Paper, or a different kind of paper?

I love convenience. I don’t think I’m in the minority on this — I love it when things are easy. I particularly love it when I buy tickets for a sporting event and, instead of waiting a week for those tickets to show up in the mail, I can just print them out and enjoy the peace of mind of having them already in hand — not to mention the joy of staring at them, knowing that I’ll get to attend said event.

I also am quite sentimental. I save just about everything as long as it has some sort of personal meaning. I have shoeboxes filled with old Christmas cards, old photos — and old tickets to sporting events. Yes, I have ticket stubs going all the way back to 1986, and every once in a while when I’m feeling kinda sentimental, I open up the box and go through my ticket stubs so that they can remind me of all the good times I’ve had at stadiums around the country.

I’ve found that these two ideals, convenience and sentimentality, aren’t exactly complementary. Case in point: For Los Angeles Kings games over the last few seasons, I’ve been getting exclusively print-at-home tickets, which normally get folded up 10 different ways and stuffed in my pocket after they’re used to get me in the arena and help me find my seat. Two days later I find them sitting on my desk, ink smudged and creased beyond repair, and so I typically throw them away. No big deal, right? I go to so many Kings games that they sometimes blend together anyway. And maybe that means I’m not as sentimental as I thought I was.

Putting things in order

A few housekeeping items before I let y’all go and enjoy the pageantry that is Pro Bowl weekend:

• I took the plunge and bought tickets for the Japanese baseball game I wanted to see. I had the choice of two sites that purported to help foreigners secure tickets, but I chose this one (despite it charging significantly more for “handling”) because it was about 100 times more transparent about the process it goes through to obtain tickets, why it charges what it does, how it would get the tickets to you and who was responsible for taking care of you. The other site only charged about $5 for handling but carried no explanations about who, when or how. So far, it seems to be a good move — in the 24 hours since placing my order, I’ve gotten no less than three e-mails: one confirming receipt of payment, one from the site operator thanking me for my order, and one containing a personalized explanation of how they will get me my tickets and who to contact (including a phone number) if something goes awry. Of course, I’m reserving final judgment for after I have tickets in hand and I see that they allow me admission into the game, but I feel good about my choice.
• Considering how much money I’m spending on Japan (and no, I’m not going just to see baseball), it looks like the Winter Olympics are out for me (sniff). But if you’re considering going, be careful. We’ve discussed on this site the potential perils of trying to rent a place to stay from Internet ads, and even Olympic athletes can fall victim.
• The Pro Bowl isn’t very high on my list of events I want to see — in fact, it’s not on my list at all — but apparently that’s not stopping nearly 70,000 people from going Sunday. Hey, maybe this before-the-Super-Bowl thing isn’t a bad idea after all, even if the NFL is taking it back to Hawaii next year. Well, enjoy the show. Let me know how it goes.

Super strategies

(New Orleans Times-Picayune)

Like most sports fans, I’d love to go to the Super Bowl someday. Strangely enough, though, it’s not that high on my priority list. It’s not that it wouldn’t be super-cool (yeah, bad pun), but let’s face it — it’s something that’s just as fun to watch at home, and then I could save the gobs of money I would be spending on going to the game and use it to add about six or seven new venues to this list. And, unlike events like this and this that I would contemplate blowing my budget for, the Super Bowl happens every year.

What if my team makes it? Still an iffy proposition for me. I’d have a little more than a week to plan once I knew it was a sure thing, and then I’d have to figure out how to get there if the game was being played clear across the country from me like it is this year. Of course, maybe I’ll change my tune if my team actually does get there one of these years.

But if you are a Colts or Saints fan and you are willing to spend, it can be done. (A little aside: In the last two weeks I’ve had two people I know tell me they’re gonna dust off their Saints gear now that the team’s doing so well. Just so you know: You are not true Saints fans. You are front-runners. Thanks for listening.) Being a season-ticket holder would increase your odds of getting tickets, but not by much. The Indianapolis Star gave its take on helping fans get to the big game, and CNBC’s Darren Rovell offers a little glimmer of hope to people wanting to spend a bit less money on tickets. And there’s always all-inclusive travel packages, so that you can at least spend your truckload of money all at once.

