Not a season ticket holder, but it’s probably going to be my present to myself when my student loans are paid off in… 2025. So I had a couple of questions for you current season ticket holders, especially perhaps the newer ones — the Celtics keep sending me (and I’m sure everyone who’s bought an individual ticket for a game) emails about joining the waitlist. Is this something I need to do now if I wouldn’t be purchasing for another three years? Also, what sort of seats are available to first-time buyers?
1) Probably should get your name on the list. I don't know what the situation is if they call you and you are not yet ready to purchase. Check in with the Cs just to make sure that you won't get bumped to the back of the waitlist.
2) I agree with SaB. Don't worry too much about the first year. You'll kind of get what you get. If you want lower bowl, there may be some left, but they'll probably be very expensive and not great seats, and you could be stuck with them for a while.
Mike
TPs and thanks for the tips from both of you. I know I have to put a $100/seat deposit, which is refundable if I withdraw from the list before they call me, but it’s unclear if I can stay on the list and preserve the deposit if my number comes up before I’m ready. Very good to know that I shouldn’t try to be selective in year 1.
Follow-up question — how easy/difficult is it to resell tickets? In other words, if they called my number before I was ready to purchase, and I decided to go through with it anyway, what percentage of the cost do you think I might be able to resell without having to monitor prices every day, assuming I listed near face value? I’m not an experienced reseller (obviously), but I’m not opposed to becoming one. That said, I’m relatively risk averse until those $1k/month loans are paid off. I can see the finish line, and am willing to buy tickets a year early, but if I put my name down now and they asked for next season, I’d probably pass unless getting back 85% seemed possible, since the other 15% was going to be spent going to games anyway.
If you are in it to resell you should reconsider. The STM prices increase every year and our break even point is getting harder and harder to meet.. especially if you are doing last minute or week of sales.
What he said. You sound like you actually want to go to the games (Imagine that!) as opposed to seeing it as a profit opportunity, so it won't be as big a deal for you, but you obviously want to be able to get rid of the games that you don't use. It does feel to me like more people are using the resale market as a profit center now than they did eight years ago when I first got my tickets, but I have zero quantitative evidence to prove that. Regardless, unless you luck into something special, it's hard to generate 100% returns.
There are a lot of "it depends" factors. Nothing I say will answer your question about how hard it is to get back 100% of your investment, but here are some things to think about:
-If the Celtics have a couple of bad years, many of those names ahead of you on the waitlist will drop off. You'll move up a lot faster than you would think.
-Be very, very careful of the endowment effect, which is when you place a higher value on something that you already own versus what you would pay for it if you had to buy it. It doesn't matter what you paid for your tickets (other than as an indication of their quality) or what you think they're worth. The market determines price. Center court aisle seats will generate a bigger percentage premium than two seats in the middle of a row in the corner. As the seats get better, the premium tends to grow geometrically, not arithmetically.
-What games do you want to go to? Personally, I just like going to any game, as opposed to seeing a particular opponent, so I'm happy to sell my Lakers tickets and go to the games against (insert random team). From a resale point of view, the best thing that could happen to you is for LeBron to go back to Cleveland, since you'd get to sell him twice. I've always had better luck selling weekend games than midweek games.
-The Celtics bucket the games into five categories of desirability. Use it as a guidepost. Your average ticket cost for the year will be a round number, but the face could be one of five different costs. This year, the "bad" games had face values of either 70% or 80% of the average, while the "good" games had face values of either 130% or 170%. For example, if your package costs $4,300 for a ticket for the entire season, your average ticket will cost $100. A preseason game versus Orlando, though, might have a face value of $70, while the Lakers game would have a face value of $170. They did that based on comments from STM who would give away tickets to charity and felt like they should get a bigger tax break for the Lakers than the Magic. This year, I believe there were four "Gold (top bucket)" games: The Lakers, both Brooklyn games, and Dallas (day of the Garnett shirt retirement).
-You can give away your tickets to the Celtics charity until 11am the morning of the game (I'd have to check on the policy for weekend games, but I rarely have to give those away, anyway.). Thus, your maximum loss is your marginal tax rate.
-When the team is good, the more expensive tickets will sell better in the aftermarket than the less expensive ones. When the team is bad, the reverse is true. Nobody wants to pay $250 per ticket to see the Celtics lose by 17 to Houston.
-The playoffs are big. Every playoff game is a big deal, so the further the Celtics go, the better. An ECF ticket will sell at a higher premium than the first round. If they make it to the finals, the tickets will be worth their weight in gold (figuratively, of course). You may also get the opportunity to buy extra "strips" of tickets for playoff games. It's almost always worth it to do so. Note: Playoff tickets will cost more than your regular season tickets.
-Tickets have their highest value at the beginning of the season. That's when people are willing to pay the most in the aftermarket. Don't get greedy, though. Just because every ticket around you is priced at $250 per ticket doesn't mean that that's what you'll get. Remember, the resale market neither knows nor cares what you paid for your tickets. If you paid $100 per ticket and it's not selling at that price, don't be afraid to market it down to $80 or $90. Yes, technically, you'll "lose money" on that one set of tickets. It's still a better result than giving them away.
-Being an STM is about more than going to games. Develop a relationship with your STM representative (although there is a fair amount of turnover; I've had six in the 8-9 years I've been doing it.). They get their job because they are nice, friendly people who like dealing with other people. You'll get lots of extras. One thing that we get to do every year is shoot around on the court after the game. We went this past Friday and Karl-Anthony Towns popped into the stands to say hello to some friends. All of the kids who were at the shootaround went to get autographs and he was absolutely lovely about it.
So will you get 100% of your money back? Well, it depends... But you should make enough to at least offset a decent chunk of the whole season.
Mike