How to Score Great Sports Tickets

So, the biggest sporting event of the season is coming up and you simply have to be there. But, you’re not certain the best way to get the tickets, with decent seats and at a price you can afford. Well, there’s certainly no magic way to ensure that you end up with tickets that satisfy all those requirements, but there definitely are some ways to help you score tickets when others can’t. Here are some tips to help you make sure you get in the door.

1. Look for presales – Some events have presales, and they may be limited to certain population, so it’s important to make certain you’re part of the population that will get access to the presale. In some cases this may mean being part of an official team fan club, for example. Presale events help ensure that you get tickets and often at a discount price, but you have to be prepared to buy early.
2. Talk to your credit card company – Some credit card companies have inside ticket availability. If you’re a premiere card holder you may be able to get tickets to events that are listed as sold out, or you may be able to get access to a presale that you wouldn’t normally have access to.
3. Be flexible – Tickets to mid-week sporting events are much easier to come by than weekend tickets, so be flexible if the goal is just to see a particular team play. Likewise, the opponent in a particular game can make the tickets easier to come by. It’s harder to get game tickets to see any team play their arch rival.
4. Go to the box office – Buying tickets directly from a venue may seem antiquated in the computer age, but it’s often a way to get seats when they’re not available online. It may also save you some fees.
5. Check out the resellers – Resellers can, indeed, be a rip off. But, as they have become more popular, their prices have had to get more competitive. Keep in mind that you’ll get the best deals from resellers about 4 days before an event, so if you want to plan ahead, this is not the way to go. In most cases, even at the last minute, you’ll end up paying more than face value when you buy from a reseller.
6. Be patient – When buying through an online ticket company like Ticketmaster, you shouldn’t give up just because the first time you try an event is listed as sold out. These sites give users time to make their decisions, so tickets are put “on hold” for a few minutes once users have requested them. Sometimes, if you just try back in about 5 minutes, there will be tickets available to an event you were just told was sold out.

Scoring great tickets takes persistence, and in some cases, extra cash. But, if you’re lucky enough to get seats to that once in a lifetime game or event, it may all be worth it in the end.

M. E. Ward writes about how to get a sports management degree online