Hack Your Way to Better Seats
Thursday, April 8, 2010 by Shep McAllister 
Above: My ticketed seat for the Women's National Championship game. Below: My seat for 3/4 of the game.Sporting events are a lot of fun, but the good seats aren't very friendly for the college student's budget. I recently attended some NCAA Tournament basketball games, I frequent NBA matchups, and love heading to the ballpark for summer baseball. Here are some tips I've picked up over the years to help you get closer to the action.
Scout Ahead
You're setting yourself up for failure if you're roaming the arena's lower bowl willy-nilly. Start out at your ticketed seats in the upper decks, and start plotting your upgrade from this perch. Find a few sets of seats you might want, and keep your eye on them. If nobody has touched them about a quarter-way through the game, it's pretty unlikely anybody is going to. You should be able to scope these out with the naked eye in most basketball arenas, but football and baseball stadiums might require a pair of cheap binoculars.
Once you have your seats picked out and the section number memorized, figure out your point of entry. Look at the three closest entrances to the section. If you can see the ushers from your vantage point, watch them for a minute and see if any of them aren't really checking tickets; that's your insertion point. If you can't see the ushers from your seat, you'll need to do this reconnaissance work in the concourse.
Safety in Numbers
The best time to sneak past the usher is during a period break or timeout. The concourse will be full of people grabbing beers and hitting the bathroom, and it won't be hard to convince the usher that you're one of them. This is also a great time to grab a snack. That way, it looks like you got out of your seat to grab some food, and aren't trying to sneak down from the 600-level.
In Case of Emergency
In all honesty most ushers probably won't care half an hour or so after the game starts, especially if you aren't acting all suspicious with your cap pulled down over your eyes staring at the ground when you walk past. If you do get stopped though, hope isn't lost. Try telling the usher that your friend has all the group's tickets in her purse, and she just went to the bathroom. If you still get turned away (which would really be shocking), well then you can try the next tunnel down. Worst case scenario; you have to go back to your seats. There really isn't a good reason not to give this a try at your next game.
Have any other stadium hacks? Ever scored something really impressive like a courtside seat? Let us know in the comments.
Reader Comments (18)
I would say that there is a very good reason not to give this a try at your next game: you didn't pay for that seat. If everyone had the mentality of "well, there really isn't a good reason not to...", the world be even worse off than it already is.
Here's a new concept: be satisfied with what you have/can afford. Some people can't even afford to be at the game at all. It wouldn't be right for them to just sneak in, so it isn't right for you to "upgrade" your seats.
That's good feedback, but I would counter by saying that it is a victimless crime. You aren't taking anything from anybody; you're just getting yourself a better experience. In fact, many teams turn a blind eye to this practice because it looks a lot better on television if the lower seating areas (those that have the most on-camera time) look full.
Victimless? Really? That's like saying shoplifting is victimless. Or that Pirate Bay is victimless way to download music and movies. EPIC FAIL.
What about the people who work in the arena who actually get paid from the revenue of filling seats? Or what about the people who actually bought those seats at the correct price- aren't you in theory devaluing their tickets (it truly doesn't matter if those people know)? There's a lot of people who's livelihood depend on how well tickets sell in an arena. And in a capitalistic society in the midst of the economic decline, it's not the big guys (Presidents of teams, music artists) losing their jobs for loss of profits- it's the ushers, security guys, the concession servers, the binocular sales guys and other people who make these events run. So it's victimless if you're an elitist entitled snob ignoring those people and thinking you're entitled to a better seat just because it open.
That's an interesting take. For most college students though, the choice isn't between paying for a great seat or a nosebleed seat; it's a choice between a nosebleed seat or nothing at all. I'm not saying you should break into the stadium without paying, I'm simply arguing that if you already paid to be there, and a seat you want is not going to be filled, there is no harm in sitting there. You aren't costing the team anything by doing this, so the comparison to shoplifting is pretty unfair.
I would add that ticket costs are a small part of a stadium/team's revenue stream. Most make at least half of their money through sponsorships, and even gamenight revenue is shared between ticket sales, concessions, parking, merchandise, and the like. You aren't stealing anything here or causing anybody hardship; you're enjoying the game from a seat that was empty anyway.
