If you want to go to tonight’s Nets-Cavs Game 5, but don’t think you can get a fairly priced ticket, think again.
“I’m selling tickets at face value,” Scalper Mike, a veteran of the Ontario Street ticket bazaar, told me this afternoon. “Unbenounced to fans, despite all the hoopla about the team, people in the (ticket) business our losing their asses.”
A cursory search of Craigslist’s ticket page shows plenty of seats up for grabs. The prices are high – but they were for previous games too, Mike said. “I was losing $30 a ticket, getting $190 a piece,” he said. “People are gonna get what they can, they’re gonna ask for what they can.”
During the last Cavs home game, he said, “I called up my client list and offered a discount. I’m just trying to hedge my losses.”
You can find tickets at the Cavs’ Flash Seats site and other websites. Or you can just walk down Ontario and look for Mike: “I’ll be out there with my megaphone and my neon sign.” – Joe P. Tone
This article appears in May 16-22, 2007.
Boo to the Scene for promoting ticket scalpers. There’s no way I’m going to feel bad for these people, and there’s no way that the Scene should be reminding people that there are people out there willing to hose them if they want to see their local team do well.
Go Cavs. Wise Up.
Mike