Saturday semifinals
The secret to cheap Final Four tickets: Wait for the losers
Want to get tickets to the Final Four for a very reasonable price? Show up at Reliant Stadium near the end of the first Saturday night semifinal (say 6:50 p.m.) and wait for the losers to come staggering out the doors.
These will be the most disconsolate fans of the team that lost in the first game, ones who are so upset that they're walking out on a second semifinal that they've already paid to see. They'll have tickets to the Monday night national championship game as well.
Only those Monday tickets will suddenly seem rather worthless to them in the whole scheme of things. After all, their team is out. The whole reason they are in Houston is heading home. They have no interest in going to a Monday game that doesn't involve their rooting interest.
This is where a savvy fan can step in and land a great deal. Just beware of the professionals. For they'll be waiting for the fans abruptly left without a team as well.
"It's one of those Final Four secrets," scalper Eric Lewis of Atlanta said outside of Reliant Friday. "You buy your championship game tickets for much less than they should be going for from fans whose teams lose on Saturday night.
"A few years ago, it used to be really easy. Now, people have become a little smarter about it with all the ticket websites out there. Not as many folks are as quick to sell off their Monday tickets. They want a little more money than they used to. But you still can get great deals. With the Final Four, a lot times you're still dealing with college students.
"They're not as aware — and their version of a lot of money is usually a lot less than a professional's. Offer them some cash for the Monday ticket as they're walking out of the arena and a lot of times they'll take it."
It sounds a little cruel: Taking advantage of some relatively clueless forlorn college kids whose team just lost. But when you're trying to get into the Final Four — one of those holy grail sporting events — an average fan needs every advantage he can get.
If you just want to gain entrance into the mammoth football stadium and have a seat somewhere up high, there are plenty of options for the Saturday semifinals. Some tickets in the very top 600 level were going for as little as $57 each on StubHub.com, the industry's ticket brokering giant, as of early Saturday. If you want to get into the 100 level, without being behind one of the baskets, prices rise closer to $500 a ticket.
Both those marks figure to drop significantly for Monday night.
This is not the Super Bowl in Cowboys Stadium. There is a chance to see a game without messing up your retirement plan.
For all the great upset stories in this Final Four — the first one ever without a single No. 1 or No. 2 seed — the overwhelming buzz that the presence of some more traditional power programs might bring is lacking. Pat Ryan, co-owner of The Ticket Experience, a Houston-based ticket broker, says that corporate entertaining is particularly down.
In theory, that could mean even more everyday fans walking out of Reliant Stadium Saturday with Monday tickets that they want to shed.
"If you don't get them after the first game, there's always losers coming out after the second game too," Lewis says.
Which could supply you with a ticket win.