ticket watch

Ticket Watch: AAAAAAAHHH also AAAAHHHHHH Comment Count

Seth November 20th, 2018 at 4:45 PM

That Sponsor: TicketIQ of course. We like them because they’re the ticket site that doesn’t hide the fees. The online sites with official connections to the schools all have about the same inventory and prices, so if you go that route go with the one who gives us money and isn’t trying to hide the fact that they make some until you’re about to buy.

The Board: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH

Game Get-In Was OK Pair Was Good Was 6+ Was
OSU $276 $284 $317 $378 $597 $435 $578 $505
B1G CG $109 $85 $145 $120 $365 $187 $134 $85
MBB vs UNC $61 $50 $95 $75 $207 $85 $62 $50

I added the UNC game because those started jumping up, but with Michigan basketball you can usually find good seats close to gametime. Unsurprisingly The Game is the biggest ticket in the world this weekend.

Cheapest tickets by section as of 4pm Tuesday:

  • D Deck $365
  • C Deck $296
  • Club $1,338
  • B Deck $402
  • A Deck $271 (1 ticket at $271, then jumps to $421)
  • AA Deck $540

A reader reported finding a few on Ebay but when I looked the ones that didn't look skeezy had been gobbled up. Craigslist has been a black hole all year.

Going to Ohio State

Tickets: Michigan fans held off for awhile but the buying spree has begun. Tickets are appearing in singles around $275 and getting snatched up immediately. I don't expect a total takeover but the market is responding much like the Northwestern game did, where Michigan fans are intent on going and waiting to snatch up seats when they get close to reasonable.

So what's your strategy here? I think you're going to have to bite the bullet on this one. Ohio Stadium has a lot of bad seats—the original design was for a 70,000-seat amphitheater, and filling in the open endzone only gets that to about 85,000. The last 20,000 seats were built the only way they could: vertically. So the bleachers go up, and then further up, and then even more up, and all the while the angle increases and the steps are more slippery. The architecture is Brutalism, the style the fascists loved for its ability to make a human feel oppressed and insignificant. It succeeds. If you're further down in the upper deck you already feel pretty high. If you're up in the 30th row you're going to be feeling the weather and getting a bit dizzy. The sidelines, as you can imagine, are better than the corners. For a $20 difference, if you can find seats further down it's best to do so.

Parking: Go garage. The secret is the parking structures on campus, if you arrive early enough. The 12th Avenue garage and the Neil Avenue Garage are by the hospital and adjacent to their version of the union. They'll fill up by 8 or so, but that should be your first target if you didn't pre-buy a spot. The 11th Avenue Garage will probably fill up next, followed by the 9th East garage. The nicest part is you get to walk past the field where Michigan's band warms up, then warm up yourself in the newly renovated "RPAC" building, a mix between a student union and IM building. And that's right next to the stadium.

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If you've got time to spare, campus proper is right there—whether someone comes away thinking Columbus is a cement-and-box-store Midwest hell or "kinda nice" is directly correlated to whether or not they walked the Oval.

Are Their Fans Really That Bad? Yes. Certain areas have worse tailgaters than others and the majority of people there aren't the kind who will waste a Natty Ice by pouring it on a 70-year-old Michigan fan's head. However the percentage of those who will, and the sheer number of Ohio State fans who will be there even if they're not going to the game, means your chances are very high of encountering at least one of the kind of person everybody thinks about when you say "Ohio State fans."

Most of the time if you ignore them and travel in a group that doesn't particularly capture their notice you'll be able to slip by with just some ill-natured jabs. As much as the school and some of their better fans have tried to stamp this out, the cultural practice of getting into at least one fight with a Michigan fan remains. I've had the most problems crossing their athletic campus lots to the west of the stadium. If you wear a cape and walk around with a Zach Smith toy you will attract them. You'll also attract a few Ohio State fans who want to tell you that those other people don't represent all Buckeyes. They won't say so to those other people though.

This is another reason to try to stick closer to campus: campus police are visible.

[After THE JUMP: Indy, if you dare]

The Big Ten Championship Game

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Hello Northwestern fans. I don't know why you're reading a Michigan blog but I've got some information for you on the Big Ten Championship Game against Ohio State or some other team.

