Australian fans coming to Boston

[chris-in-oz]

Hello from Australia. My first post.

My teenage son is a huge Patriots fan. He and I will be flying to the USA in October to watch two NFL games. We already have tickets for the Dallas Cowboys v Washington in Dallas on 27 Oct. We have good seats for this game.

Unfortunately we were unable to get tickets to the Patriots v Denver Broncos game on 2 Nov despite being online when tickets went on sale at midnight our time. We are now looking at Stubhub. I'm prepared to pay $400 each for tickets. It looks like that will get us seats at a variety of locations high up in the stadium. Knowing nothing about NFL I'm clueless about good v bad places to watch the game from.

I would appreciate any advice on good or bad places to sit at Gillette Stadium. I would a REALLY appreciate someone having a look at Stubhub for tickets up to $400 to see which are the better ones on offer. We need 2 tickets.

I know Boston is a fantastic city for adults, but I don't know what activities/attractions might interest a 15 yo boy. Appreciate any suggestions on this too.

We still haven't decided what we want to do between Dallas and Boston. We may to go to Orlando and do the theme parks. Or we might just spend a couple of days in Dallas and fly direct to Boston mid-week.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Ian]

Hello from Australia. My first post.

My teenage son is a huge Patriots fan. He and I will be flying to the USA in October to watch two NFL games. We already have tickets for the Dallas Cowboys v Washington in Dallas on 27 Oct. We have good seats for this game.

Unfortunately we were unable to get tickets to the Patriots v Denver Broncos game on 2 Nov despite being online when tickets went on sale at midnight our time. We are now looking at Stubhub. I'm prepared to pay $400 each for tickets. It looks like that will get us seats at a variety of locations high up in the stadium. Knowing nothing about NFL I'm clueless about good v bad places to watch the game from.

I would appreciate any advice on good or bad places to sit at Gillette Stadium. I would a REALLY appreciate someone having a look at Stubhub for tickets up to $400 to see which are the better ones on offer. We need 2 tickets.

I know Boston is a fantastic city for adults, but I don't know what activities/attractions might interest a 15 yo boy. Appreciate any suggestions on this too.

We still haven't decided what we want to do between Dallas and Boston. We may to go to Orlando and do the theme parks. Or we might just spend a couple of days in Dallas and fly direct to Boston mid-week.

Regards,
Chris

Thanks for posting this. I'll move this into the main forum and hopefully some other people can chime in with some good advice

 

[chris-in-oz]

Thanks Ian.

 

[Joker]

Chris...400 bucks high up in the Razor????????? for a regular season game?

I would NEVER pay that and I sure as hell am not going to allow an Aussie Pats fan get royally screwed by some greedy jerk. Check the board frequently in this thread. There are a ton of season ticket holders and waiting list fans that may be able to help you out with face value tickets.

I always get ticket options for big games from friends that have season tickets. The thing is you have to wait until near the game date you want to attend...BUT...there are Pats fans here who could hook you up well before if that is necessary.

You are flying 18 hours to get here and sit in the nosebleeds with the seagulls? Forget that, you'd be better off going to Patriot Place and watching the game in one of the establishments. Food and drinks would cost you, at the most, 150 bucks for two...saving you 650 dollars to spend on Patriots gear..

 

[chris-in-oz]

Hi Joker,
Thanks for the reality check. Truth is, I had no idea what a reasonable price for a ticket was. I never even got to see what face value on the tickets was, because they sold out so quickly!

How close to the game should I expect to leave it before surplus tickets from fans become available? I agree it's a long way to fly and sit in bad seats. It's even longer to fly and miss the game altogether. I don't think my son would speak to me again!

BTW, do they serve Samuel Adams Boston Ale at Patriots games? I hope so!

Chris

 

[Joker]

Try reading through this link ,Chris...and yes, they serve all kinds of Sam Adams products...

http://boston.cbslocal.com/guide/guide-to-gillette-stadium-home-of-the-patriots/#food-drink

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Don't buy tickets now. Wait until a week or a few days before game. Will be much cheaper. Tickets won't run out. Only more will become available. And cheaper. No seat is a bad seat there. I have sat all over the place. Front row to 2nd to last all were great

 

[chris-in-oz]

Thanks Joker. I can taste the buffalo wings and Sam Adams now.

BtM,
Thanks, I'm glad there's no need to panic.

 

[Mike the Brit]

Chris, you're in good hands.