This is really a problem between this situations being ethical versus pragmatic. On one side laws and regulations govern the status quo and on the other, an individual is trying to maximize his or her satisfaction. Let me describe the specific situation related to this:
An individual goes to a basketball game having tickets which he or she paid for. In the case that tickets were given as a gift to her, someone else is incurring the cost of the ticket. Even if it is the same stadium or team that provides them a ticket there is in some sense an opportunity cost as they could have sold it to someone. If there are one hundred seats each worth $5 and they are expecting to sell 50 of those 100 seats at $5 that means a $250 revenue. However, there are still unsold tickets and empty seats. One argument is that perhaps they could sell the tickets at $2.50 each and then have 100 happy viewers, $250 in revenue, and have all the seats filled. Often times, depending on the product, there is no unit elastic demand and while they may sell the tickets at $1.00, only 80 people show up. They will thus sell their tickets at $5.00 (or more for that matter) knowing that about half of the seats will be filled up. So they give out tickets for free to people. This assumes that the game is not a mega event like the superbowl but rather a relatively small game.
Most people in America go to the stadium and sit in their assigned seat. It seems that there is some agreement that they respect the institution that holds the event, that they respect the rules of the place, and out of principle. Imagine you are driving at the middle of the night and you hit a red light. You know that there is no one coming from either side and it is safe to pass. However, out of respect of the status quo you decide not to pass. There is a minute chance that there is a cop that will pull you over but in reality this is very unlikely. You have to think about this, what is the purpose of a red light? My experience tells me is to guide traffic, to have order, and basically to prevent an individual’s self-interest to affect another individual’s self interest. When individual’s self interest affects someone else’s, there are car crashes. However, in this situation there is no possibility of a car crash. The red light is rather a guide and not an enforcer. Most of the time I will take the time to wait but if I know that I am in a very sketchy area and there is a high possibility of getting mugged I would rather pursue my self-interest of passing the red light over respect of the common good as long as no one is really affected (do not argue that everyone is affected morally or ethically, we are talking about practical terms here such as getting mugged, which is if you have not experienced it very real). The next argument is somewhat of a slippery slope but it depends: what if it is not just you but everyone that does it? This is very situation specific. It is not ok to do it on a Friday at 5:00pm at the busiest intersection. If you do it and someone else does it and then someone else does it and so on and so on, there will be chaos. But if everyone crosses a very empty and dangerous intersection at 2:00am on a Monday night knowing that there are no cars passing by its ok. I am not going to cringe knowing that someone tried to make it home safely by crossing illegally a red light. Is it ethical? Well it depends what is the purpose of red lights. Is it a law per se or rather a recommendation? Again, I think it really depends on the situation, although most of the time it is a law, at 2:00am on a Monday night it seems more like a suggestion.
It seems like the red light example parallels the seat dilemma. Much like the red light, you go to the stadium and take your seat because you respect the rules. Now if you know there are seats available after 1 hour the game has started then you could easily sit down. However, you are disrespecting the rules of the stadium. No one is in reality really affected. The slippery slope argument that if you do it everyone else would want to do it can be exemplified like this: imagine you are going to a concert where everyone is sitting. A guy decides to stand up in order to have a better view, next thing you know more and more people are standing up to have a better view to the point that everyone is standing up and they get to have the same view as they were sitting except that they are less comfortable and there has thus been an overall net loss. I don’t think in realistic terms this would happen at a regular basketball game (not the Spurs vs Lakers but rather Thunder vs Hornets) as most people with crappy seats would be unable to see you sitting in a better seat. Unless you come with your 25 uncles and 50 cousins all wearing yellow shirts, in reality no one is really going to see you getting a better seat. So the argument that if you do it everyone is going to do it seems somewhat invalid.
The real question is how to balance the self interest pragmatism versus the ethical standards. It would seem to me that there has to be some clever business way to balance the two. What I’ve thought about is that companies or stadium could offer the option to upgrade seats as long as the customer pays a smaller amount than what the better seat retailed. The company wins money, the customer gets more satisfaction, and there are no moral or ethical dilemmas. However, it might make it unfair for the customer who paid full priced retail to have premium seats. Even then, people might be encouraged to buy cheap seats just to upgrade them to better seats. In order to prevent this, companies should only enforce this upgrading policy if there is an x number of premium seats available. This would prevent people from buying cheaper seats just to get discounted premium seats and at the same time would bring more revenue to the company, more satisfaction to the individual, and it would be ethical.
