Why!! ( Question about tickets for game 6)

[bstnsportsfan3]

why do the celtics send me an email saying finals game 6 tickets on sale monday at 11am et and starting at 30$ then i go to ticketmaster exactly at 11 and they are sold out....i was not late buy 1 second and yet they are gone....i have 300$ i won at foxwoods on saturday while im up here on vacation....i wanted to buy 2 of the 125$ seats....and now i have nothing, the phones are busy and ticketmaster is sold out.....why do they get your hopes up when they know nothing is avaible.....this sucks! anyone know of a good place online to find tickets? i have checked everywhere and the cheapest i can find is 600$ for 1 ticket....

[cdif911]

....BECAUSE!!!!

[cdif911]

actually its pretty simple supply and demand.  There's a fixed number of seats available, which is pretty low considering who gets access first (celebrities, people who bought rights to tickets earlier in the season, season ticket holders, people with partial season ticket plans, the NBA offices, the Celtics family and friends, etc.) - I'd guess there were maybe 1000 tickets available at 11am.  People in line at the garden probably got 20% of these almost instantly, others at ticketmaster outlets also got in on these the instant they went online - that leaves maybe 50% or about 500 tickets for the internet.  Demand was surely greater than 250 people, I bet 10-20 thousand people minimum were online at 11am all jamming the line trying to get in - I'm sure a few people got their tickets, but they were the exception not the norm.  And now these tickets are being turned around for great profit because there is such an inelastic supply and such great demand.  People will pay nearly anything for these seats because there are so few. If you really want to get in, you're going to be shelling out top dollar, as others are willing and able to do that.

(Can you tell I teach economics?) =)

[celtsrp33]

Its rediculous.  I really don't think they even sell tickets online for this stuff.  I tried at 10:50 until 11:10 and nothing.  I've tried during EVERY ticketmaster sale in the playoffs and have not gotten through once.  Ticketmaster sucks!  I wish the C's would just take over ticketing themselves and make you take a timed Celtics history quiz to get tickets.  Then....I know I'd be going to game 6.  Effin Ticket ...

[trueceltic]

if you saw real sports on hbo or costas now (can't remember which shows it was), they had something about this. Basically the ticket brokers have software that makes it impossible for regular people like you and me to purchase them. Like myself, you just have to accept the fact that you will be paying $700-$900 per ticket for upper deck seats that are way up there.

[Chris]

Its rediculous.  I really don't think they even sell tickets online for this stuff.  I tried at 10:50 until 11:10 and nothing.  I've tried during EVERY ticketmaster sale in the playoffs and have not gotten through once.  Ticketmaster sucks!  I wish the C's would just take over ticketing themselves and make you take a timed Celtics history quiz to get tickets.  Then....I know I'd be going to game 6.  Effin Ticket ****. 

Eh, they have tickets.  It is like that for popular event on ticketmaster.  Basically you need to have a lot of luck to hit the server at the exact time there is a ticket available.  It is a frustrating system...although I don't know of a good solution.

[cdif911]

if you saw real sports on hbo or costas now (can't remember which shows it was), they had something about this. Basically the ticket brokers have software that makes it impossible for regular people like you and me to purchase them. Like myself, you just have to accept the fact that you will be paying $700-$900 per ticket for upper deck seats that are way up there.

I'm pretty sure Ticketmaster has eliminated the capacity of the software by putting in the codeword thing (which I have got wrong before, so annoying!) - makes it much harder for them to get in, because a person has to be monitoring it

[bstnsportsfan3]

ya it does sucks..i wish ana average fan could go to a game like this...i just wanted to enjoy the last few days of my 21st b-day vacation by going to the c's game....it sucks....and i tried from 10:59 till 11:30....no dice....


Sorry no edition needed..my mistake...wrong button...lol. Edgar

[CDawg834]

actually its pretty simple supply and demand.  There's a fixed number of seats available, which is pretty low considering who gets access first (celebrities, people who bought rights to tickets earlier in the season, season ticket holders, people with partial season ticket plans, the NBA offices, the Celtics family and friends, etc.) - I'd guess there were maybe 1000 tickets available at 11am.  People in line at the garden probably got 20% of these almost instantly, others at ticketmaster outlets also got in on these the instant they went online - that leaves maybe 50% or about 500 tickets for the internet.  Demand was surely greater than 250 people, I bet 10-20 thousand people minimum were online at 11am all jamming the line trying to get in - I'm sure a few people got their tickets, but they were the exception not the norm.  And now these tickets are being turned around for great profit because there is such an inelastic supply and such great demand.  People will pay nearly anything for these seats because there are so few. If you really want to get in, you're going to be shelling out top dollar, as others are willing and able to do that.

(Can you tell I teach economics?) =)

TP for you as you summed it up perfectly.  Unfortunately most of us can't afford to reach the price where demand stops outweighing supply.  But you are correct, a few people do in fact get their tickets through the Ticketmaster onsale date(I got Hawks Game 1 and Cavs Game 7 this way) but it takes a LOT of luck.

[Chris]

if you saw real sports on hbo or costas now (can't remember which shows it was), they had something about this. Basically the ticket brokers have software that makes it impossible for regular people like you and me to purchase them. Like myself, you just have to accept the fact that you will be paying $700-$900 per ticket for upper deck seats that are way up there.

I'm pretty sure Ticketmaster has eliminated the capacity of the software by putting in the codeword thing (which I have got wrong before, so annoying!) - makes it much harder for them to get in, because a person has to be monitoring it

Yeah, besides, I know at least some of the ticket agencies own bunches of season tickets (they own the majority of my row).

[paintitgreen]

Yeah, it's just impossible because so many people (specifically broker services) are all over those tickets.

For the future (hopefully this isn't relevant until next season), I prefer calling Ticketmaster to going online, where the software issues just make it impossible. And I call a Ticketmaster in another city. When a Boston event goes on sale at 11 a.m., every Boston Ticketmaster phone line is going to be busy. Call a Ticketmaster in Cleveland or Indianapolis or Houston or something like that, and you'll probabl get through. They can help you just as much as the Boston outlets can. That's how I get concert tickets, anyway.