The Frisco way of doing business
The story in today’s Forum on only 559 unallocated tickets left for the FCS title game is probably vastly outdated at this minute. My first thought was things are getting arrogant, a little premature around here; I can’t imagine what the coaching staff’s reaction would be. Another wrinkle was added to the head coach’s forehead this morning.
But in the long run, and if you take an educated and title game-experienced look at it, it’s really not that huge of a gamble and it’s probably going to be the new way of FCS business as long as the title game is held in 20,500-seat FCS Dallas Stadium. If your team doesn’t make it, odds are another team with a decent fan base will. Thanks to the onlike ticket selling business, you could probably dump your tickets at face value or a little below and not be out that much cash.
I know of a few Bison fans who bought their tickets from fans of the University of Montana, who did the same thing earlier last season. What scared this concept initially was the first game in Frisco in 2010 between Eastern Washington and Delaware, two teams from a long way away who don’t travel as well as other programs, apparently. It didn’t sell out, probably didn’t come close.
It takes a year of experience to figure out this NCAA FC Dallas ticket system. There was shear anger at times early in the ticket buying process last year for Bison fans after the semifinal games, when the sold out sign went up in the Frisco ticket office. These days, that ticket office spans the country, from fans gobbling up tickets early thinking their team has a good chance to reach Texas. Here’s the formula in August: if your team is a preseason top 10 pick in the poll, if you have an experienced quarterback and a good defense, if you travel to watch your team, you might as well fork over the $30 for a Frisco ticket. You probably spend more in an afternoon at a tailgating lot anyway. If your team doesn’t make it, hello StubHub, fan website or some similar online ticket selling method.
Bingo! The key is getting good enough tickets and/or cheap enough tickets so you can either get your money back by selling or not lose much if you don’t go. This is how I justify it not being a jinx!
Got my tickets for Frisco already. There is no way I’m missing that party when the Bison are there at the end of the season. I’d buy them for next year already if they were available as well.
I was living in Dallas when Eastern Washington and Delaware played in the title game. There were only ~7,000 people at that game. That lulled me into thinking getting tickets wouldn’t be a problem last year… big mistake.
Sidenote – I’d have loved to have seen that stadium in an NDSU vs Delaware title game two years ago (sans a missed “fumble” call in Eastern Washington – we would’ve beat Villanova the following weekend). Pizza Hut Park would literally have turned into FargoDome South and we’d be talking about a three-peat.
I bought 4 tickets on Tuesday and my father in law bought 4 more. The 4 tickets I bought.were less than the 1 I bought from stubhub last year. Easy decision to make in my opinion.
Go Bison!
Dewey
Getting the face value back (or close to it) for Natty champ game tickets isn’t the problem. The problem lies in air plane tickets. If you buy’em now, then decide not to go…………..you’re going to get……..well…. hammered. I drove down last year to Frisco and found that there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference in scenery from ND clear to Oklahoma. So, I purchased air plane tickets; saved a bundle in relation to gas prices, an extra motel stay, food, extra night of drinking, and , of course, time. So what, it’s Bison football !!!!
Sold Out – NCAA should pay some royalties to the Forum for closing the deal.
I see that they are just done to the last amount of tix we couldn’t get 4 all together anymore but we will just go through stubhub. But this may be a dumb question but how do they know which side ndsu would be on if they make it? I don’t want to sit with the other teams fans if I don’t have to?
To answer your question, they don’t know. Last year there were Sam Houston fans sitting around us and bison fans sitting around Sam Houston fans. Obviously they were a small minority.
Home Team––Championship Game
Once the 20-team bracket has been determined, the NCAA Division I Football
Championship Committee will determine by a coin flip as to whether the winner of the
upper half or lower half of the bracket will be the home team for the championship game.
The risk is worth the reward here, no doubt. The only things I could see biting anyone are: 1) Buying tickets that aren’t great and not being able to sell them for an EWU-UD type of game. 2) A portion of Bison fans being upset that other Bison fans are price gouging within our own fan base.
The biggest challenge will be to get tickets into the hands of every Bison fan with the desire and means to go next time the Bison make it. This is a great start to that!
bought during early sales in August. 6 tickets with a hot dog and drink for 150. I have spent 150 on many other things that were a total waste of money. This I consider a good backup plan. Besides money grows on trees right
Nice try giving props to the fargo birdcage liner. Most of us ndsu fans got these in august like others mentioned. So quit trying to take credit
We’re in the business of information, not credit. So we informed the public there were 559 unallotted tickets left, which sold in less than five hours. I’ll let the public decide if our story made a difference.
And it was a great article Jeff. The article got some people off their butts and got Bison fans to purchase available tickets. Nothing wrong with getting another 500+ fans prepared early for the repeat.