Ticketbastard Hates You

There once was a time when my favorite day of the year was the day Denver Broncos single-game tickets go on sale. I’m on the waiting list for season tickets, and perhaps at some time in my elderly years my number will come up. Until then I’ll play the roulette of trying desperately to break out of the Ticketmaster pack and score those coveted seats.

The public on-sale was Saturday, and we set up the War Room as we always do. Myself, the wife and our buddy Wade all had workstations

logged in on separate accounts to Ticketmaster.com, and we all had the phone number on speed dial. Starting at a quarter til eleven, we began refreshing and redialing. I broke through first, but was dismayed to find out that the ticket limit was four seats (I could have sworn that, in the past, it was eight). I hesitated for a moment, and all was lost. Tickets for the Broncos home game with Kansas City sold out at 11:01.

Wade ended up scoring his ducats during the 1:00 half-price sale, and I found our six adjacent seats on StubHub later that afternoon. So all is well for the official House of Georges Tailgate Bonanza on December 9, at a parking lot to be announced.

A few complaints, however. One is that the process of getting a ticket to a Bronco game is absurd. I know that there’s an ever-escalating demand for a finite number of seats. I also know that the Broncos are, like most NFL franchises, offering pre-sale tickets that require the purchase of an additional preseason game. And, finally, I am aware of the boatload of seats available, at a premium, from the scalpers and the resale web sites. But it once was possible, through a little dilligence, awareness, and hustle, to get a face-value ticket to the game you wanted without all these shenanigans. Perhaps those days are gone.

Oh, and yes, Old No. 7 is back in the game. My monthlong hiatus from this site is complete and you’ll be sick of me in no time…there’s a lot of training camp mumbo-jumbo to sift through.