Sold Out. SO WHAT!

" Any one who lives within their means suffers from a lack of imagination"
    -- Oscar Wilde, Irish dramatist and novelist

Rookie

I remember it like it was yesterday.  My first big event.  To celebrate my thirteenth birthday, my parents took my friends and me to go see the Harlem Globetrotters play at our local arena.  I was already a big time sports fan and to have the opportunity to see it live, up close and personal was a huge deal for me. 

Excitement burst through every pore in my body as we entered the massive arena.  An entire city could fit in there, I thought.  With nachos in hand and binoculars around my neck, we took our seats as the teams were introduced.  Immediately I felt something was wrong as my tiny hands tried desperately to simultaneously focus the binoculars and dip the chips into the cheese.  It was too impersonal.  When I watched these giants on television, I could see everything from their facial expressions to the names printed across their backs.  Something was missing.  That is when it happened.

After looking down to guide the cheese laden chip to my mouth, I had inadvertently moved my binoculars slightly to the left.  When I gazed back into them, I found myself staring at the boys under the basket whose job it was to clean up the sweat and spills on the floor.   The players weren’t more than three feet in front of them.  I saw a player even say something to one of the kids.  THAT IS WHERE I WANT TO BE!!!!

Without even asking if it was okay, I found myself making my way down to the floor.  Just as I was approaching the barrier that separated the floor seats from the rest of the arena, I saw some very official looking man in a red jacket step in front of me and utter the words that I would never forget.

“Can I see your ticket, please?”

Now I have been brought up well.  I was taught to respect my elders, tell the truth, and be kind to people.  So it must have been natural instinct that took over when I pointed under the basket and heard myself say “My dad has it.”  That was, in fact, the truth.  My dad did have my ticket.  But he wasn’t under the basket where I was pointing.  He was fifty rows up in the stands with the rest of my buddies.  Not my fault that the usher must have mistaken my pointing to where I wanted to be as to where my dad was. 

“Just make sure you have it with you next time you leave this area” he said with a smile as he waved me through.

I hadn’t been sitting on the floor under the basket for more than three minutes when Curly Neal, the super star fancy dribbler from the Globetrotters took off one of his wristbands and flung it over to me. 

 “Having fun, kid?”

In shock, I looked up at my parents and buddies and waved my new prize to them.  Little did I know that the whole exchange was captured on the Jumbo Tron.

At that moment, Game ON was born. 

Over the next few years, I became a fearless seat-switcher.  Since I was still a kid, my parents were usually the ones picking up the price of the tickets, so those “finding the best deal” skills hadn’t yet developed. That would come later. But I had quickly become an expert on finding the open seat in the rich and famous sections and executing skillfully designed plays on getting past the ushers.  It became the game within the game for me, and I treated it as such.  Half the fun of the night for me was beating the system and getting into the any place in the stadium I chose. If I was caught, I would study what I did wrong so that I wouldn’t make the same mistake again.  It became second nature.

I enjoyed season long seats behind the dugout at baseball games even though my ticket said I was “supposed” to sit on the top deck.  The 50 yard line for Football and center court for Basketball became the norm.  I was living the sports fan’s dream, all before the age of sixteen.

Today I have perfected the art of getting tickets to "Sold Out" concerts and sporting events without having to spend over face value.  This is a beautiful addition to my already honed skills previously mentioned.

This blog is to introduce you to my lifestyle and invite you to join me in the game within the game.  I want to hear your stories as well. I know I am not alone.