Advice needed for tickets!

[kg is king]

Tickets go on sale June 2nd at 11am. My friend and I are looking to get the $40 dollar tickets and we are planning to get to the garden box office early. How early should we go to make sure we can get the $40 tickets? Is there usually a long line at 11am when they go on sale?

[Roy Hobbs]

I believe tickets are assigned via lottery, meaning that even if you're first in line, you're not necessarily guaranteed a ticket.

[bdm860]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's already people in line.

Usually teams now do a lottery, so it doesn't matter if you're first in line or 100th in line, it's all about how the lottery gets distributed.

As few tickets as there are available to the public, there's probably barely any $40 tickets available, I'm pretty sure that's actually only one small section that has $40.  For instance in 2008 I had a ticket to game 6, very last row of the whole arena, face value of the ticket was $125.

Check this video out from 2008 so you know what you're getting into.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2008/05/finals_tickets.html

[rjsuperfly66]

After watching some of that video, I am totally unopposed to the lottery system.

It would favor mainly college kids done with school who dont have a real job and could sit in line for 4 days waiting for tickets. 

A lottery certainly more fair for those who dont have the leeway to wait that long for tickets.

[bdm860]

After watching some of that video, I am totally unopposed to the lottery system.

It would favor mainly college kids done with school who dont have a real job and could sit in line for 4 days waiting for tickets. 

A lottery certainly more fair for those who dont have the leeway to wait that long for tickets.

Obviously college kids have a huge advantage, but I actually think if there wasn't a lottery, it would be all ticket brokers in line, ya know cuz that's actually their job so they're actually at work 


I know in Dallas where I used to live, the ticket brokers/scalpers would pay homeless guys to stand in line for them.  So if no lottery there would probably already be 500 homeless guys waiting for tickets, I'm sure that's what everyone wants lol.

Ya a lottery seems unfair at first, but then when you think about it and how people would abuse it if there weren't one I think it makes sense.

[rjsuperfly66]

After watching some of that video, I am totally unopposed to the lottery system.

It would favor mainly college kids done with school who dont have a real job and could sit in line for 4 days waiting for tickets.  

A lottery certainly more fair for those who dont have the leeway to wait that long for tickets.

Obviously college kids have a huge advantage, but I actually think if there wasn't a lottery, it would be all ticket brokers in line, ya know cuz that's actually their job so they're actually at work  

Ya a lottery seems unfair at first, but then when you think about it and how people would abuse it if there weren't one I think it makes sense.

That too.  Its funny how I thought it was very unfair at first, but the more you think about it, the more fair it is.

One thing I'm thinking about is at least driving up and waiting until after the game starts.  The guys will probably have some extra tickets, looking to move so they arent stuck with them.  Might get them cheap that way too.

[kg is king]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's already people in line.

Usually teams now do a lottery, so it doesn't matter if you're first in line or 100th in line, it's all about how the lottery gets distributed.

As few tickets as there are available to the public, there's probably barely any $40 tickets available, I'm pretty sure that's actually only one small section that has $40.  For instance in 2008 I had a ticket to game 6, very last row of the whole arena, face value of the ticket was $125.

Check this video out from 2008 so you know what you're getting into.

http://www.boston.com/sports/basketball/celtics/extras/celtics_blog/2008/05/finals_tickets.html

So the if I were to be selected for the lottery, can I choose what tickets I purchase? Or am I subjected to buy whatever tickets I am assigned to?

[greg683x]

Ok, heres what I dont understand.  I'm an out of towner, I'm from the Washington, DC area.  I want to buy tickets, but right now I cant get any of my loser friends to take two days off of work to fly up to Boston with me to see game 3, even though I'm offering to pay for their ticket...

Anywho...from what it looks like, I can buy tickets right now off of ebay or stubhub, are the tickets on there much more expensive than ones you'd buy when they go on sale at the garden??  If not, why not go that route instead of waiting in line.

[kg is king]

Ok, heres what I dont understand.  I'm an out of towner, I'm from the Washington, DC area.  I want to buy tickets, but right now I cant get any of my loser friends to take two days off of work to fly up to Boston with me to see game 3, even though I'm offering to pay for their ticket...

Anywho...from what it looks like, I can buy tickets right now off of ebay or stubhub, are the tickets on there much more expensive than ones you'd buy when they go on sale at the garden??  If not, why not go that route instead of waiting in line.

DC area? I go to the University of Maryland in College Park for school 
I know there are tickets available on ebay, stubhub, acetickets, etc. but I am a jobless college student on break and for me to spend hundreds of dollar is no easy thing. I love the Celtics but I would like it to not have to starve in order to watch them  Therefore, I am settling for the $40 tickets. Those don't exist outside of waiting in line to buy them.

[greg683x]

Ok, heres what I dont understand.  I'm an out of towner, I'm from the Washington, DC area.  I want to buy tickets, but right now I cant get any of my loser friends to take two days off of work to fly up to Boston with me to see game 3, even though I'm offering to pay for their ticket...

Anywho...from what it looks like, I can buy tickets right now off of ebay or stubhub, are the tickets on there much more expensive than ones you'd buy when they go on sale at the garden??  If not, why not go that route instead of waiting in line.

DC area? I go to the University of Maryland in College Park for school 
I know there are tickets available on ebay, stubhub, acetickets, etc. but I am a jobless college student on break and for me to spend hundreds of dollar is no easy thing. I love the Celtics but I would like it to not have to starve in order to watch them  Therefore, I am settling for the $40 tickets. Those don't exist outside of waiting in line to buy them.

Yeah, my friends can afford it, they just dont love the Celtics, and arent big basketball fans in general, so it was just too much for something they werent really emotionally invested in.  I offered to pay for their tickets, they'd just have to pay for their flight and chip in on a hotel room, but that still comes out to be a lot of money, not to mention having to take a couple days off of work.

[kg is king]

If I were selected in the ticket lottery, am I also assigned a seat or can I pick and choose from the available seats?

[Celtics31]

so is there any benefit to getting in line ridiculously early or will everyone there get a lottery number?

[kg is king]

so is there any benefit to getting in line ridiculously early or will everyone there get a lottery number?

From what I know everybody will get a lottery number. But I am wondering what happens after. Do I get assigned to a specific seat? Or can I choose from what's left.

[Mike]

so is there any benefit to getting in line ridiculously early or will everyone there get a lottery number?

From what I know everybody will get a lottery number. But I am wondering what happens after. Do I get assigned to a specific seat? Or can I choose from what's left.

This is how it worked last year:

A ticket with a number on it was handed out to everybody in line.  They then drew a number out of a bucket, and whoever had that number was first in line.  The person standing behind that person was second, and so on.  The person standing in front of the person who was selected was effectively last in line.

[Celtics31]

so is there any benefit to getting in line ridiculously early or will everyone there get a lottery number?

From what I know everybody will get a lottery number. But I am wondering what happens after. Do I get assigned to a specific seat? Or can I choose from what's left.

This is how it worked last year:

A ticket with a number on it was handed out to everybody in line.  They then drew a number out of a bucket, and whoever had that number was first in line.  The person standing behind that person was second, and so on.  The person standing in front of the person who was selected was effectively last in line.

hmm, so really your best bet is to be somewhere in the middle of the line? by being up front you are hurting your chances of getting decent ticket priority by a lot.