St. Louis Cardinals tickets - where to buy cheap but great seats?

August 1, 2006 6:59 AM

What the cheapest way to buy good-to-great seats at Busch Stadium for a single St. Louis Cardinals game (i.e., just one game, not season tickets)?

I'm not exactly a big sports fan, but I want to take a date to the game. I can buy tickets on very short-notice or well in advance, if either approach helps. I don't want to throw money away, but if spending money is what it takes to get a good seat, then that's okay too. I just don't want to get ripped off, and I sense that's probably pretty easy if you don't know what you're doing and you're trying to buy tickets on the web.

My best guess is the Prime Club, but I've heard rumors of better deals being offered, if you know where to look. I don't.

So where are the great deals? Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

posted by gd779 to sports, hobbies, & recreation (11 comments total)

Do you work with anyone that has season tickets and would be willing to sell you their pair for a night? Does your office have a set that they hand out to employees? That's generally how I've gotten good seats in the past. Either the boss hands them out, or I ask around to see if anyone can part with a pair for an evening.

If you didn't actually want seats the bleachers are ok. We got bleacher seats and never actually ended up in the bleachers and just sort of wandered around and were able to watch from a few of the pavillion areas.

Caveat - beer starts at 7.75 cup.
posted by pieoverdone at 7:07 AM on August 1, 2006

Just Show Up. Plenty of people at games are willing to sell extra tickets below cost, just to reduce their losses a bit.

Another good strategy: Buy the Cheap Seats, but Don't Sit There. Lots of season tickets wind up empty at any game. Walk boldly to these seats (just don't fly too close to the sun, if you know what I mean). This can be more fun, because you'll see more of the new stadium--changing seats every few innings.
posted by sdrawkcab at 7:12 AM on August 1, 2006

I dunno about the Cardinals specifically (are they especially good this year? Tickets in high demand?) but I've had much luck getting sports tickets on Ebay in the past. Lots of times you'll see season ticket holders selling seats on there because they can't make it to a specific game (that's how I ended up 2nd row at a 49ers game... crazy!), and while they might not be the BEST prices, you can often get pretty decent prices.
posted by antifuse at 7:52 AM on August 1, 2006

I haven't purchased tickets in St. Louis, but when I've purchased single game tickets in other cities I usually ended up with tickets sold by a season ticket holder through a broker. My dad used to buy season tickets for a couple different teams that he used for his business. He didn't use all the tickets and was constantly selling tickets to his ticket broker buddy and he'd use the same broker to buy tickets for other events or when he needed extra tickets. It seemed like a pretty honest service and I've used the same guy a few time with great results. I'm not sure if it's through a formal or informal network, but that ticker broker could access available tickets all across the country. Anyway, I know you don't have time to form a relationship with a ticket broker, but my point is this: there is an active secondary market for tickets and there are honest players out there.

A few times I didn't bother to go through my dad's referral and I just bought tickets online here (for events in NYC and CA, FWIW). It seems like they are accessing a database of tickets used by a number of other brokers (I noticed the same tickets across a few sites). Prices were somewhat high, but fair and the customer service was very good.

If you're worried about price, I bet you could call the Cardinals' box office or season ticket sales office and find out the face value of the tickets. You'll definitely pay more than face value if you go through a broker, but you will have a benchmark to use to shop around. Cross check with eBay and craigslist (compare to similar, but not the exact same, games if you have to).
posted by mullacc at 7:57 AM on August 1, 2006

eBay, StubHub, Craigslist, RazorGator.

Not getting ripped off shouldn't really be that hard. Find yourself a seat chart/map (all the above sites should have them) and just compare. Find the best seat within your price range.

You may get lucky at the Box Office or Ticketmaster, but usually the above sites are the best places to find sports tickets. And pretty much in that order as far as I'm concerned. And scalping, as mentioned above, probably isn't a viable option if you're trying to impress the date with some nice seats, eh?
posted by jckll at 8:09 AM on August 1, 2006

Did you try going to the box office and seeing what's available for the next few games? The is probably the simplest way.
posted by sulaine at 8:11 AM on August 1, 2006

I have two tickets for this thursday's Cards/Phillies game if you're interested. The seats are in section 351 (behind home plate) row 6 and are $26 each.

i gets lots of tickets from work/friends who have season tickets/work boxes, email if you like
posted by killyb at 8:20 AM on August 1, 2006

I'll second StubHub. There really aren't any "bad" seats at Busch. Good luck.
posted by badger_flammable at 9:50 AM on August 1, 2006

If you're willing to take a crapshoot, try the First Pitch Tickets. We ended up paying $22 for four awesome seats on the third base side (they retailed for about $70 each). If nothing else, it's a backup.
posted by lemoncello at 10:27 AM on August 1, 2006

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StubHub.com
TicketsNow.com
TickCo.com
CoastToCoastTickets.com
and TicketLiquidator.com.
posted by jckll at 11:07 AM on August 1, 2006

Second the first pitch tickets, it is a chance but you might end up with great tickets! On the downside you have to stand around in line early in the morning possibly for nothing...
posted by rfbjames at 11:53 PM on August 1, 2006