Playoff tickets can be expensive. Most fans want to cheer and scream their team to victory but dont want to break the bank to do it. Here are some helpful tips to score some playoff tickets for face value and hopefully score some at a discounted price as well.
Secondary Marketplace- shoowin.com
There are several sites online that offer you a chance to reserve tickets to future games with face value prices. Sites such as ShooWin.com lets you reserve tickets to future playoff games you would want to see your team play in. If your team makes it to that game you are guaranteed a ticket. This help to ensure you aren’t stressing trying to find a ticket to a sold-out game or rushing to buy the ticket before they sell out. ShooWin also offers the ability to bid on ticket reservations other people have made for games but can no longer attend offering the possibility of some savings.
Life happens and sometimes people plan to go to a playoff game and then something inevitably comes up and they are unable to attend. This can be a great opportunity for you to find some discounted playoff tickets. Using other secondary marketplace sites such as SeatGeek or StubHub may offer some discounted ticket opportunities. These are sites that allow people to sell the tickets they are unable to use. This strategy could save or cost you money. If the demand is high enough people may try to charge more per ticket to make a profit. However, if you search close to the time of the game people may lower their prices to get some money back on their ticket.
The great thing about these sites is they provide guarantees to those buying the tickets. If you have a problem while trying to attend the game you are able to get a hold of customer service to fix the problem quickly and efficiently. At least that what they advertise. One thing to keep in mind is the fees that are attached to getting tickets off of secondary marketplace sites. This will add to the cost. Searching different websites will help you find the best deals.
If you go to sites like Facebook marketplace or Craigslist be prepared to be scammed. People will try to sell fake tickets due to the high demand and profit they can get. If a deal seems too good to be true then you can assume it’s a fake. Your best bet is to steer clear of these sites if possible.
The box office
Due to the sports industry using dynamic pricing, tickets will often fluctuate depending on several real-time factors such as weather, who is playing, and the number of empty seats near game time.
If you want to live life on the edge you could wait until game day to see if you can score seats that have not been purchased. Stadiums want to fill every seat in the stands and will sometimes offer cheaper tickets on game day to get this done. If it is a sold out game or predicted to be, then this is not a great option for obvious reasons. There will be no seats available for you to purchase.
You can still show up to the game and take advantage of the infamous scalper, even if the game is sold out. There are obvious risks and sometimes the prices are higher than face value. Many stadiums have responded to this problem with creating scalp-free zones. These are designated areas that people can sell authentic tickets to the game. They provide stadium staff to monitor transactions to scan tickets before buying and to regulate the pricing. If the stadium has this feature it is a great option to get those playoff tickets.
Be sure to check out any presale opportunities at the box office as well. Joining the fan club of your favorite team is a great resource to hear about promotions and events first.
A helpful tip: Early playoff games with teams that are not as popular or those who are not predicted to go far in the playoffs can offer the possibility of cheaper ticket prices. They may not be your favorite team but you will still be able to experience the atmosphere of a playoff game.
Sponsors
Sponsors love playoffs. It is great publicity and it gets people into their place of business. This is also great for you as they will often run several promotions. Most are for team merchandise but large brand names often offer playoff game tickets. These are hard to get due to the number of people that participate in the promotion or event, but if you don’t try or don’t participate in the promotion you won’t have an opportunity to win at all. It doesn’t hurt to try!
Apply for a Credit Card
This may seem like an unusual way to score playoff tickets but getting a credit card such as the NFL extra points credit card could help to save money on game tickets as well as a chance to earn points for awesome prizes and team merchandise. This is great for fans who frequent games as it can be used anywhere and you earn points on most purchases. If you use it enough you could even earn some free tickets or redeem the points for cash back. You can easily use your credit card for all your purchases and then pay it off when you get home. It does add some work for you but experiencing that hot dog and beer while watching your team kick butt on the field during a playoff game is completely worth the extra effort.
Playoff tickets can be hard to come by for the average person due to many factors such as the speed of which they sell out or the outlandish cost of game tickets. If you are fine with paying face value for the ticket then reserving your ticket ahead of time on a secondary website is the way to go to ensure you will be able to attend the game.
