Seating at Gillette
 

Hey folks, I was hoping you could help me out. How good are the standing room only seats @ Gillette? I know that I enjoy SRO seats at Fenway and other baseball parks.

I am a bigger guy, and I hate sitting in small seats and always getting up to move for others.

Also, any good tips on how to score tix, besides places like Stubhub?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Seating at Gillette
 

Depends.

For SRO, there are some great places to stand (lighthouse bridge, banner walkways), but you'll need to get there early and not leave your spot to keep it.

As far as getting tickets go, if you live close enough, getting tickets the week of the game is a possibility. The Patriots will usually release some on Thursdays and Fridays on Ticketmaster. You'll just have to keep on trying and trying. Over the past few years, I've gotten damn good seats: 2 in row 12 behind the endzone against the Jaguars in the playoffs, and 2 in row 37 at the 40 against the Jets in the playoffs. I've also gotten 2 in 201 for the Colts game in 2005, 2 in row 8 behind the endzone for the Bills opener, among a few others in the 200s.) It's really about luck and timing. If you keep checking throughout the day (especially in the afternoon) on Thursdays and Fridays, then you'll have a good chance of finding something. It's a gamble too, because you can usually get hits on 300 or 200-level seats, but can choose to holdout for 100-level seats which sometimes don't come. If you're on the season ticket waiting list, then you also have access to the TicketExchange on Patriots.com. In 2005, there were tons of seats, with plenty in the 100s (all from STHs - at face value). But in 2006, the ticket level appeared to drastically drop, and it took an extraordinarily fast clicking finger to score good seats. I set up an auto-refresher for Firefox and sat on the Pats/Colts November game last year for 2 hours. Whenever a 100-level pair popped up, I'd click as fast as I could (<1 second reaction), but most of the time I wouldn't get through. Even if the ticket miraculously wasn't purchased and was re-released after 2 minutes, it still went just as fast. 300 level seats did stick around long enough, though.

It's an intense sport. You ought to try it. :D

EDIT: Just thinking back to last January. At just after 6 PM on the Thursday before the Jets game, after an hour or so of entering hidden words and getting 300s or no hits on Ticketmaster, I finally got a hit for 2 seats in 224. I took a gamble, thinking the Pats just released their stash, and it paid off. I immediately changed my search to 100s and got my 2 in 135.

The beauty of it all is these are face value, obviously, so you're paying $250-1000 less than you would at StubHub or eBay, and having ten times the excitement buying them. :D

Re: Seating at Gillette
 

If you're going that route, just be sure you have a Visa card :cool:

Re: Seating at Gillette
 

Oh yeah, i hear you about the fast clicking, I would sit with my laptop clicking away and even when i get it right away they'd be gone, it's unbelievable how fast they go. But I also was able to get some amazing seats through the exchange and my wife and i only missed 1 home game all season, and that was because we had plans, not due to no tickets. I LOVE that system and can't wait until it comes online again this year. I've been practicing my clicking :) Best of luck!

Re: Seating at Gillette
 

May the fastest clicker win!

(And the loser, as was the case for yours truly a lot last year, scream in agony just before midnight on the Friday before gameday when they didn't click...fast...enough...)

Re: Seating at Gillette
 

I am looking at SRO tix, but am open to anything.

Thanks for the info.