Packers are in town Sunday playing the Vikings and while I’m happy to stay home and watch the game from the comfort of my sofa I wouldn’t mind seeing the game live.
I’m about a 15 minute drive from the Metrodome.
What are my chances of finding someone trying to get rid of tickets for cheap right after kickoff outside the dome? I’d even be willing to pay face value if the seat is good enough.
Or am I just wasting my time?
(scalping tickets outside the dome seems to be legal here).
Legal or not, scalpers’ markets are common outside stadiums. Tickets go for market prices: 20 minutes before game time the guy with a girlfriend to impress can expect to pay serious money for two adjacent seats on the 40-yard line (scalpers like to imply that stratospheric prices are the norm). But 10 minutes after kickoff, if that lone seat in a remote part of the endzone hasn’t yet sold it might go pretty cheap. Supply and demand are of course the key (and often hard to predict).
There will certainly be some “forestalling” - scalpers head out toward the parking areas hoping to find the guy whose buddy got sick at the last moment and who thus has one ticket he’s probably willing to sell at face value. No reason you can’t try this as well.
If you live 15 minutes away you could go to the stadium and try your luck. If nothing is available in your price range, head home and catch the remainder of the game on TV.
If you are just looking for a single, a more effective strategy might be to wander the parking lots well before the game as people are tailgating and loudly ask if anyone in earshot if they have one extra ticket. That way you’ll differentiate yourself from the scalpers who’ll be trolling the lot.
Naturally, if you go in full Cheesehead attire, you might not get much love from the purple-clad masses, but Packers fans do seem to do a good job of infiltrating a good crowd into the dome every year, especially when the Vikes are down, so there should be plenty of fellow Packers fans about who might have extras and be more apt to give a fellow fan an even break on the price rather than sell to a scalper. If you can tell from the dealer sticker on their car, you might try the “Hey, I’m/my parents are from Stevens Point/Eau Claire/La Crosse/Oconomowoc, too!” tack to further soften them up.