tickets

The athletic department this afternoon sent out a letter to season ticket holders for 2020 football and 2020-'21 basketball and hockey. The letter assures those who have purchased season tickets, or were considering doing so, that their purchases won't disappear into the ether if either season is canceled.

In that event season ticket holders would have the following options:

1. A full refund (including preferred seat contributions)
2. Transferring payments to the following season (again, PSD included)
3. Changing what they paid to a donation to athletics (PSD included)

Since the 2021 football season (with MSU and OSU at home) is likely to be costlier than this year's Ball State-Arkansas State-Wisconsin-Penn State-Purdue-Maryland-Indiana slate note that you'd probably still be on the hook for the increase.

The letter also extended the deadline for ticket renewal to June 1. The upgrade and additions period was moved to a week after that, with those "if you want PSU you have to take two weak tickets off our hands" three-game packs bumped to July 7 and single-game sales moved to July 21. Basketball and hockey ticket dates were also moved forward a month.

The letter does not answer what would occur in the event of a shortened season, noting there are too many questions about that to come up with a coherent policy.

Clearly, the market for season tickets was not going anywhere during all of this. An acknowledgement of fan concerns, new deadlines, and some surety that payments will be honored was a necessary first step, however it's hard to see the market being anything close to normal times. It's still far too far out right now to predict whether sports can resume this fall, not to mention whether fans will feel safe attending them.

The entirety of the letter to season ticket holders can be found after the jump.

I can't find tickets for Ohio State! I'm freaking out! Wait, let's go back a bit to understand my play here, and how it blew up in my face, in the latest installment of this secondary ticket article I write that you apparently find useful even though you can do a lot of this research yourself and at times it's a total bald face plea for seats. Two. Any section.

Yes I emailed our sponsor, TiqIQ already. He said it'll cost:

UM/OSU currently averages $420.33 on the secondary market, and that's with a 3% price drop this week. It's the most expensive matchup between the two of the past 6 seasons in either building.

Current get-in is $230 for a single seat & $300 for a pair (each after fees).

2012 in Columbus had a nearly identical average price ($419.21) but much lower Get-in ($150)

• Highest average was on 11/4 ($432), Lowest was 9/17 ($296).
• Highest get-in was on 11/9 ($243), Lowest was 9/8 ($117).

Let me know if you want any other data.

Yeesh. The singles right now are about $220. I'm betting they stick.

YESTERDAY'S TRADING

Michigan's been on the road for the most part since I last checked in, and those went as planned. Emailers reported they got their Minnesota tickets for $20 outside the game, and Indiana there were a lot of free ones available despite the nice weather.

For Rutgers everything online was face right up until the time I had to leave for Ann Arbor, and around the stadium people were asking for $50 and watching buyers walk away when I went in. I had to cast around to find someone to use my other seat—I was planning to go with Demorest until he got sick, and then my brother was sick, and my friends were either sick or moving, and then I had to explain that I can't move couches because it's my job to go to a Michigan-Rutgers game. This was a common tale; there were a ton of last-minute single seats open, a thing that happens during flu season and when the weather's bad.

CURRENT RATES

I ended up taking Ace's press pass for Penn State so I'm out of that market, but I've been watching it closely and, like Penn State, it performed pretty much as expected…until this week:

Game	In Oct	Now	Dips	Buy?	Reasoning
@Penn State	$110	$75	$75	Now	See discussion below.
Ohio State	$181	$225	$225	Now	Once OSU beats State, the Bucks are comin'

That dip was sudden and dramatic, and took place almost entirely with big groups of tickets becoming available in the northwest end zone:

Let me zoom in:

I'm not sure but I'm pretty sure those are Michigan's allotment that suddenly made available huge swaths of unused seats. I'm basing this assumption on the fact that these were where the away fans sat in 2013 when we went. This was their Wisconsin game in 2012 to show it better since their red sticks out:

See the strip of Badgers on the upper-left/two-decker side?

This is just a total guess but if there's a reason Michigan group tickets suddenly fell back into the pool it's probably because basketball plays Xavier at 9 p.m. tonight, then Penn State at noon tomorrow, so going to both would require either a constitution that doesn't require sleep or a private jet. My hypothesis is people in position to snatch up these tickets early did so, and now they can't use them.

Then there's The Game. I expect Ohio State to crush Michigan State on Saturday. If that occurs, the Buckeyes will rush to buy seats and single seats will jump $250. If Michigan loses that will put more tix on the market, but it's a market that will be moving so fast the price will stand. I think that's about the limit; the Big House has too many seats to fill to cruise over $250. If you MUST go and you can't afford that, you can try to find some greedy bastard who waited too long to make a profit 10 minutes after kickoff, but expect to end up watching in a bar.

CHEAP TIP

If your friend offers to let you use his seats but he's out of town and his tickets are at home—have your buddy call the ticket office and release them to you. This can be done online as well. Sometimes folks don't realize the paper tickets they left in a drawer don't have to go unused.

BEST DEAL RIGHT NOW (that I can find on the sponsor's site because let's support people who support us okay?)