Being a Northwestern fan, I already got my ticket a few weeks ago through that "ShooWin" company by betting on the Wildcats when it seemed they were at best 40% to go. ShooWin isn't normally a good bet—their whole thing is to guess where the secondary market will be the week before the game and price based on likelihood. Bet on Northwestern early in the season and you're paying close to face; bet on Ohio State this week and you're paying more than twice that.

As for those already sold, your best bet would probably be to befriend some nice Ohio State fans who bought theirs earlier this year and want to sell for face value. As you can see from the board, the markup isn't too bad. There will be a flurry of activity after The Game but given the confidence levels of the two fanbases I think it will be less flurry than, say, in 2016.

I'd target  $140 to $160 per ticket and look to get seats closer to the middle, based on Colts fans remarks about seats. A good way to tell how good the seats are in different parts of an NFL stadium is to find photos of their preseason games. For this one the upper endzone looks particularly uninhabited.

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The bigger issue is going to be finding a place to sleep. Hotels are already insane, and from my Michigan State people, they absolutely will overbook expecting to get cancellations from the other team.

I booked an AirBnB jut out of town, and those are going for about $400/night for a mid-sized group (the VRBOs were all pricier due to higher cleaning fees). There are still plenty of hotels up the road if you don't mind getting the first half hour or so of your drive home done after the game. Downtown is tight—most sold out long ago or are offering ludicrous pricing. Fishers is the suburb on your way home, but Pendleton, Anderson, Middletwon, Daleville, and Muncie are all within an hour.

Comments

Commie_High96

November 20th, 2018 at 6:09 PM ^

You want Brutalist architecture on our campus, take a gander at the Dental School.  Brutal as it gets.

The Fleming Admin building is arguably Brutalist, but I think it is the accidental variety as it was built to be a defensive rampart against raging students of the 1960s.  Basically a castle with arrow slit-like windows

Blue in St Lou

November 22nd, 2018 at 6:14 PM ^

When I took a campus tour with my daughter a few years ago, the guide told us that some people say that the reason there are no real windows in the Administration Building is that they were afraid that students would break them, but she added that she couldn't believe that was true. I said, "Hah, I was a student then. It's absolutely true." The windows at the Ann Arbor Bank got broken as soon as the bank could replace them. It would have been worse at the Administration Building. The university already had to cope with students regularly repainting the sign for "Regents Plaza" to "Peoples Plaza."

 

 

MaizeAndBlueWahoo

November 20th, 2018 at 7:28 PM ^

The very best take on Brutalist architecture comes from Prince Charles, who actually is somewhat of an architecture buff.  His quote upon seeing some Brutalist monstrosity in London: "You have to give this to the Luftwaffe - when they demolished our buildings, they didn't replace them with anything more offensive than rubble."

GarMoe

November 21st, 2018 at 10:36 AM ^

How OSU fans can sit in their stadium and think it's the architecture gem that they do is further evidence of how deranged they are.  Particularly if they've traveled up north and sat in our architecturally cohesive and pleasurable structure where there isnt a bad seat in the house.

jbrandimore

November 20th, 2018 at 5:46 PM ^

I realize you are just proving great information, but it's stunning that this sentence needed to be included: "The bigger issue is going to be finding a place to sleep. Hotels are already insane, and from my Michigan State people, they absolutely will overbook expecting to get cancellations from the other team."

It's been an embarrassing decade where the Michigan fan base has no idea what it's like going to the B1G Championship game and we have to rely on info from Sparty.

Benoit Balls

November 20th, 2018 at 5:59 PM ^

Depending on if you feel like walking a stretch, you can usually find street parking for free east of High street between Summit and 4th. Its about a 20 minute walk to the stadium from there

Sauce Castillo

November 21st, 2018 at 9:23 AM ^

I wouldn't advise this. Prime area for your car to get f'ed up if you have Michigan plates or stickers on your car. you are in the heart of student housing and the edge of a bad area. plus walking to campus you will get harassed by all the students already partying. I've seen it time and time again. 

my wife is an osu grad and lived in this area for 2 years.

Sauce Castillo

November 21st, 2018 at 9:58 AM ^

I think it's outlined in the post really well about what areas to stick close to, if you do you should have no problem getting more than the usual verbal stuff. I have seen the full cans of beer throw at grandma's and grandpa's from the porch though. Hopefully Michigan starts a run here and more people are willing to travel to the game.

Double-D

November 20th, 2018 at 7:49 PM ^

True story.  My Mom in her mid sixties was with my Dad wearing Michigan gear heading to The Game at the shoe.  

