.

 

Fuck that bullshit. Scalpers should be arrested when the attempt to buy tickets for resale.

If your not going to use the ticket yourself, or your not buying for friends or family, then you shouldn't be buying tickets. Period.




I paid $50 for a $43 seat, and I was happy. It just happens that someone had an extra seat, not a scapler. I sat lower level in the end zone.

I had a chance to buy a club ticket for $125, it was $209 face value. I offered him $50.

 

So you offered a guy 25% value for a ticket and thought that was fair but would get pissed if the guy jacked up the price? I see your logic.....not.

 

We had no problem finding tickets. We payed less then face value and didn't get them untill about an hour before the game.