Showing posts with label tickets. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tickets. Show all posts

Friday, October 15, 2010

I Won't Be Going To The World Series This Year

The pre-onsale for Yankees World Series tickets began today at 1:00. I refreshed my browser every second from 12:59 until the tickets page popped up. Immediately, I went for bleachers, Game 5. 1 minute waiting time. Sorry, no tickets available.

Next, bleachers, Game 4. 2 minute waiting time. Sorry, no tickets available.

At the same time, my cousin searched too. We abandoned hope of finding two tickets together. We just wanted one ticket. Any ticket. I had two browsers open on my desktop, and a Ticketmaster window open on my iPhone too.

Eventually, we just went for Best Available. $456 dollar seats be damned.

Sorry, no tickets available.



It was then I learned that there had been a "Preliminary Pre-Onsale," earlier, at 10 AM, for some undefined group of eligible ticket licensees.

I hate them all.

My cousin and I did find some seats available. Wheelchair seats reserved for the disabled.

"Just break my back with a baseball bat," my cousin suggested.

What followed was a 20 minute conversation on the different ways we could take advantage of having a wheelchair ticket. "Actually using them would be wrong," I concluded. "But we could buy them and sell them for profit someplace where people in wheelchairs hang out. Like a VFW hall..."

In the end, morality and human decency prevailed. But my cousin said it best:
"Even though i wasn't seriously considering it, I'm sure that at least 20 other people had the same convo today... and I bet some bought them."

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Yankees Reserve Seats For Either Messiah's or Anti-Christ's Arrival

Meggido

After weeks of fans, bloggers, and the media speculating why the Yankees don't drop ticket prices for their laughably inaccessible "Legends Seats" behind home plate and along the basepaths (look at that medieval moat!), Adam's Life has uncovered the real reason why the team seemingly doesn't want anyone to sit there.

"This place is a cathedral," an anonymous source told us. "And those seats are reserved for whichever army ends up winning the battle between good and evil."

Privately, the source stated that he personally hopes the "good" side wins, and occupies the extra-cushy, prime view seating. But he emphasized the official Yankee position is neutral.

"If the anti-christ wins, we don't want to offend him. He and his minions will certainly have a right to those seats and the privilege of free access to the Legends Club food service," the source said.

Suspicions were raised after New York University seniors were denied access to the seats for their graduation ceremonies.

"Of course it didn't make sense if we were only reserving those seats for big spenders. There wasn't a game that day," the source said. "But we're anticipating the end of days any minute now, and we need to make sure those seats are untarnished by mere mortals."

Initially, Yankees owner and Order of the Sixth Stone member George Steinbrenner was reluctant to put any price on the seats, but was finally convinced that anybody spending that kind of money had to be a god, angel, or demon. "It was a way to earn a few bucks and meet a few of the holy warriors deciding mankind's fate," the source said.

Yankee fans must be patient, the source urged.

"We know how it looks, with all those empty seats," he said. "But once the apocalypse arrives, all of the supernatural forces, weary from battle, will pour in through those turnstiles and make this a full stadium again. Unless of course, its a weekday series versus the Mariners."

Phil Loadofbull, a biblical scholar, says he became concerned about the Yankees franchise dabbling in armageddonology when he learned the outfield turf of the new stadium was not Kentucky bluegrass but rather sod taken directly from Meggido, prophetical site of the final war between God and the Devil.

"I thought it strange at the time but didn't really voice my concerns until I saw what they did to Monument Park," said Loadafbull. The once holy ground of the Yankees was hidden behind a wall and buried beneath a casino-sponsored den of opulence. "I wouldn't be surprised if the Yankees host the final battle themselves. It'll be one hell of a ballgame. And think of how much they'll make on concessions alone. Incidentally, I'm a big fan of their garlic fries."

The source insists there are no plans for Yankee stadium to be the final battleground, only the site of the post-war celebration. "Of course," he said, "if they wanted to battle here, I'm sure we could find a corporate sponsor."

Angels vs. Demons

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

"One more thing the British just couldn't get right…"

Jay Takes On The Redcoats
Don't Get Between Jay And His Giants Tickets

by Jay Klein
I had set my cell phone alarm for 4:50AM. The beer and pretzels were right near my laptop (where I had already practiced logging on to the ticketmaster website the night before). I was ready for anything…or so I thought. As tickets went on sale at 10am in Britain, I was set to log on at 5AM from my hotel room, coincidentally in Miami, the NY Giants opponent for the first ever regular season NFL game outside of the States.

The moment had come. Ticketmaster and nfllondon.com had been preparing for this ticket sale for months, so I thought it would go smoothly. As I logged in with my assigned password, the first roadblock was clearly printed on the website: due to "technical difficulties," the online sale would begin an hour late. Luckily, it was 5AM and time was probably my least concern.

