I went to M's last two Rose Bowl games and for both of them I found people selling tickets for $20 at the stadium about an hour before kickoff. And of course one of those games was against USC! I think face value was $120. It totally blew my mind and has forever changed my approach to getting bowl game tickets.

Though with the Rose Bowl I guess it does take some serious confidence to show up with no tickets, given what a pain it is to get to the stadium on game day.

I live in the Orlando Area.  The Citrus Bowl has very limited parking - Please reserve parking!  It will be very difficult to find game day parking without a reservation.

The area around the stadium is a "little questionable" and you will want to park your car in a safe lot.  

The Pep Rally starts later at 2:30pm.

Thursday, Dec. 31, 2014, Noon - 1:30 p.m.

Nearly 24 hours before kickoff of the Buffalo Wild Wings Citrus Bowl, the two teams gather for a one-of-a-kind luncheon featuring band and cheer performances, interviews with the head coaches and a special challenge for the players. Members of the ESPN on ABC commentary team for the game will host the luncheon, and guests will actually sit with the players. A table for eight guests (plus two players) is $615 while individual tickets are $62 each. 

Thursdsay, Dec. 31, 2:30 p.m.

Gather with your Michigan Wolverines at the official pep rally. The band and cheerleaders will perform and head coaches will make a special appearance to fire up the crowd before game day! Add To Calendar

 

http://buffalowildwingscitrusbowl.com/fan-guide

 

 

First, if tl;dr is your style, grab a beer and skip this, you're unlikely to get anything from it and it's probably best for all involved anyway.

Second, if your goal is to get the best possible seats at the lowest possible price, pay attention to Seth and his advice.  I've been around for a long time and his advice on ticket acquistion is, in my experience, spot on.

Third, I'd like to introduce a topic that's been absent from this series of posts.....ticket buying ethics.  Ethics???  In ticket buying???  That's crazy, you say, and you are probably right.  I'll push ahead anyway, just in case.

There was a hue and a cry on this board post-OSU about the disgusting sea of red in the stadium on Nov 28 and all of the not true fans, traitors, idiots, profiteers, *ssh*les, etc. who sold their tickets to buckeyes.  My guess is that there were between 10k and 15k there, and at least half of those were sold by U-M itself.  It was ugly, to be sure, but it wasn't nearly as ugly as it has been in the past - and I've been going to The Game for over 40 years.

So here's my story:  In mid-October (post-MSU) it was becoming clear that I might have 8 extra tickets for the OSU game - scheduling problems for my daughters (both U-M alums) and my brother (an airline pilot) were popping up.  I was faced with a choice:  sell the tickets on StubHub (or the like) at $300-$400 each (the tickets were in Secs 44, 1, 2 and between rows 25 and 75) and take a chance that a buckeye would buy them; or hope that the scheduling problems would clear up - or that I'd find other friends who wanted to go.

Well, I'll be damned if I was going to be responsible for buckeyes getting into that stadium.  Don't get me wrong, $2,400+ still goes far enough that I could put it to good use, but I have a policy:  just say "no" to buckeyes.

As the game approached, the schedules didn't clear up, but I was able to give tickets to three father-son combinations - all of which were U-M fans and two of whom had never been to a game.  Progress, to be sure.

I walked, past all the scalpers (who might sell to buckeyes), down State St and up Hoover with 2 extras in hand, keeping an eye out for that father/child who might be in need.  When I got to Greene I found two mid-30s U-M fans, appropriately decked out in their gear, looking for tickets.  I approached and asked what they'd offer for 2 on the 40, high.  The response was "we've only budgeted $100 each" (face was $115).  

Frankly, I was insulted.  I was insulted because these guys were trying to take advantage of the situation to get in for the lowest possible price.  I realized then that they were only following Seth's advice - get close to the stadium, wait until just before the game, and look for that old alum who just wants to get to his seats.  I realized then that I was that "old alum" and that Seth was exactly right.  I realized then that I was a sap.

Now, I don't care about the $30.  If I cared about the money, I would have sold the tickets for $2,400+ when my relatives couldn't attend.  I gave 6 of the tickets away as it was.  I have no problem negotiating your best deal with the scalpers.  What I do care about is two U-M fans who weren't willing to negotiate with scalpers were willing to let me subsidize their afternoon in the interest of getting "the best deal".  Congrats guys, you got it done.

So here's my question:  Is there, or should there be, some kind of principle here?  If you've made it to the stadium, should you be willing to pay face when you buy from another U-M fan or should you negotiate your best deal - just like you would with a scalper?

If the answer is "face", then maybe Seth should remind people about that in these posts.

If the answer is "best deal", then you've helped me re-learn a lesson that I learned long ago - money talks and bullshit walks.  And that means if buckeyes are willing to pay more to get into our stadium that U-M fans are, then the market has spoken and we've reached the right result.  And everyone on this board who didn't pay market or above on StubHub to get into The Game has lost their complainin' privileges when it comes to that ugly sea of red.

Neg away!!!

I've been to different bowls over the last several years, including a recent Rose Bowl, and there are always cheap tickets available before kick.  The playoff bowls might be the only ones where you need to buy earlier.  All others are easy as hell to get tickets, Rose and Citrus included.

I love these. Keep doing them. This is going to be really helpful for tickets to the Citrus bowl.