West Regional - Anaheim Tickets Discussion
Didn't see a discussion anywhere else.
Tickets are current obscenely expensive compared to last year at Staples (we Michigan fans in socal are getting spoiled!). My guess is ticket prices come down as schools get their allotments and more tickets get listed, but I am speculating because last year at this point there was decent supply listed.
If anyone has access to tickets and wants to hook me up for Thursday, I'll buy two:)
That arena will always be the Arrowhead Pond to me. The quack attack is back, Jack!
Calling Seth for a ticket watch post please.
Any one have insight on buying Thursday/Saturday vs just Thursday tickets?
In the past, I would have said that the full strip tickets are a sucker's purchase, because typically fans of the two losing teams from Thursday will flood the market for Saturday's game.
That said, I didn't see that effect last year at all, so I'm going to consider a full strip purchase if the price is decent. There's generally more inventory for the individual sessions, though.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:14 PM ^
I wasn't paying attention to the full strip tickets before the first session last year but I did notice a big drop in session 2 prices after the first games as the two losing fanbases unloaded their tickets such that I paid almost half for session 2 as a did for session 1 in an almost identical spot.
Again, I'm not sure if I paid more or less for the combined sessions as I would have paid for the full strip but I was happy with what I paid for session 2 and I just did not want to have to sell my ticket if Michigan lost the first game.
March 24th, 2019 at 10:16 PM ^
I picked up the regional final game for about $50 each last year if my memory serves correctly. Stub Hub will bend you over though.
Need Gonzaga to lose for tickets to drop. Was 90% M fans for the final.
March 24th, 2019 at 10:14 PM ^
We need to show up strong for a home court advantage. Can't go Thursday but will be there Saturday if we win. Let's bring it!
March 24th, 2019 at 10:28 PM ^
I’d disagree that they’re more expensive this year or than in years past. Direct from NCAA/TM this year full strip (both sessions) for last 3 rows before the roof are $300, can find similar and often better seats on stubhub for around 1/2 of face amount currently. Allocation to schools is so small as a percentage of total seats in stadium that won’t be price determinative (those seats are also always face value plus school fees, so people often buy from stubhub rather than from school). I’d expect prices to maintain or even increase as fans make plans tonight/tomorrow. With UM, Florida and Gonzaga having lots of grads in SoCal, as well as cheap flights to/from LAX/OC from those states and Texas generally (although not Lubbock specifically) and popularity of basketball in SoCal in general (non school-specific fans) I wouldn’t anticipate significant price drops. While local fans might dump tickets for 2nd session if they lose, those traveling will make a weekend of it.
March 24th, 2019 at 10:50 PM ^
I am also looking for 3 for Thursday. Did someone say last week there were forgeries of hard tickets on Craigs List ?
March 24th, 2019 at 11:34 PM ^
Indeed.
There's a reason that people use StubHub despite the fees.
March 24th, 2019 at 11:35 PM ^
Try Vivid seats also.
Ok, thanks. For some reason, when my daughter was able to go last year in L.A. the fees were only 15 per ticket which wasn't bad. Since we are the late game, does anyone know if you can buy tickets from people coming out from game 1, or are the tickets "used" upon first admission?
March 25th, 2019 at 10:34 AM ^
Tickets are not valid for re-entry.
March 24th, 2019 at 11:12 PM ^
Have you guys heard which section Michigan will have in Anaheim?
March 24th, 2019 at 11:43 PM ^
All of them.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:19 AM ^
I don't have any specific advice for Anaheim but I checked with the box office in Des Moines. And when I got an alert that they released more tix and I ran my ass over there as soon as I got it. They weren't cheap - $95/piece for upper deck seats. But I had the tickets in my hand and didn't have to deal with ticket broker fees so for me it was worth it.
I was lucky because I had that opportunity to just run over to the ticket office. But that would be my advice - stay vigilant and keep your eye out for when they release more seats.
I don't see why it would be much different from last year. Three of the teams are exactly the same (Gonzaga, FSU, and Michigan), and the other is a different school from Texas. I guess the expectations and excitement in each fan bases are probably higher than last year as this year Gonzaga and FSU both are coming off better seasons and seeded better than last year. Gonzaga was a #4 seed and FSU was a #9 last year so both fan bases may not have been as willing to travel for the tournament last year compared to this year.
It could be worse. MSU fans will have to deal with Duke and Virginia Tech fans for tickets in Washington DC. Those tickets are going to be expensive.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:03 PM ^
Two big differences:
1) You hit on this one but there's a big difference between being a good team all year and legitimate threat to win the region and a complete surprise team. The fact that this is year is seeds 1-4 and every team had a good year and the fan bases have been activated all year (and in this case, since at least last year for each team) means fans would be much more likely to have planned for a potential appearance here and would be much more willing to drop $300-500 on tickets.
Last year, FSU and Texas A&M had meh seasons and were complete surprises to be at Staples. And they didn't have high hopes of winning the region. In that context, fans are going to be less enthused about dropping a couple hundreds bucks for a game (and certainly less willing to hop a flight from out of town).
Even Gonzaga being one of the best teams all year and potential national title winner is a big difference than being a 4 seed.
2) Honda Center is about 15% smaller than Staples (capacity of ~18,400 vs 21,000). That's a pretty big difference in supply.
That said, there are hundreds (maybe thousands) of tickets available at face ($110) in the upper sections. I would expect things to settle a little bit and all these people asking for absurd amounts in the lower bowl will come down a little as Thursday gets closer. Will still be a quite a bit more than last year, I expect.
Just go down to the arena. You can always get tickets from someone whose friends bailed or family couldn’t make it. If you wait until 5 mins after game start you can get tix from scalpers for below face. This works in any ticketed situation. Just. Go. There.
March 25th, 2019 at 11:31 AM ^
You obviously weren't at staples last year.
No tickets to be had at the semi games like that. At least legit tkts.
This year thurs will be a tough ticket, beware, false tkts will be out there.
BTW, I need one. $$$$ but not $$$$$
March 25th, 2019 at 12:08 PM ^
This may have worked 5-10 years ago but for sold out events with a stubhub/ticket broker physical presence, it doesn't work well these days. When people have extras they just take them to stubhub's booth instead of waste the time trying to find buyers. The marketplaces are much more liquid these days.
March 25th, 2019 at 12:18 PM ^
As much as the NCAA loves money, I'm surprised they don't do these regional semis in two separate sessions. Space the games out by 2 hours, clear everyone out, bring in the next group, the same way you do in the first round between sessions.
Prices would be lower per game which is good for fans and you'd make a lot more revenue overall. For TV, you could stagger the two locations such that you always have one game playing so TV revenue is higher too (no overlapping games).
Nosebleeds are available through TicketMaster as of this morning.
How about all of the Michigan fans in Orange Co. buy those tickets?
There was a line in the MLive article posted yesterday that as of 2015, the state of California is only outranked by the state of Michigan (for obvious reasons) in sending the most students from any state to U-M.
Buy those tickets up!
As of 10:45 am Pacific time today, I counted approximately 1,400 Upper Level seats available for Thursday through Ticketmaster at face value, $110 and up for these seats.
In some cases, an entire row of 14 seats are available.
Buy em up Orange County!
I'm looking for 4 reasonably priced tickets in the lower or club levels. I can guarantee that we'll make some noise supporting Michigan!
March 25th, 2019 at 11:51 PM ^
Anyone know where the team is staying? Might be a good place to scalp some tix and would also like to cheer them on as they leave for game.
thanks