The technical issues were fixed and the online sale began. After sitting in a queue for about another hour they had finally offered me tickets. My friend and I had the brilliant idea of buying 6 tickets. We could keep two of them and make a nice profit on the other four. Maybe this could take care of our ticket costs, a few pints, maybe even our cover at the Ministry of Sound…

I typed in my email address and my credit card information and only one column remained - shipping. If anyone could fill out the shipping information, it was me. When I was younger I dreamed about being a UPS man some day. It's not a coincidence that my favorite color was brown. My brother's wife's brother even works for Fed Ex. Ok, you get the point…But something was wrong. One question remained. Ship to: UK or Ireland. Hmm, fish and chips or Guiness? The Pound or the Euro? Then, it hit me. Maybe I should ship the tickets to the USA, as I don't live in the UK nor Ireland. But of course, that wasn't an option. I scrambled back and forth. Oh, Bloody Hell! Did I have any friends over in London? Could I mail it to my company's office in London and then try to track it down? I couldn’t figure out a solution. As time ticked away, I saw my tickets go from the lower tier 20 yard line, then to the corner of the end zone, then slowly move into the upper tier. Would I even get a seat in the stadium?

Finally, at about 7:45am, almost three hours after signing on the website to get tickets, the website offered a will-call option. Of course! Will-Call what a brilliant idea. Only if they British had though of that about three hours earlier!!

Then I realized that the British probably had thought about this weeks earlier, but probably just didn't care. Maybe they wanted revenge on Americans trying to buy tickets for a game in their homeland. Maybe they had put up with us long enough (refer to 93% of American History). Maybe Giants v. Dolphins is a chance for the British to stick it to the proverbial man (US Man that is) and what better way to start than to screw them out of tickets. You think it’s a coincidence that the two teams they picked to play in this game are probably the two most pathetic teams in the league. The NFL has been built on strength and power. Yet, they choose a team with a dolphin as their mascot and another team with Eli Manning as their quarterback. I'm not trying to create any issues that aren't there, but do you really think a team like the Patriots from Boston (refer to Tea Party) or technically from NEW england, would ever be chosen to play in this game?

At the end of the day, I got my tickets and I'm certainly gonna enjoy a game played at one of the most famous stadiums on Earth, Wembley. But I'll be damned if I'm gonna be drinking any of that English tea while I'm over there…
NFL Screws Its Fans

NFL London

The NFL's first international regular season football game has already hit a huge snag, pissing off football fans in the United States and abroad.

Nearly 600,000 football fans from around the world applied online for the opportunity to buy tickets to the New York Giants-Miami Dolphins game at Wembley Stadium in London (capacity 90,000). Through a lottery system, a small percentage were lucky enough to receive a password to use on Ticketmaster. Thousands woke up early this morning as tickets went on sale at 11:00 AM British Standard Time (6 am NY time). My friend Jay and I included.

That's when everyone realized the NFL screwed up big time.

At 11:00 AM, tickets were only made available to residents of the UK. Without a UK mailing address, you couldn't buy a ticket. Jay called everyone he knew to see if anybody had relatives in the UK. We even emailed people we met on our Peru trip.

We weren't the only ones panicking. Within minutes of the sale time, complaints began pouring in to the NFLUK.com website.

"The biggest Farce is, that only persons from the UK, Ireland and Northern Ireland were able to buy tickets. Why didn't they say so from the beginning? Why did they send codes to all other countries? It's unbelievable!!!"

"I am so mad for this, they never told us. It is a game for Europe, not for UK only... god damn it. I waited for this for so long, even called work that I was going to be late because of the 1 hour delay and now this, I AM SO MAD."

"This sucks bigtime. Was i blind or was it obvious that this release was for UK residents only? Thats 2 hours spent of my life i'll never get back. Plus the heart rate isn't down yet."

"Hope this will be the last game played in the UK!!! It's unbelievable they shut out other fans!!!"

International shipping options and a will call option weren't added to the Ticketmaster site until nearly two hours later. By that time, the best seats were already gone-- and many people had already given up.

"Credit to the Brits for screwing the rest of the world out of buying tickets for the first 2 hours. International my butt. Nice play limiting the shipping options to local residents only."

Initially, tickets were supposed to go on sale at 10 am British time, but unspecified technical difficulties delayed the sale by an hour. When the tickets finally did go on sale, shocked fans discovered they couldn't order them unless they lived in Great Britain, Ireland or Scotland.

Germany was added as an option an hour and a half later. A will call option and other countries followed.

Jay and I got tickets for the game, eventually, but they weren't the 50 yard line seats we got when Jay logged in at 6 am. They were section 549 in the upper tier.

Kudos to the NFL for spreading its brand to England, but it owes its American fans, and others, a big apology.

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PLUS: International Regular-Season Games Are Stupid Anyway
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