By the way, there’s probably a good reason why the Super Bowl is held in Miami every third or fourth year, and I can attest, having seen the Orange Bowl there, that Whatchamacallit Stadium is a terrific venue to watch a football game. Plus, you don’t have to fly into Miami’s airport or stay on South Beach to get the full Florida experience. But getting to the stadium stinks because the only way you can do so is by car, and the only freeway access you have to it is via toll road. If you’re going, be forewarned that these hassles exist, but I’m sure there’ll be shuttles aplenty, and you won’t care too much once you realize you’re at the freakin’ Super Bowl! Someday, I will envy you, but not this year.

The Olympic rush

(National Post)

If you’re still contemplating a last-minute trip to Vancouver to see the Winter Olympics, as I am, there’s still hope — actually, a lot more hope than you might think, as this Wall Street Journal article by Sarah Nassauer points out. It covers all the bases, from airfare to accommodations to tickets, and the news is encouraging on nearly all fronts. A few enlightening tidbits from the story:

• A final round of tickets will go on sale to U.S. residents through this site, perhaps as soon as today (though a mid-morning PST check revealed that hadn’t occurred yet). If you strike out here, there are always resale options, including one through the Olympic Committee and the usual suspects such as StubHub.
• Hotel rooms are still available, even downtown if you look hard enough, though they continue to carry the usual astronomic big-event markups.
• The owner of one of the rental Web sites I mentioned last week when discussing the Olympics says only 25-30 percent of the homes being listed as available to rent have been rented. That’s an astonishingly small percentage to me, and it might be an indication that if you’re patient, you can find a steal of a deal as the Games draw closer.

Of course, just because tickets and accommodations are still available doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll come cheaply. As I wrote last week, there are ways to get to Vancouver and stay there while still maintaining a budget, as long as you’re willing to be creative.

Investing in your (team’s) future

(Renato Guerreiro)

Trying to see your team in the playoffs is an odd thing. First off, you get those generic-looking tickets where an opponent isn’t listed — instead it says something like “Home Game B, Date and Time TBA.” Then you have to be very cognizant of when the game is so that you aren’t that guy who shows up at the stadium or ballpark or arena and there’s nobody around. And then there’s the matter of buying tickets, probably at a huge markup if you’re not a season-ticket holder or you’ve missed the release of the few hundred tickets the team had left, for a game you aren’t certain will be played. Unless you have a crystal ball, you’re taking a chance buying tickets.

Take the NFL playoffs, for example. There are three possible sites for both the AFC and NFC championship games on Jan. 24, and an unscientific survey on StubHub reveals there are tickets on sale for games at those sites. Here’s a rundown of the cheapest listed tickets at each site:

AFC

• Indianapolis: $180
• San Diego: $219
• New York Jets: $60

NFC

• New Orleans: $315
• Minnesota: $150
• Dallas: $75

The variation in prices among the sites probably is a reflection of two things: 1) The probability that a game will be played next week there, and 2) The confidence sellers have that there will be a game there. Based on the numbers above, people who have tickets in hand feel pretty confident the NFL will be coming live from San Diego and New Orleans next week.

The question for fans is this: Is the prospect of saving a few — or many — bucks worth the risk of buying tickets now? Say you do so because you’re brimming with confidence that your team is going to win this weekend. Then they lose, probably in dramatically awful fashion (at least in your eyes). Not only are you left disappointed (or furious) that your team lost, but now you’re left with tickets that you overpaid for and can’t use, and have to go through the hassle of getting a refund from the team — and only getting face value back for them. So now not only did your team upset you by not coming through for you, but now they’ve cost you money. And you didn’t even bet on them! (At least in the traditional sense, you didn’t.)

There is one interesting concept out there that tries to get around this. Anyone interested in going to the Rose Bowl this year could have registered here to give yourself a chance to buy tickets at face value on condition that your team made it. If it didn’t, you wouldn’t have been able to buy tickets. Of course, if you read the fine print you’ll see that you have to pay to register, and you’re only entitled to one ticket at face value. But hey, it’s a start.

As for me, I’m going to one of the NFL divisional games this weekend. I’d consider going to the conference championship game if my team makes it… but I don’t want to be the one disappointed and with a worthless ticket in hand.