Wanna see the ONLY good non-conference game that'll be in Crisler all year? There are a bunch of mid-court upper deck seats available for under $20 right now.

You won't be able to see Doyle's sweat bubbles from there, but I can confirm Robinson's threes look sweet from 225.

P.S. Said sponsor has an app now in case you're on your phone reading this and don't have microscopic fingertips. If you're using them use the code MGOBLOG and they'll give you 10% off certain listings.

…because my nephew's name is Jack and he's going to his first game…if we can find a third seat in section 18 row 40ish. I got two for this game, and they weren't cheap, but prices have shot up a ton since.

Oh, this is the new feature where we talk about the secondary ticket market because I'm too cheap to donate money to get in line to buy season tickets. I've been scrounging for most of my adult life, and while it usually works out (my best friend and old sports ticket co-conspirator and I have a motto of "Everything always works out") there have been two days that it didn't. One was a 2006 World Series. The other, the 2010 Michigan State game:

On the way up, my consultant and I had agreed on a plan: We would spend pre-game trying to run into people we know, asking if they had singles with them. If not, we would wait until just after kickoff, when sellers were cursing their greed and desperate to pocket something before heading in. We had another ride lined up just in case not everyone got a ticket, our pockets were full of $10s and $5s, and we were ready – just in case – to bail for my consultant's 62-inch HDTV, where the DVR was running. I trusted this plan; my consultant has a degree in economics from Michigan State University, which I hear is a pretty good school.

I've never trusted the gameday ticket market for an MSU game again. According to Ralph at TiqIQ the cheapest tickets on their sites since then wound up at $170 (East Lansing), $146 (Ann Arbor), $110 (EL), and $104 (EL) by gametime. A hundred is the floor for these games. And this one ain't the floor.

YESTERDAY'S TRADING

I hope I saved you some money on the Maryland tickets—it was hard to tell how many seats went empty because the network didn't want to show it, but I heard from enough people that offering to not pay was about as good as any other procedure.

Homecoming I had to get in on the ticket exchange early because we had the alumni event. I got offered a free pair after I'd already spent $75 for two from a friend on Facebook, so I offloaded the original two for $20 apiece at Stadium & Main entrance on the way in.

CURRENT RATES

Game	In Aug	In Sept	Now	Dips	Buy?	Reasoning
MSU	$194	$225	$220	$207	NOW!!!	Biggest game in years
@Minnesota	$78	$40	$30	-	at game	Letdown year in Minn
Rutgers	$43	same	$60	nope	Now or later	Last reasonable home game before OSU.
@Indiana	$63	$60	$55	-	wait.	Going down now.
@Penn State	$145	$108	$115	$100	next loss	They play OSU this week so...
Ohio State	$217	$181	$265	$201	NOW!!!	Unless you think they'll lose

The MSU tickets are hopping up to $250 but there are a lot of them still popping up. OSU tickets as well. These are people who see a chance to pay for the difference between the price they paid for a UNLV ticket and what the UNLV ticket was actually worth, but they're not wrong. If you want to test the waters and see if they'll come down closer to gametime, I still suggest buying printable tickets online. A lot of people who usually show up and find a ticket on the way in are going to be jockeying for the few that actually made it to the stadium. Spartans too. With Thanksgiving and the entropy of football threatening The Game, the MSU game will probably wind up the most expensive ticket of the year.

Also it'll be a crisp 48 degrees and sunny. Who would want to sell?

My gophers who investigated the Gophers ticket market were right: as soon as they were dismantled by Northwestern the "Kill-ing It" happy fun times were over, and the home crowd shrank back to the kind-hearted people who get really into punters and bits of broken chair trophies. Penn State I feel I've scouted pretty well too—the tickets will be $100 now or later but you can save $10 or $20 if you catch a firesale after a disappointing loss.

As for the two remaining home games, Rutgers is less of a dog now that Michigan fans awoke to the sooner-than-we-thought "arrival" of the good times, then immediately realized there's only one game that isn't Ohio State or Michigan State. If you buy now you're expecting Michigan to beat Michigan State on Saturday, because if that happens this ticket will keep incrementing upwards.

And then there's The Game. This could be a playoff play-in, or it could be a slaughter if the Buckeyes appear to be back on track and the Harbaugh papering job doesn't keep working. Buying now is a risk but this one's getting volatile as more believers buy in. I'd still wait just because there are soooooo many singles tickets out there. If they start getting gobbled up, make your move. It could be the best game of the year. Or of your life.

CHEAP TIP

Don't do it on the board because we frown upon that, but sometimes a little moping about your ticket situation on Facebook can drum up an invite.

BEST DEAL RIGHT NOW (that I can find on the sponsor's site because let's support people who support us okay?)

If you're gonna shell out, have a good time:

Somebody priced these to move; they're a little high up (Row 96) but in the End Zone that's a good thing. And the marginal difference between them and the other End Zone is worth it to be right next to the student section.

P.S. Said sponsor has an app now in case you're on your phone reading this and don't have microscopic fingertips. If you're using them use the code MGOBLOG and they'll give you 10% off certain listings.