Opinion on game vs Alabama in Dallas

Submitted by tsn1551 on
Do you guys think that tickets would drop a ton like the sugar bowl tickets did? I know sugar bowl tickets went from like $120-200 to $40-100 the day or 2 before. My dad and I booked flights to Dallas but don't want to spend $400 on a ticket if they will drop in the future. I mean sept 1 is a long ways away.

nickb

January 13th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^

I am not sure I want to witness this spanking. VT defense is leagues below Alabama and yet we were very fortunate to score. Can you Imagine what Alabama defense will do to us? Success will be getting a first down.

Save your money for the regular schedule when we play teams more at our level. We are at least two to three years away from Alabama level. BTW, I would write this for all the big ten teams.

BRCE

January 13th, 2012 at 1:39 PM ^

Michigan will be better next year in more ways (offensive familiarity, experience in the back 7, swagger from a full successful season) than not (defensive line play). The reverse is true for Alabama.

Look at the actual rosters, not the colors. No reason we can't at least be competitive.

bluebyyou

January 13th, 2012 at 11:22 AM ^

I doubt they will go up in price as it is a neutral site and if you fly in, you aren't selling your seat, but you can't always depend on ticket prices dropping....MSU 2010.  Finding a ticket at anything close to a reasonable price for that game was almost hopeless.

Ask some of the Nebraska fans who showed up at Camp-Randall just how easy it was to get a ticket for that game.

It all depends on the game.  Bowl tickets are often not sellouts and this year, ticket sales for most games were a disaster with a couple of exceptions.

goblue7612

January 13th, 2012 at 11:23 AM ^

Any Dallas area natives have an opinion as to where we should stay? We plan on flying into the area, and staying through the entire Labor Day weekend. Would we have a better time staying in the Dallas area, and then cab into Arlington for the game? It would be an expensive cab ride I assume, as it's a 30 minute drive? Or should we just stay in the Arlington area by the stadium? We're mostly recent alums.

Needs

January 13th, 2012 at 11:52 AM ^

Not in Dallas now but lived there a few years ago. I'd suck it up and rent a car and stay in either Dallas or Ft. Worth. It'll likely be cheaper given all the cabs you'd end up taking anyway at any of the hotel options. Rental cars are also cheap as hell at DFW on the weekend because of all the business travelers that rent during the week. For accomodations, I'd say there are 3 real options.

1. Arlington for a very sports oriented weekend. Arlington's really boring apart from the sports options, but you could combine the UM game with a Rangers game on Sunday (if they're home) and maybe some golf (if you play). Regardless, you're going to want to get the hell out of Arlington if you're there all weekend and will want a car.

2. Downtown/Uptown Dallas. Dallas has some decent places to go out, depending on what you're into. Deep Ellum has a weird combo of hipster and 18+ clubs. There's also a weird and very cool old Odd Fellows Hall that has a very Austin-like live music schedule. Uptown Dallas is basically Main Street Ann Arbor, upscalish bar, middle-scale restaurant scene that gets pretty packed with a recent grad crowd. If you're staying in Dallas, though, you'd have 4 expensive cab rides (to/from airport, to/from game) plus the fact that Dallas is pretty spread out.

3. Ft. Worth. Similar story to Dallas, but with the westerny rodeo option in the Stockyards and things a little more close together downtown. You'll still want a car as it has the same cab factor as Dallas, just in the other direction.

Then there are the various hotel options around every highway interchange that you can choose if you want no atmosphere at all or Los Colinas if you have a ton of money to spend.

MGoRob

January 13th, 2012 at 12:10 PM ^

Rental cars are a bit cheaper but the taxes are brutal.  For a compact car, you're likely looking at $90 for the car and $50+ in taxes (assuming a Friday pickup and Sunday dropoff).  Still, a cheaper option than taxi.  Dallas-Forth Worth is too spread out and mass transit is out of the question.

bigmc6000

January 13th, 2012 at 12:47 PM ^

So is Arlington...  At least to the point where there is no liquor sales. You can buy wine and beer but you hvae to get outside of Arlington if you want to buy liquor (either 3 exits west of Arlington on I-30 or about 5 - 6 miles east on I-30).

zohizzle101

January 13th, 2012 at 11:40 AM ^

Dallas is pretty spread out and you don't want to stay in Arlington, trust me. I would book a hotel in the downtown/uptown area and get a rental car if possible. That way you can explore the night life, and have your own means of transportation to get to the stadium. Uptown is a pretty cool area to go out- lots of bars/restaurants in the area. 