A group of mid twenties guys yelled Go Bucks to which my good natured Mom replied exhuberantly Go Blue.  One of the degenerates decided that was worth a solo cup beer bath for Mom to the approving laughter of their gang.  Not one of those fucks stood up for what’s right.  

slimj091

November 20th, 2018 at 7:52 PM ^

I went to Columbus once when I was eleven for a field trip to COSI. COSI was awesome, but even the eleven year old me thought Columbus in general was a compost pile. I've had no need of going back since.

I can stay at home, and watch the game without having to deal with the knuckleheads that don't "represent all buckeyes"

jayfred

November 21st, 2018 at 10:03 AM ^

I don't know how long ago that would have been, but frankly I disagree. While I have no interest or desire to get anywhere near campus, I've been obliged to spend much of the last month (and will spend much of December) in Columbus as my company sets up our service there, actually in the area directly around COSI and Capitol Square. It seems like a nice-enough place...too polished and modern for me to really like, but I have no quarrel with the city writ large. But of course being the state's largest (and probably newest) big city, but lacking an NFL team, you get the sort of NFL-fan jabrons who want to ruin everything. I do very much relish the thought of going back in December and triumphantly wearing my Maize & Blue if the boys are able to steal it this weekend in the Horseshoe. 

brax

November 20th, 2018 at 8:33 PM ^

"Biggest ticket in the world this weekend." Not hardly. In sports, my love for UM is only surpassed for my love for Boca Juniors in Buenos Aires Argentina. I flew over 5,000 miles to see them play their arch rivals RiBer Plate two weekends ago and paid 4 figures to get in the door. This weekend, they play the return game at RiBer's home Stadium. This is the finals of the biggest club tournament in South America. People flew in from around the world to see this game and some just to be with like-minded fans. This Saturday's game will be no different. It is just EPIC. Unlike any other sporting event I have ever seen anywhere in the world. That will be the biggest ticket in the world this weekend. 

Zopak

November 20th, 2018 at 10:21 PM ^

It really is only soccer, too. I live in South Florida, and that type of shit is constant. Volleyball is huge here, baseball is huge here, swimming is huge here, but all of the fans for those sports basically just say 'Cool man, glad you got a thing. I'll stick to mine.' Meanwhile, I've had people get in my face at sportsbars here because I said I prefer football. "You disrespectin futbol man? You disrespect futbol?" 

brax

November 21st, 2018 at 5:14 PM ^

It's the most popular sport in the world. It's hard to be insecure about the popularity of the most popular sport in the world, don't you think?

My post was just trying to share a perspective but it seems to have simply aggravated recriminations and insecurities in others. As I mentioned, I'm a huge UM fan and flew from StL to DTW to catch the IU game last weekend. Just wanted to point out that on the world stage there is a much bigger sporting event going on this weekend.

GarMoe

November 20th, 2018 at 8:41 PM ^

1996 - went down to the Game the night before, staying at motel 6-level digs with a buddy and his dad.   Walking to the game we encountered a pickup truck with guys in the back shouting and throwing tennis balls at UM fans.  Stupid but harmless in the scheme of things but just enough animosity to keep one from feeling comfortable wearing M gear on the street.  Have never understood the ohio state of mind. 

Rufus X

November 20th, 2018 at 9:05 PM ^

Why would anyone go to that shithole to tolerate their neanderthal fans is beyond me.  To answer the question "are their fans really that bad?", the answer is "They are actually worse".

 

 

GarMoe

November 20th, 2018 at 11:18 PM ^

For me it was being in my late twenties and thinking nothing could be “that bad” - after having served in the Navy and been to various true-to-life real world “shit holes” and lived to tell it.  Columbus is a fucking dump and I’ll likely never go back.  But now I can say I’ve seen it.

Jeremichi96

November 20th, 2018 at 9:21 PM ^

How many people are just terrified of jinxing the team by buying tickets to the big ten championship game?!?? I want to so badly but will hate myself if they dont go!

LAmichigan

November 20th, 2018 at 9:46 PM ^

All these kind of posts do is help set prices for the professional scalpers and unscrupulous fans who only got extra tickets in order to turn them into quick bucks.  Not sure why these posts keep being repeated year after year.  When you tell people to buy at such-and-such price, where do you think the scalpers set their prices?  About a $100-$200 or more above that.  Thanks!