Where can I find inexpensive sports tickets?

- CaptainJoe

Posted on Jun 14, 2011 in Bargains, Entertainment, Events, Find things, Sports & fitness

baseball basketball football hockey sports

I’d like to take my family out to ball games and the like more often, but tickets for that kind of stuff have gotten so expensive! Where can I find some deals on tickets for basketball, baseball, football and hockey games?

Master of tickets

There was a time when “take me out to the ball game” didn’t require taking out a second mortgage — and buying some peanuts and Cracker Jack didn’t cause you to liquidate your 401k. Unfortunately, in this day of player salaries that make the national debt look paltry and multi-billion dollar stadiums, someone has to pay the bills: the fans.
sporting event tickets

So here are a few suggestions on how to get out to the game without breaking the bank, listed in order of my preference:

StubHub.com: StubHub, an eBay company, is a ticket reselling site where fans can sell their extra tickets to other fans. Tickets are verified authentic by StubHub and you are backed by their FanProtect Guarantee. Basically, it states you’ll get your tickets on time, they’ll be authentic and valid, and if for some reason you don’t or they aren’t – they’ll try to find you replacement tickets at the venue or refund you. They’ll also refund if the event is cancelled or postponed. Why is this a good site for deals? The majority of tickets you find here are being sold by season ticket holders who can’t make it to that particular game. They just want to recover a couple bucks of their investment.

Check your home team’s website for family pack deals: The team owners aren’t stupid. They know ticket prices are escalating out of reach for some people. At times, teams will offer special deals that usually include 2-4 seats, and hotdogs or similar and a soda for each ticket for a discounted price. The seats are usually nothing special (upper deck and so forth), but it gets you in the door, and gets you food for one low price.

Try the cheap seats: Is sitting in the last row of the hockey rink as cool as being right on the glass? Of course not. However, one will run you $200+ per seat, and the other will be more like $25 per seat. In most modern arenas/ballparks/stadiums, even the nosebleed seats still give you a great view of the game, and the ambience is always better than sitting at home.

Take a trip to the farm (team): Check out ticket prices for your local minor league teams. You might be pleasantly surprised how inexpensive the tickets are. Added bonus: You get to see tomorrow’s stars and current stars on the rebound from injury. And since those guys are hungry to get to the big show, the action is usually pretty intense.

These next two I hate to even mention, but if you’re feeling adventurous and don’t mind maybe getting badly burned with a fake ticket, you might score a deal:

Craigslist: Yes, the old standby for, well, everything. Be wary of buying tickets here, though, especially if it’s from a “broker.” Stick with private sellers (the kind that don’t want to pay StubHub fees or just want to dump their tickets locally and quickly) and make sure you take a good long look at those tickets before you hand over cash. For all the reservations I have about buying tickets on CL, you can score some good last minute deals here if you’re careful.

Scalpers: Personally, I’d rather just light a couple $20 bills on fire and stick them in my underwear than buy a ticket from a scalper, but don’t say I didn’t cover all the bases. (So to speak.) Sometimes if an event is well undersold, however, they’re just looking to dump what will soon become useless pieces of paper. You’ll get your best deals 1-2 innings in, or 5-10 minutes in for timed sports.

Armed with some knowledge, now you should be able to take the whole family out for a game without having to sell a kidney on eBay to fund it. Have fun!

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