I have a lot of friends coming in and since my 2br apartment isn't going to hold everyone, we are actually thinking about renting out a house for the weekend via vbro, just something else to think about it you have a large group.

True Blue Grit

January 13th, 2012 at 12:02 PM ^

My Mom lives there, and I've spent a fair amount of time visiting the area.  There isn't much to see, so don't feel like you need to get a hotel room there.  Speaking of which, I haven't been too impressed with the hotels there.  In Dallas, there is more to see but likely to be somewhat more expensive hotel-wise.  But if you stay in Dallas or Ft. Worth, be prepared to drive a lot if you do a lot of sightseeing.  The area is geographically enormous.  The good news is the airport is pretty centrally located.  You can take the Super Shuttle service to save money vs. a cab.  It will take you longer to get to where you're going though. 

A really nice restaurant to go to is Cacharel's - it's on the 9th floor of an office building and has a great view of the area including the stadium. 

bigmc6000

January 13th, 2012 at 12:11 PM ^

I'm about 1.5 miles from Jerry World just so you know I'm not just BSing ;)

 

I'd stay just about anywhere you want - if you want to experience the cosmopolitan side of things stay somewhere in Uptown Dallas. There are a lot of fancy places to eat, nice upscale bars, most people walk when they are over there so it's not much of a big deal to be on foot. If you're more likely to enjoy things like seeing the Cattle Drive (they literally walk a couple dozen longhorns down the street every day) and a more laid back atmosphere I'd say stay in FW.  FW also has a nice downtown area that has plenty of things to do it's just not a cosmo as Dallas.

 

As for gameday there's a place called Lincoln Square that is at the Collins street exit about .5 mile or so from the stadium.  The great thing about this place is there are plenty of places to eat (Fridays, Boomerjacks, Olive Garden, Black Eyed Pea, Chaucers, Birraporreti's (italian, obviously) and all you have to do is eat at one of those places and the parking is free (spend $40 or $50 I believe just depends on what the market is looking like).  You can also buy gift cards to get to 50 and since there's a Best Buy right there you could, if you wanted to, just go buy a BB gift card and park there for free.  Don't bother with the Trolley as traffic is a cluster...  (There's also a BWW's, El Chico and a few other things but I can' think of their parking arrangements off the top of my head).

 

Oh, and don't even think about staying in Arlington - I say this as someone who lives in Arlington. There's literally no reason to do that - people come to Arlington for Six Flags, Rangers Baseball, the water park and Jerry World - it's not a place where you can walk around and checking things out.  Getting to Jerry World is about as easy as any thing I've ever seen - it's 1 mile off a big exit off a major 6 lane highway.

 

1 more thing - not that you'll remember this in 9 months ;), if you're coming from FW exit Center, not Collins and you'll be able to skip some of the traffic backup.

 

Oh, right, as for the car thing. Just get a rental car - taxis are stupid expensive and almost nothing is within walking distance (Texans don't walk anywhere - maybe it's the 100+ degree heat? haha) and drive it to the place I talked about above.

WolvinLA2

January 13th, 2012 at 11:26 AM ^

This is a game that will get hyped all offseason, and unlike VT in the Sugar Bowl, neither team will be coming off getting blown out the game before. Gamedy will be there, both teams will be top 10, I don't see why prices would go down.

Perkis-Size Me

January 13th, 2012 at 12:35 PM ^

exactly. this will be like the oregon lsu game this year. both teams coming in, very hyped up, both with nc aspirations (whether ours is legitimate or not). i think with the few weeks leading up to that game the only tix left were standing room only, and they definitely weren't cheap.

Mitch Cumstein

January 13th, 2012 at 11:35 AM ^

When do tickets officially go on sale?  I know I'm planning to buy them from the box office (or Michigan allotment or whatever) if possible. I'm just not sure exactly how to do that.

ak47

January 13th, 2012 at 11:35 AM ^

Not to mention rather than having a month to get travel plans together, having to take off work and students being back hurt sugar bowl sales.  This game is 8 months away, bama is a bigger draw, students aren't back yet (weekend before class starts which is how I can go) and isn't a middle of the week game.  I'd get tickets when they come out personally.

