WOULD RATHER BE IN CLEARWATER
You can still find tickets for the much-ballyhooed “last game at the Spectrum” set for Saturday afternoon. It will be the Flyers’ final appearance there against an NHL opponent; they will return on Oct. 7 for a 7:30 p.m. exhibition vs. the Phantoms.
First, the Flyers held back some tickets to enable a couple of their promotions. One is an auction that they are running off their Web site; go to the auction section. There are five packages available that include the tickets to the game, autographed merchandise and a tour of the building.
They also are using the lure of the farewell game to sell their full and power play season-ticket packages. Anyone attending a free open house at the Wachovia Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday who buys one of those ticket packages will be given a couple tickets to the Flyers-Hurricanes game and, as part of that package, will get to meet a couple of the former team captains who have accepted an invitation to attend Saturday’s game and participate in the ceremonies.
And, of course, some tickets are still clinging to the brokerage web, depending on the price you want to pay. A glance at the Wanamaker Tickets site in Center City found tickets running as high as $115. Packages that include VIP parking passes are, in a few cases, more than three times higher. A spokesman contacted earlier today said that the prices generally are higher than you’d find for a preseason game “because of where it’s being played. Typically speaking, preseason prices, at the Wachovia Center, you wouldn’t get that kind of money for those type of tickets.”
And those prices could still elevate, he said. “It’s early, it’s Wednesday. I’m sure come Friday or Saturday, I’m sure they’ll heat up quite a bit.”
Speaking of tickets, this story by Daniel McGlinn of the Boston Globe provides a real insightful look at the ticket brokerage industry and its impact on most of you out there who would like to buy tickets to a game but don’t have the financial wherewithal. Well, unless you’re good friends with some high-level suit at Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac.
In the piece, McGlinn poses the question of whether tickets brokers are wearing white hats or black hats. Edgar Sworsky, founder of ConsumerWorld.org, sees more evil than good. “I think it’s a dirty business, and I think consumer are getting screwed,” he says. Brokers, as you might figure, disagree, seeing it as just the free-market system at its finest.
Paul Vigna still has the seat he wrestled out of the concrete at Connie Mack Stadium parked in the finished basement, a 1980 Phillies championship mirror hanging above it. Now, why he’s kept an autograph of former Flyer Bruce Gamble on a sheet of Hockey Hall of Fame paper is another story. A native of Philly who grew up in Lansdale, he’s an assistant sports editor at the Daily News in charge of special projects who has written two columns related to sports and consumers: View From the Seats and Savvy Consumer.
ABOUT THIS BLOG:
Athletic contests were, for a long time, simply fun and games. Nowadays they’re just a small part of a sports entertainment industry that puts billions of dollars into play and a number of issues into motion. Moneyball indeed. You might be closer to the action than ever before, but that privilege comes at a price - and often it’s beyond what you can afford.
With that as the backdrop we’ll use this blog to dig out stories and swap advice about how the fan experience is changing and what it’s costing you now and in the future. Some of it will educate, some will let you vent. And in a sports panel format, it should allow for a consensus of opinion that can carry some weight.