If you want to imbibe, the advice is to do it outside the stadium. (And the anti-alcohol laws are something fierce. There was a story about a guy being thrown out of a game for giving his son his drink to hold ...) There is a lot of excellent beer brewed in the area -- not just Sam.

As for things to do with a 15-year-old, the one I asked told me that what she liked to do best was just walk around in the downtown (around Back Bay and the Common). But she also says that the Museum at MIT is awesome (lots of robots and so on). The Museum of Science is, she says, more for younger kids. The Duck tours are a bit cheesy but you get to see the city from the water (but I don't know if they're still going at that time of the year). The USS Constitution is worth a visit, as is Harvard (though, damn, the buildings are ugly!) Harvard has its own excellent museums.

 

[PP2]

Also keep checking Craigslist/Boston/tickets:

http://boston.craigslist.org/tia/

Fair-value tickets sometimes pop up on there. And I agree with Joker, $400 for nosebleed tickets are a no-no.

 

[chris-in-oz]

More good info. Thanks to you both.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

Look here. Crikey!

https://seatgeek.com/broncos-at-pat...h-massachusetts-gillette-stadium/nfl/2101744/

If you can spend around $400 you can buy 1st tier seats. I find seats near the end zone but on the sideline as good value. Large screen TVs show replays useful if the play was in the opposite end zone.

In Boston there are trolley tours that let you hop off and hop back on. Boston is a very walkable city. I love the North End near the harbor, it's like Little Italy. 15 yrs old is a great age to tour Boston.

 

[shmessy]

Hey Chris, welcome aboard! The only thing that complicates the ticket price situation for the game you are talking about is that it might possibly be the last Brady-Manning game ever in Gillette (Brady should play a few more years, but many aren't so sure about Manning). It's possible that the media show that goes on may drive the prices a bit.

 

[chris-in-oz]

Hi PWP,
I loaded the Seatgeek app on my iPad. It's great. There are seats available in section 118 for $405 each. That's first tier on a corner (pardon my ignorance of the terminology).

Schmessy,
I mentioned the last Brady-Manning game issue to my son and he agreed. Now I'm torn- do I lock-in a couple of tickets at crazy prices or sit on my hands and hope cheaper ones become available as Brady_to_Moss suggested?

 

[shmessy]

Schmessy,
I mentioned the last Brady-Manning game issue to my son and he agreed. Now I'm torn- do I lock-in a couple of tickets at crazy prices or sit on my hands and hope cheaper ones become available as Brady_to_Moss suggested?

Wish I could help you with that one, mate. If both teams are in first place at the time and both QB's are healthy, the media hype for that game would be intense. The game the week before against the Bears should be a far easier and cheapoer ticket, but it looks like you'll be in Dallas (for a game which is between two of the NFL's biggest rivals, so good job getting those tickets!)

 

[Brady_to_Moss]

Even if it is hyped big. It will be no matter what. Tix prices should be the same now as they will be then IMO

 

[ausbacker]

Look here. Crikey!

https://seatgeek.com/broncos-at-pat...h-massachusetts-gillette-stadium/nfl/2101744/

If you can spend around $400 you can buy 1st tier seats. I find seats near the end zone but on the sideline as good value. Large screen TVs show replays useful if the play was in the opposite end zone.

In Boston there are trolley tours that let you hop off and hop back on. Boston is a very walkable city. I love the North End near the harbor, it's like Little Italy. 15 yrs old is a great age to tour Boston.

Crikey...

 

[chris-in-oz]

If both teams are in first place at the time and both QB's are healthy, the media hype for that game would be intense.

Even if it is hyped big. It will be no matter what. Tix prices should be the same now as they will be then IMO

Based on that I reckon I'll buy tickets soon.

Crikey...

Struth!

 

[Mike the Brit]

Blimey!

 

[chris-in-oz]

When I filter on seatgeek for tickets with electronic delivery it's slim pickins. That's for tickets up to $450 There's a few mail-out tickets available, but the delivery date doesn't leave much time for the tickets to arrive in Oz before we leave. I have visions of us passing our tickets somewhere over the Pacific!

I'm going to watch seatgeek for a couple more weeks- see if any more electronic tickets become available. If nothing comes up, maybe I can ask somebody on the forum to take delivery of some paper tickets and bring them to the game? I wouldn't trust our hotel not to lose them.

Is there a better way that I'm not seeing?

Chris