Tonight, I’m going to be in a suite for a sporting event for the first time. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t necessarily think suites are the best seats in the house. The idea of being on a couch watching the game on a TV when the action is going on mere feet away has always struck me as being silly (although I will appreciate being able to walk inside to quickly get a bite or drink between the action rather than having to go stand in line to do it).
But tonight’s opportunity reminds me of a little dream of mine. For a long time, I’ve wanted to – just once – sit in the dugout seats at Dodger Stadium. You know, right by where Tommy Lasorda sits. The problem with said dream is that the cost of those tickets is $500-$600 each, and while I sometimes have that kind of cash available, it’s pretty hard to justify it when my 20-game mini-plan seats behind home plate a couple of levels up cost that much for the whole damn season.
And yet, my dream lives on. So I want to hear from some of you who have actually sprung for (or have been gifted) the opportunity to truly sit in the best seats in the house for a game, be it baseball, basketball, hockey, football – whatever. Tell me about your experience. And specifically, tell me if you think the seats were worth the experience if you would have had to (or if you did) pay face value.
Well, I don’t know if they’re the best seats in the house, but when I was a kid I was often dragged to Clemson home games in one of the luxury boxes, because my dad’s company had one to entertain clients. Sweet-ass setup - bartender, food, all that. Strom Thurmond used to drop by all the time. Even if I hadn’t hated football, I wouldn’t have enjoyed the box - while the setup is nice, it’s like not being at the game at all. Nobody even shuts up for the National Anthem. It loses a lot of excitement. (However, if I was forced to attend a football game now I would DEFINITELY appreciate the free and limitless booze.)
It depends on the game, really. I’ve had great seats and lousy seats for baseball games, and you know… I’ve had just as much fun (if not more) in the lousy seats.
As for footballl… well, frankly, football is much better on TV than in person, no matter where you sit.
On the other hand, I ONCE won floorside tickets for the San Antonio Spurs via a trivia contest, and it was AWESOME. Way better than regular seats.
And prime seats for an NHL game are fantastic. There’s nothing like being right on top of the action.
My brother used to have 49ers season tickets. They were at about the 30 yard line in the very first row, so not quite the ‘best seats in the house’, but pretty good. And they were terrible. If the action was on our end of the field it was great, but when they were at the other end, the low angle made it very difficult to tell what was going on. Of course, I’m one of those people who thinks football is always better to watch on TV (it’s the only major sport for which I hold that opinion).
i had first row on the floor for a spurs v pistons game one year as a gift from my bil. seriously i could have tripped the players if i had been so inclined. gotta talk and slap some skin. drink folks coming by about every thirty seconds. acess to the private club where you could actually smoke within the palace without having to go outside and freeze your butt off.
i think half of the game i was staring at some referee’s ass. i mean don’t get me wrong it was cool as fool but for actually watching the game it was kind of a let down.
Followup: the game I saw was Spurs vs. Trail Blazers, back when the Trail Blazers coach was PJ Carlesimo. As I said, we were right on the floor, and could see/hear EVERYTHING that went on.
If you’d seen PJ Carlesimo at work, you’d have foreseen the Latrell Sprewell incident. It was inevitable that one of his players would throw a punch at him or try to throttle him.
Football is really tricky to define what is the “best” seat but most people in the know seem to think that seats about 15 rows up straddling the 50 yard line are the best you can get. Its the optimal balance between closeness, unobstructed view, comraderie, and cachet. I sat in those seats in the old Meadowlands for a Giants - Bears game and it was pretty fricking excellent. We were surrounded by all the Chicago-centric Celebs who lived and worked in NYC and were about 2 seats from Bill Murray. It was fantastic. Totally worth it but for football games the price difference between these ideal seats and those 29 rows further up or on the 25 yard line is generally pretty negligible.
The price premium for dugout seats, floor seats and glass seats are an entirely different thing. Haven’t tried them yet myself but one day I will. I suspect that for hoops and hockey it might well be a unique enough experience to be worth doing, but probably not 10 times as good to justify the cost. The dugout seats are a scam through and through.
I’ve sat right behind the glass for hockey several times. I wouldn’t pay a huge premium for it, but I’ve had them given to me for presents several times. Some newer arenas have a special concession and restroom area that is reserved for the first few rows. Well worth it for the shorter lines. Otherwise, it can take forever to get to the main concession/restroom area.
Times have changed re: football ticket prices, Omniscient. THis past week, I got a freebie “club” ticket to Jets/Bills in the “New Meadowlands.” On the ticket it said something like $140 for the ticket PLUS $550 for the “Club.” I’m glad it wasn’t my money, because it was the biggest ripoff of all time. Yes, the seats were great, like 10th row on 45-yard line. And the all you can eat at the Club was good too–lots of choices, which we took advantage of. But, unlike in private boxes, we had to pay for alcohol. So what it amounts to is that they are charging $550 for a good “all you can eat” buffet. Oh and the $150+$550 are on top of the PSL cost, which I think was about 40 Grand. How are businesses falling for this deal?
About 10 or 15 years ago I sprung for a seat in the section behind home plate at Yankee Stadium (although in one of the last rows). They were $50 at the time, and the view was good enough I thought it was worth it. (Most of the time I sat in general admission in the upper deck for $5, but occasionally in the lower deck for up to $35).
Now those seats are at least $325 (if you’re not on a season plan), and I don’t anticipate sitting there again any time soon.
