Thursday, November 15, 2007

Bits and Pieces

by: Frank Carpano

Bits and pieces

• You may have read or seen one of the many story’s recently about the problems fans of a team or musical artists are having getting tickets to a particular event. Apparently ticket brokers or scalpers are scooping up a lot of the available inventory. They are doing it with some fancy software that allows them to process a lot of orders on-line (on ticketmaster for example). They then resell the tickets for an outrageous amount of money. It prices many hardcore fans out of the market for those tickets.
          At the World Series in Denver, I met a couple of Rockies fans who spent most        
          of the summer watching their team inside of Coor’s field. Unfortunately, they
          couldn’t get tickets to the World Series because of the price. Interestingly, I
          met plenty of Red Sox fans from all over the country who had tickets. I asked
          them how they got their tickets. Each said they were able to purchase them on-
          line. Apparently one of the few lucky ones to snatch up tickets before the
          brokers.
          It doesn’t seem that long ago that you had to lineup at the box office to get a
          ticket. Those days, for the most part, are gone. Thank the internet.
          But this problem of ticket brokers and scalpers getting most of the tickets is
          solvable. All the teams or concert promoters have to do is monitor which
          tickets become available on the brokers web site and cancel the bar code. That
          would make the ticket worthless. The teams or concert promoters could then
          issue a new ticket a face value.
          So why won’t they do it? I don’t know, but I can speculate. Perhaps the team
          owners and concert promoters use the web as a gauge for how much people are
          willing to pay for the tickets. For example, if it’s impossible to get a ticket to a
          Red Sox game at Fenway Park, but fans are willing to pay triple face value to a
          broker, the owners of the Red Sox can increase the price of their tickets because
          of the demand and the willingness to pay just about anything to get to see the
          Sox at Fenway.

• Kudo’s to the Kraft family for another nice gesture for soccer fans. They have offered a free bus ride to Revolution fans who want to see the team play in the MLS Championship Game. It took them less than a day to sellout the trip. I’ll be interested to see if the Kraft’s actually attend the game. The Pats play the Bills on the same day. Last year, the Rev’s played for the title on a Patriot Sunday. I remember seeing Robert Kraft at the Pats game.

• NABF cruiserweight Matt “Too Smooth” Godfrey (16-0, 9 KOs) moved into the No. 1 contender position in the World Boxing Council’s newest ratings. The WBC reportedly will order a title elimination match between Godfrey and No. 2 rated Rudolf Kraz (12-0, 9 KOs) to determine the mandatory contender for newly crowned champion David “Hayemaker” Haye (20-1, 19 KOs), who recently stopped WBC/WBA title-holder Jean Marc Mormeck (33-3) in the seventh round.

• I think it’s great that we have some very talented local boxers. And I respect the fact that someone like fight promoter Jimmy Burchfield is helping keep the sport alive. But there are too few stars to get the masses interested.

• Pats defensive lineman Jarvis Green has some up with a tee shirt that he plans to sell. Tired of all the complaints that the Pats are running up the score in blowout games, Green had a shirt produced that claims the Pats are “60-minute men”. A reference to the Pats claim that just because they may be winning big, it doesn’t mean they stop playing, until the final whistle. Partial proceeds to Green’s charitable foundation and to a scholarship fund for Patriot Marquise Hill’s 2 year old son. Hill, died this past summer in a drowning accident in New Orleans.

• Here’s my opinion of the top 3 sports fans are interested in here in Southern New England. In order; Red Sox, Patriots, PC Basketball. Not much else is even close. Feel free to disagree. Since there is never many comments posted on this blog, I am feeling a little neglected.

• Thanksgiving is coming! Hope you’ll tune in to see our annual Thanksgiving football feast. We have plans to cover every high school football game in Southern New England. The show airs on Thanksgiving day at 5:30pm and again at 11:15 on NBC 10.

That’s it for now, I.B.B.Y.