Until that system is created, I choose to maximize my satisfaction at the ethical cost and see my favorite sport with my favorite team playing.
If you can get away with doing it, why not? The seats aren't sold.
There is an ethical dimension here but it's minor. "Upgrading" yourself from a $20 seat to a $50 seat won't show up on any bottom line. It might if hundreds did it and went to the game expecting to do it. Why not take advantage of the situation? If anything, the teams might like it better if their games appear better attended than they actually are on TV.
Students aren't going to drop the $70 on good seats, but will fill them if they need filling.
I really don't see this as an issue. Being the good Canadian girl I am, I often go to hockey games. If after awhile I see there's a better seat somewhere, I don't have an issue sitting in it if no one else is there. Especially in cases where all the tickets were the same price anyways, which can be the case in some sports. Yes, in theory I did not purchase the rights to sit in that seat. I apologize. And comparing this to shoplifting seems to be pushing it. I believe shoplifting is not a victimless crime. But sitting in a seat that is empty has no victims.
How can you compare shoplifting to someone who is too lazy to attend, give the tickets to a friend, or sell them off? If no one comes to claim their seat, it is an inefficient allocation of resources, therefore, the person taking the empty seat has a higher marginal value for the seats than the person who did not attend the game. True fans attend games and try to watch their team in any way possible. Just because you can afford the pricey tickets, doesn't mean your fan.
I'm brown. I take what I want. If the seats are there, It's mine.
hacking is unethical! and this is a blog about hacking... the author's attempts to counter the reader feedback is pointless and hysterical, I had a chuckle at his expense... thank you
@Tony
We try to honor all viewpoints as best we can :)
Did this last night, went from upper deck to the VIP seats behind home plate, even got into the dug out after the game, confidence is key.
Holy shit, Quest, that was over 1,000 words.
I hardly think anyone's livelihood is going to be hurt by filling seats that would otherwise remain empty. Ushers and binocular salesmen aren't going to get fired because you moved a few rows down. It's not like Shep's advocating stealing seats from innocent old ladies or tricking fans into giving up the spots they paid for, he's simply saying we should take advantage of the occasional opportunity to better enjoy whatever event it is that we went to see. Life is what you make it. If the seats are vacant, fill them. No one benefits from the alternative - on the contrary, all you accomplish is denying yourself a better view.
Wow, I guess that is whats wrong with today's society, we fail to feel guilty unless we actually see someone being hurt by our actions. This is a question of realizing what you have and being grateful for it. Do your really think the individual who paid $50 dollars for his seat will be content that a bunch of snot nosed college kids who only paid $10 for theirs is now getting the same benefit without paying the extra $40? I think not. Personally I believe the reason for such a long comment by "Quest" is that he/she is simply attempting to justify an act that is both morally and legally wrong, and will say whatever bs they can to do it.
In the end, just remember that when asked why they committed their crimes, people like Bernie Madoff and the heads of Enron simply answered, "we wanted more than we already have." Hopefully we as a society can come to appreciate what we already have and forget about the Joneses.
I'm a novice at getting tickets...thanks for the tips :)
tiffany1837jewelry
tiffany1837co
tiffany jewellery
tiffany1837online
t925silvertiffany
iloveyou925
This reminds me of an Army story that a soldier wrote about watching movies in the South Pacific. During World War II, movies were hard to come by during a war zone, so the movies - Hollywood B-Movies - would be very well attended at his base by the enlisted men, but not by the officers.
The movies were shown outdoors, and the officer's seats were covered. The problem was that the islands were prone to sudden downpours. The author wrote of many a movie where a huge group of enlisted men got soaked as they tried to watch the movie - whereas not only the covered seats went completely unused but there was an on-duty non-com standing in the covered area as sentry, lest some enlisted man sit there.
I suspect that argument from some posters would be that if an enlisted man found cover he would "devalue" the rank of these absent officers, so God Forbid, why can't people be happy with what they have, etc. etc.