Ahawkeye Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 2 hours ago, Steve Smith said: One tip for future state finals: don't use Ford Center again! People in our section were bringing blankets for the second day. They were wearing their hoodies up and their coats all day. I understand Evansville may not be accustomed to Indiana winters, but that was ridiculous. The Fort Wayne Coliseum has experience hosting hockey games all winter and I have never frozen at a hockey game there like I did this weekend. The city of Evansville was beautiful, though. We told you guys coming in that it was a bit cooler than most venues. Seating was great in my opinion. Dave Huff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie78 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) I may have missed it over the last couple days and the trip back home, but did they ever announce attendance, as in actual number of people in attendance, not the number of tickets sold? Be interested to know that number too I guess, because I know my group had 4 tickets go unused. I feel most people had some go unused. Was the #TicketGate2024 debacle a scare tactic by TicketMaster to sell more tickets and accrue more money, courtesy of assanine fees they charge? Edited February 18 by rookie78 Ahawkeye, Thor and boilergrappler 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahawkeye Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Not saying the ticket situation is right but if anyone here was in the IHSAA's shoes how would you handle next year's tickets? I say back to general admission. indypharmd, tangarrray, piscis1956 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie78 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) 2 minutes ago, Ahawkeye said: Not saying the ticket situation is right but if anyone here was in the IHSAA's shoes how would you handle next year's tickets? I say back to general admission. Paper tickets, general admission....at least we'd get a keepsake for $50 Edited February 18 by rookie78 Neccdad 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Neccdad Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 1 hour ago, Patrick Collier said: Of course Evansville embraced the State Finals, there is nothing else going on in that town. Indy is a much more logical permanent location. I really disliked the Friday schedule and format. The crowd size appeared to be down considerably, lots of empty seats in a half-sized arena. Will wait to see official numbers from IHSAA. Usually the attendance is announced during the finals but I’m guessing that would have caused some embarrassment so it didn’t happen. The number that will get put out will reflect people buying several tickets they didn’t need and people getting multiple tickets just so they could leave and come back in. Pretty bad turnout for the finals. But I get it, if you’re traveling to the other side of the state you have to make some choices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awill0352 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 1 hour ago, Patrick Collier said: Of course Evansville embraced the State Finals, there is nothing else going on in that town. Indy is a much more logical permanent location. I really disliked the Friday schedule and format. The crowd size appeared to be down considerably, lots of empty seats in a half-sized arena. Will wait to see official numbers from IHSAA. I feel like the Friday schedule was same as last year in Indy. Maybe I’m wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
purdue02 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 I’m all for Ticketmaster assigned seating. I’d love if they could allocate larger ticket #’s to schools and guarantee them all to be in the same area. I don’t like that schools are spread across the venue. No all sessions tickets but tickets for session’s 1, 2, and 3 all sold separately. After being spoiled with assigned seats, I don’t want to go back to the general admission seat fighting haha. awill0352 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awill0352 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Is this better? - after each wrestler gets their allotment then the sale to general public happens at 10 AM on Wednesday. These tickets are ALL SESSION only tickets. It’s crappy that all session tickets were being sold for the top row of the upper deck while the individual session seats were available in the lower bowl. - any seats not sold during this time then go to a Friday session and a Saturday session ticket. Each would be good for the whole day. These go on sale on Wednesday night at 8 PM - you can still do walk up sales but it’s just what is left for that day. - the purpose is the ALL SESSION tickets should have priority seating. Raven27, sslaymon, boilergrappler and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awill0352 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Oh and all tickets should be mobile except for walk up sales. Ahawkeye 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie78 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Heard/saw some loud/large sections of EMD, CP and maybe BBURG/CG.....how did that happen? Did the peasant's seats get moved to accommodate the heavy hitters? Tcarter 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awill0352 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 7 minutes ago, rookie78 said: Heard/saw some loud/large sections of EMD, CP and maybe BBURG/CG.....how did that happen? Did the peasant's seats get moved to accommodate the heavy hitters? Those schools get together and tell each other to buy the same section. Ahawkeye and Dave Huff 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ontherise219 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 3 hours ago, Mattyb said: I concur with my brother @TeamGarcia .. it was a great experience. Soooo happy I booked a room for last night. I love the venue. The wrestling was amazing. Not allowing people leave is ridiculous. It’s not a 2 hour basketball game. I just kept buying new tickets to leave. Sooo good seeing all of