Agent Will

Did I say October 3rd?  Well, I didn’t tell you the year.  Whatever you do, do not go buy tickets on October 3rd, 2008.  Go in 2009.  Please.  If you go this year, and I go this year, then the chances of me getting tickets are slim to none.  The events I want to go to most?  Likely the same as many of you.  Mens Hockey Gold Medal, Womens or Pairs Figure Skating finals, Snowboard Half Pipe, Aerials (skiing), Speed Skating finals, and maybe  Ski Jumping.

I’m torn between the value of going to the games and watching them on TV.  Sure, you get the incredible atmosphere of being there (I was there once before at Montreal ‘76 but was about 8 months old at the time so I have no recollection) but you miss the great close up views and replays of watching on TV.  Seeing as how the cost of going is likely to be exhorbitant (tickets, gas, parking, food, souvenirs, etc.) I’m thinking it would be a better investment to get, at the time, the latest and greatest High Def TV and HD cable service.

Still… there’s nothing like “being there”.  I’ve been to some pretty incredible events (depending on your point of view) from the 1991 MLB All Star game in Toronto, to the 1992 ALCS championship Oakland at Toronto where Toronto won and went to their first World Series (and won).  I’ve attended five Orange Bowls in Miami, two where the national champions were crowned (Florida State and Nebraska).  I’ve also been to a couple of huge outdoor events such as Roskilde (during the World Cup and they had a theatre screen outdoors to watch with some 50,000 other festival goers) and Love Parade in Berlin (over a million attendees in 1998).  I’ve been in Japan during the Korea-japan World Cup and taken part in the festivities there, as well.   Half of those examples above I attended personally, the other half I was just in the area.  I can honestly say I had as much or more fun with those on the outside than on the inside.

So will I be lining up for my chance to get tickets on October 3rd?  Probably not.  Much as I’d like to go to those few events mentioned prior, so does everyone else… and I’d wager that the corporate sponsors have locked up most of the tickets to them as well as those reserved for international sales.  And there is no way you will ever catch me paying a villainous scalper.