John Moynahan

Hey Pats fans,
I'm fairly new to the area (living in Providence) and was hoping I could get to see my first NFL game.
I know that I'm going to have to pay more than face value if I want to make it to a game.
I don't want SRO tickets but other than that I'm not picky.
Via eBay, craigslist, StubHub, etc. it looks like the best I can do is about $180 per ticket.
Does anyone have any tips on getting tickets cheaper than that?

Are there scalpers at the games? I managed to get great Red Sox tickets for less than half of face value ($30, 15 or so rows behind the plate for a Dice-K start!) by buying them around the third inning. Would a similar strategy work in Foxboro?

I've also heard that if you check craigslist the day of or the day before a game, you could get lucky with someone who's desperate to sell. Has anyone had success with this?

Any tips you can give would be appreciated.

Tunescribe

You've pretty much covered the bases. Tickets will probably be harder to come by this year than ever before. I would not expect to have much luck with scalpers outside the stadium, they are few and far between. Plus, you'd have to pay $40 parking just to be there trying to find one. EBay, Craigslist are your best bets. Welcome to the board by the way, good choice for screen name too.

John Moynahan

Thanks bud.

bbabin

I have a similar question and asking here seems better than starting a new thread.

I am on the season ticket wait list for the first time this year. I'm planning on getting tickets via Patriots Ticket Exchange. Is there a certain amount of time before each game that tickets usually become available? So far I haven't seen any for any games, but I figure it's still pretty early. Any help/tips would be appreciated.

eternal

onlineseats.com is a good broker site. They are usually cheaper than stubhub and other broker sites...I've seen them put up tickets for less than face value at times. I have gotten tickets from them a few times and no problems.

pats1

Usually a week or so before. But for the better games, you'll need lightning quick fingers. I have a Firefox add-on that can automatically refresh my page every 1 second, and I missed out on good tickets even with that. Just think - 1 refresh every second, and if a set of ticket(s) pops up, chances are they will only last 1 refresh. Usually by the time you are able to transmit the message from your brain to your finger to "click," a message will come up that they have already been purchased (in other words, somebody clicked faster than you and they are in the process of ordering them).

Believe me, this is 100% true. I spent the Friday night before the Colts game last year doing this, and when I missed out on some in the 100s (there definitely will be a lot of good seats, face value obviously), I was, simply put, pissed. I kept missing out by freakin' milliseconds.

Some tickets courtesy of the TicketExchange I've gotten: 2 in 200s for Nov. 2005 Colts game, 2 in 200s for 2005 Bills game, 2 in 200s for 2005 Raiders game, 2 in 100s (endzone) for 2006 Bills game.

But the other possibility for non-STH waiting listers is Ticketmaster.

They'll usually release the remaining extra tickets, usually from the visiting team I guess, on Thursday or Friday before the game. The only trick to this is trying and trying and trying and trying -- all afternoon on these two days. These are a lot easier to get, but it's all about timing. You'll usually get absolutely nothing all day, and then suddenly you'll get a hit. The strategy is risky, but try to then go back and change the qualifiers to 100s: chances are you'll get a hit. There's definitely pairs of tickets, but obviously the more you request the harder it'll be.

Some tickets courtesy of the TicketExchange I've gotten: 2 in Row 36, 100s (20 yd. line) for the Jets playoff game last year, 2 in Row 8, 100s (endzone) for the Jags playoff game two years ago, others I've forgotten.

All face value, of course. I'd rather go for $100 seats in the 100s for playoff games than $250 seats in the 300s from eBay as had happened for the 2004 Colts opener.

At all costs, avoid the May sale of tickets. Those are absolute crap, unless you're from out of town and can't plan a trip at the last minute. Those will definitely be either high 300s or STO.

bbabin

Thanks a lot. I knew getting on the wait list would give me a better chance at tickets but I didn't really know what it was like.

John Moynahan

This makes me wonder about the site...

Rob0729

I'll say. You were just born last week. New to the world is more like it.

SoCal Bong

Good catch! Suprising it took this many posts for someone to point that out. Then again maybe it was already commented on elsewhere and I just didn't see it yet.

Just to contribute a little to this thread, my observation as one shopping for a pair of tickets for the Redskins game is that there are less tickets available on ebay, stubhub, etc than usual and that they are going for higher prices this year - though that is to be expected with the high hopes of the 2007 Pats.

Typically late August is the worst time to buy tickets for mid to late season games as this is when the most buyers are looking so demand raises the market. I'm also looking for Pats at Fins tickets which I can see are already dropping a bit but I'm going to take my chances and wait until at least a month into the season. If the home team struggles then prices start dropping fast so I have more reason to hope the Dolphins stink it up.

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