my friends. @Y2CJ41 @ontherise219 @TripleB and crew were everywhere! You guys did a great job covering the event and keeping us in the know. The broadcast from Chasers was a great time! All the young dudes enjoyed Buds!!!! They had very cold “soda” at Tiki!!!! Would not be mad if it’s there again! Thank you! We had a great time! Chasers had everything a state party should have pizza, adult beverages, some colorful language, friends, great wrestling talk and fans, some arguments but it was all love I am already counting down the days until next year! Ahawkeye, Mattyb and Tcarter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thor Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 15 minutes ago, rookie78 said: Heard/saw some loud/large sections of EMD, CP and maybe BBURG/CG.....how did that happen? Did the peasant's seats get moved to accommodate the heavy hitters? It was basically general admittance. Only tickets I could find were high up second level, yet I was 4 rows from the floor the entire time with no one coming to claim their seats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie78 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 6 minutes ago, Thor said: It was basically general admittance. Only tickets I could find were high up second level, yet I was 4 rows from the floor the entire time with no one coming to claim their seats. I don't mean being asked to move by any of those school's fans. We tried purchasing same sections as others in our fan group and I believe we all got moved, some of which a couple times. Seems as if bigger schools with bigger fan bases were able to sit together for the most part. I just wonder if that wasn't part of the seats being moved. After coaching in the opening round, I go to the seat that I purchased and have someone in it. Come to find out, the guys' seat he purchased was in a better location than mine, LOL! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rookie78 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 Was there an over/under for # of misconduct calls for coaches/schools? Y2CJ41 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahawkeye Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 My seats were way up in the nosebleeds and I kept seeing empty seats down near the floor so we just moved. I would check Ticketmaster and the seats were never sold. Wrestlers and coaches should get their allotment first then priorities should go to all session ticket holders and then single session. Or just make it one price for the whole dang thing. Ticketmaster put the screws to us and ihsaa let them do it. Unfortunately I think the only way to avoid this in the future is to go general admission all the way around but that's not fair to the coaches and wrestlers families. Silence Dogood 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boilergrappler Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 It was a special weekend at the Ford for me and my family as my son coached his 2nd State champ in 8 years of being a head coach. Congrats to Luke and his family and to all the Oriole wrestling family on his fantastic weekend. It was extra special in front of our hometown for probably the only time our city will host a wresting state championship weekend. It was a pleasant 10 minute drive The downside was that it had to be against another westside families wrestler that we respect and admire so very much. The ticket debacle was a nightmare! Not sure what happened or if we will ever find out the truth about #ticketgate2024. I do know people from the Ford and I spoke with the ticket office manager who said it was a ticketmaster problem. I feel we as fans of wrestling got totally hosed by ticketmaster again on paying high fees on tickets and then having to go pick them up at the ticket office. I was told there may be refunds issued on our fees. Not holding my breath on that. Did they set a limit on actual ticket sales? Was the unused seats part of the original plan by ticketmaster to not oversell? Which I don't understand. Why couldn't you purchase tickets online Saturday, because it showed it being a "sellout or unavailable" Many people I know in town didn't come because of the unavailable tickets. Event was promoted well in Evansville and I really expected more of a hometown crowd. I think the Ford Center did a fantastic job and I think everyone was mostly happy about our facility and accommodations for the event. There are many casual wrestling fans in southern IN that might not make a trip anymore to Indy every year that I expected to be at the Ford, but the crowd attendance showed differently. I truly believe that the ticketmaster problems, maybe weather a little bit, and maybe just economic reasons (household tight budgets) are all factors in the low attendance. ontherise219 and Ahawkeye 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 6 hours ago, Ahawkeye said: Not saying the ticket situation is right but if anyone here was in the IHSAA's shoes how would you handle next year's tickets? I say back to general admission. There are some options, just the biggest obstacle is that there is such a short turn around between getting your qualifiers and then getting tickets for family and teams then for the general public. Some ideas I have had or heard from others. 1. Assigned sections instead of seats. I assume this is possible with enough "service" fees on Ticketmaster, but it would be great for teams and fans to converge on a specific section instead of exact seats. I really miss the pockets of fans from each team that cheer loudly together. 2. Teams get X amount of tickets to sell per qualifier beyond the parent/school tickets. If it was say 10 per qualifier they would get the 4(well should be 4) for family and 4 for school, plus 10. This would mean just over 4000 tickets which is a lot. The unused ones would be given back. The hardest part would be the turnaround time to get them to schools and get them back into the pool if not used. 3. Only all session tickets. 