Lionsfan

January 13th, 2012 at 11:40 AM ^

They won't drop at all, this is going to be like UTL level of pricing. I think everyone has been lulled into a false sense of tickets based off of the Sugar Bowl

Here's the reasons I can think of for the Sugar Bowl being so low. First off, the general admission tickets were packaged with the National Championship, so people had to buy both for a game they might not want to see. Second, the game is in SEC country, and usually has an SEC team involved. This year there wasn't. So now instead of having people from very nearby SEC teams flocking over to watch their team play a game, it's a bunch of people from Michigan and Virginia driving. It's different when you can't make a day-trip out of it and just go see a game, but instead have to plan out at least 4 days or so. Finally this was a spur of the moment last thing, people had a couple weeks to decide where they were going. But with the Alabama game it's been announced for a while now, giving people time to decide if they want to go. And like others have said, Top 10, Gameday etc etc. I would expect prices on Stubhub to be no less than 300 bucks

Perkis-Size Me

January 13th, 2012 at 11:57 AM ^

Given the high level at which both fanbases travel, the real sense of "high profile" for the game, and its the first big game of the year, I can't see ticket prices going down. It sucks because I really want to go, but I'm not paying $400 for a ticket. If anything, I can see the prices going up just because there will be such a high demand.

I probably won't pay more than $200 for a ticket, but if they get that low, I don't care where I have to sit. As long as I can see the field.

wile_e8

January 13th, 2012 at 12:07 PM ^

IIRC from last season, both LSU and Oregon sold out there ticket allotments (with LSU going back and asking for more due to demand and selling those out too) and it ended up driving up the prices on the street. Assuming Alabama and Michigan bring similar demand (and that's probably being conservative), waiting for StubHub will probably cost you more. It's not the same as the Sugar Bowl where everyone has less than a month to plan travel and the game is an undercard to the game that really matters to the locals a week later.

TorontoBlue

January 13th, 2012 at 12:24 PM ^

Can you local doods respond please - my son and I plan to stay at the Four Seasons and play TPC Las Colinas as hotel guests, with a rental car for local transport around town.  From the outside looking in, this seems like a good option logistically.  Any helpful feedback greatly appreciated.  GO BLUE!

bigmc6000

January 13th, 2012 at 2:12 PM ^

You're a bit on the Dallas side of things and a bit out of the way but it's not a bad option.

 

Also, if you do stay up there you'll be taking 360 south to get to the game - you'll need to allot at least an extra 30 - 45 mins for this because the 360 to I-30 exit is mind numblingly painful...

Look Up_See Blue

January 13th, 2012 at 12:32 PM ^

Even though this is not a bowl game, this game is much bigger than the Sugar Bowl in my opinion.  And here's a few reasons why:

1)We're playing the defending champs

2)it's the first game of the season

3)it's being played at an amazing venue

4)This is Michigan fergodsakes!!!!

I drove to nola(from Nashville) so the tix for that game dropping didn't piss me off that much.  I will not be driving to Dallas.

The safe play is buying them when they go on sale.  So what if they go down in price by $100, and that's no guarantee.  Is the stress/anxiety of waiting....waiting....waiting...worth the savings?  To me it is not.

I will probably purchase the tickets when they go on sale and reserve a hotel room(relatively soon) if I can't find a place to stay with someone I know.  The key is to find a hotel that will let you cancel in case you find something cheaper later on.  But booking early to ensure you have a room will let you rest easy b/n now and then.

I will probably wait to book a flight because there will be deals b/n now and then.  On Southwest you can't even book a flight right now past August 10th.  

These are just my few cents, take them for what they're worth.  Go Blue!!!

 

PburgGoBlue

January 13th, 2012 at 2:25 PM ^

I went to the Red River shoot out this year. Don't remember much, however we did stay at the Hilton Anatole, which had several bars in it with Mommy's that wanted to mingle. Not sure if it is always like that or just because it was OU/Texas. One place I would suggest going to, which there is nothing around Toeldo like this, is Cowboys Red River.. Just a bunch of square dancing yokles, kind of cool.

COB

January 13th, 2012 at 2:47 PM ^

when the official preseason lines comes out.  Saban with an entire offseason to prepare?  I'm honestly interested to see what that line will be.  I'm assuming it will be Bama -12.  If Dont'a Hightower returns will be a big factor.  Trey DePriest will do very well replacing Upshaw and their depth in the front 7 is absurd (lol oversigning).  Even replacing their entire def secondary, I don't think Denard can get away with any prayer punts against that D.  Their new CB's are both juniors 4 and 5* respectively.  The safety situation is even more absurd with 3rd year 4 stars or 5 star 2nd years.