I watched the Steelers win Super Bowl XL at a Heinz Field indoor luxury suite. No, that sentence is not a drunken mistake. I was giving a lecture at a conference in Pittsburgh that year and that conference’s “field trip” was to watch the Super Bowl on a big TV at a luxury suite in Heinz Field. When I signed up for the conference I had no way of knowing the Steelers were going to be in it…so that was rather fortunate.
Anyway, although I didn’t see a live game, I was struck by how bad the game would have been to watch there. The suite seemed like it was about three miles from the field, and the field was visible from only a small portion of the suite. And the place didn’t seem particularly deluxe, either…it reminded me of little more than a glorified food court with a conference room attached. The stadium officials made such a big show of letting us in, with the keyed elevators and everything, that I was expecting a big show…not really I suppose.
When the Texas Rangers began construction on their first stadium, my Grandad’s brother went out, located the best seats and ‘the family’ has had those 4 season tickets ever since, some 40 years now. They’re on the front row right next to the visiting team’s dugout and within reach almost of their batting circle. You can see what goes on in the dugout, talk to the umps as they take the field, make eye contact with and sometimes chat with each visiting player as he walks over to warm up. Derek Jeter, Paul O’Neil, Bo Jackson, Cal Ripkin, Alex Rodriguez, Ken Griffey, Jr. and a hundred others, all just a few feet away.
Is it worth it? I wouldn’t trade those times for the world. It is awfully expensive, about $900 a game now, and so after all these years I opted out last year, although I can always get back in if I want. But yeah, you really do get a whole different perspective, far more intimate, when you’re right there interacting on such a visceral level. It’s all there, to the point where often you can tell whether or not they’re wearing cologne. And taking people to the game and watching their eyes pop is a real kick in the pants.
Recently I had tickets for a hockey game about three seats to the left of home team’s bench. You know what was weird about it? The glass prevented me from hearing the sounds of the game that you get in the upper deck-skates on ice, shots hitting the boards. It felt like a large screen tv with the sound off. But you have a couple players taken to the glass right in front and you could really lipread the goalie’s words hen he gave up a goal. Don’t think I’d buy them again though.
About 1983 I had seats for a number of concerts (David Gilmour, etc) about six rows from stage, dead center. Those were pretty good.
Yeah, but the “Club” premium comes into play whether you’re sitting on the 50 yard line or the 40 yard line. If you’re in the premium section you’re paying a ton of money. All football tickets are crazy expensive, the “best seat in the house” premium is moot.Unlike basketball where the seats in the 3rd and 4th row are pricey, maybe $150 a ticket, the ones on the floor are $1500+. There’s no analog to that in the NFL.
In basketball there is not a doubt in my mind the floor seats are worth it. That is a sport where being close really matters.
In baseball, I would not pay the premium to sit right at the field. In terms of seeing the action, being five rows behind that is just as good and a fraction of the price, and being 30 rows back is darn near as good. What really matters in baseball is being behind the plate and in the first deck; I think about 10-15 rows back is ideal but row 35 behind the plate is better than first row in the outfield.
A friend of my cousin (who is much older than me. He was an adult with a family while I was a kid) had a friend who ran the Joe Louis arena in Detroit. One Thanksgiving while I was in College I went there instead of home and we visited the arena during a Hockey game (if I recall correctly it wasn’t a Red Wings game, it was our US Olympic hockey team playing someone). I got to stay in the owner’s suite after he left (which was only a few minutes after the game started).
It was amazing. It was basically a luxury apartment complete couches, chairs, a bathroom, coffee table, a fully stocked bar and a long table with all kinds of food that the owner and his guests didn’t touch, including a bunch of Little Ceaser’s pizzas (not surprising since they were the owners). Instead of a balcony, there was a wall that was all windows and a door that opened to an alcove with a row of comfortable but standard arena seats and then another glass window that looked out onto the arena.
It was many years ago and I didn’t spend much time watching the game but it was an amazing experience.
(as a side note, I went back another day during that trip and was able to wander around back stage after a WWF event and I watched The Undertaker get into the back seat of a station wagon driven by his mother and drive away.)
Ex-g/f was a Steelers fan with a Pittsburgh-area political family and tons of connections. She preferred the cheap seats at Heinz, despite having access to luxury suites whenever she wanted. It got her closer to the game. I had to admit, despite not being a fan, that the feeling of excitement and connectedness was greater when we were down there, because we were among the loudest fans and detractors. Similar situation when we were in my home town, watching the Colts. Luxury seats are nice if you’re there for mingling or business, but the cheap seats were where the action was if you were into the game. Penguins games, OTOH, were better with her connections, though the cheap seats were pretty fun. There seemed to be a different philosophy at play in the sports vis-a-vis luxury suites and seats, which I see playing out in the comments above.
I also have far more fond memories of being in the cheap-ass Wrigley Bleachers when my Cubs-fan stepfather dragged me out for a ballgame, than when we had real seats. The rowdy crowds made the proceedings far more entertaining, if a little more dangerous.
This kind of reminds me of concerts; for certain bands and venues, where the cheaper “general admission” ticket were the more prized ones; being crushed on the floor was preferable to being seated away from the action.
I got 2nd row behind the glass seats for the Carolina Hurricanes for about 7 games. I got them pretty cheap too. It was really amazing to see how fast those guys hit the boards and not get bothered by it in most cases. I was behind 1 goal so the only downside was it was hard to see the play on the other half of the ice.
Wait. 4 season tickets to the Rangers are $146,000??? :eek:
So you choose to go to the ballgame…or buy a house, every year?
EDITED: I guess only half of the games are at home…so it is a more reasonable $73,000. I thought it was expensive for a minute.