4. Open All-Session tickets on Wednesday and single session tickets on Thursday. The assigned seating isn't going away, general admission is bad and makes for a tremendously less enjoyable experience. HornetSloan, MUSKEEWRESTLER, Thor and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 4 hours ago, Ahawkeye said: Ticketmaster put the screws to us and ihsaa let them do it. Ticketmaster and the IHSAA are two totally separate entities. When the IHSAA chooses to use venues like the Ford Center, Gainbridge, and the Memorial Coliseum(Fort Wayne) they are beholden to Ticketmaster. The only way to get around TicketMaster is to physically go to the box office. That is what they did at the coliseum and what I do at IHPO. Unfortunately Ticketmaster is the scum of the world and will continue to screw the people for their "convenience" fees. tangarrray, HWTDAD, Lawdiggity and 3 others 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awill0352 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 40 minutes ago, Y2CJ41 said: There are some options, just the biggest obstacle is that there is such a short turn around between getting your qualifiers and then getting tickets for family and teams then for the general public. Some ideas I have had or heard from others. 1. Assigned sections instead of seats. I assume this is possible with enough "service" fees on Ticketmaster, but it would be great for teams and fans to converge on a specific section instead of exact seats. I really miss the pockets of fans from each team that cheer loudly together. 2. Teams get X amount of tickets to sell per qualifier beyond the parent/school tickets. If it was say 10 per qualifier they would get the 4(well should be 4) for family and 4 for school, plus 10. This would mean just over 4000 tickets which is a lot. The unused ones would be given back. The hardest part would be the turnaround time to get them to schools and get them back into the pool if not used. 3. Only all session tickets. 4. Open All-Session tickets on Wednesday and single session tickets on Thursday. The assigned seating isn't going away, general admission is bad and makes for a tremendously less enjoyable experience. All session tickets for a day before single session. And by single session I mean Friday and all day Saturday. Breaking Saturday up into two sessions for tickets is weird. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 2 minutes ago, awill0352 said: All session tickets for a day before single session. And by single session I mean Friday and all day Saturday. Breaking Saturday up into two sessions for tickets is weird. Saturday has two sessions where they CLEAR out the arena. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ahawkeye Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 55 minutes ago, Y2CJ41 said: There are some options, just the biggest obstacle is that there is such a short turn around between getting your qualifiers and then getting tickets for family and teams then for the general public. Some ideas I have had or heard from others. 1. Assigned sections instead of seats. I assume this is possible with enough "service" fees on Ticketmaster, but it would be great for teams and fans to converge on a specific section instead of exact seats. I really miss the pockets of fans from each team that cheer loudly together. 2. Teams get X amount of tickets to sell per qualifier beyond the parent/school tickets. If it was say 10 per qualifier they would get the 4(well should be 4) for family and 4 for school, plus 10. This would mean just over 4000 tickets which is a lot. The unused ones would be given back. The hardest part would be the turnaround time to get them to schools and get them back into the pool if not used. 3. Only all session tickets. 4. Open All-Session tickets on Wednesday and single session tickets on Thursday. The assigned seating isn't going away, general admission is bad and makes for a tremendously less enjoyable experience. Could IHSAA get Ticketmaster to set a hierarchy on seating like parents and coaches first all session tickets second and single session tickets third? Unlike what they did this year and left blank spaces for single session ticket buyers in premium spots? Or is that solely controlled by Ticketmaster? Bob Roe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hornet Coach Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 (edited) Long time listener, first time caller. If I'm buying my tickets online and you don't have to have someone there to physically ring up and give me my tickets, isn't that more "convenient" for everyone involved? Why do we continue to pay the "convenience" fee when it is more convenient for everyone? Deep Thoughts Edited February 19 by Hornet Coach Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Y2CJ41 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 6 minutes ago, Ahawkeye said: Could IHSAA get Ticketmaster to set a hierarchy on seating like parents and coaches first all session tickets second and single session tickets third? Unlike what they did this year and left blank spaces for single session ticket buyers in premium spots? Or is that solely controlled by Ticketmaster? As mentioned earlier TicketMaster(possibly Ford Center)'s issue was that the all session tickets were giving different seats for every session. I don't know enough about how to setup ticketing to say if the Ford Center didn't check the option for same seats or what happened with that. Either way what ensued was that the second and third session seats were getting double booked and that caused everything to crash. Basically if they open all sessions on Wednesday and single session tickets on Thursday that should alleviate the issues. I guess I have slept since 2023 and am not sure if they opened up both types of tickets at the same time or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
awill0352 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 1 hour ago, Y2CJ41 said: Saturday has two sessions where they CLEAR out the arena. I should have clarified. You can still clear us all out. Just let the same ticket get back in in the afternoon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now