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Growing up, if someone were to tell you they had box seats, you knew exactly what they meant and you were fucking envious of them.
They were sitting in the first few rows and experiencing an event in a way that won’t soon be forgotten. At the same token, it always seemed like those tickets were given to you; never purchased. I don’t actually think they ever went on sale to the general public. No one actually knew who the owner was. The only way to get your hands on box seats was through your dad’s boss, an uncle who knew a guy, raffle prize or some sort of radio show call-in contest. The point is those tickets had an aura about them.
I yearn for a simpler time when tickets were sold in three-to-four options upper deck and/or second tier (depends on the venue), floor level and box seats – that’s it. No bells and whistles, no dynamic ticket pricing, no hidden electronic fees, nothing to complain about; you knew exactly what you were getting yourself into with your ticket.
If you want to see your dad’s face light up, just ask him about that time he had box seats growing up. For a generation even older than I – I’m fast approaching 30 – that was as good as it got. It was the equivalent to winning the lottery for a day.
Nowadays, stadium seating has lost all rhyme or reason. There are endless seating options available. We are deceived with fancy words into spending a full paychecks worth on nosebleed seats that came with some sort of ‘exclusive’ club access. If you’re sitting anywhere other than the first few rows, your club access is far from exclusive. But it’s cool because you can pay double – something I didn’t think was possible – what a regular concession stand charges for a beer!
I don’t want to sit in a section where my best view of the event is on the jumbotron. A new trick seems to be installing HDTV’s all around obstructed view. That’s a whole other story in its own right. Why am I here if I’m going to watch on TV? I wouldn’t have bothered to put pants on tonight and just stayed on my couch if that’s what I wanted to do. The fact that I have to scroll down to view all available seating options on your website/app is a problem. It’s like looking at a diner’s menu; it never seems to end.
When it comes to box seats, they cease to exist as I once knew them. The attraction was that you would have the best seats in the house and that was all you needed to know. It wasn’t about the sushi bar, champagne flutes, tuna tartar, exclusive clubs, shrimp cocktail and caviar. When did box seats become an episode of Keeping Up with the Kardashians?
These seats no longer fall into the hands of the average fan on occasion that will have a once in a lifetime experience. No, they now they fall into the lap of a potential client who’s just there for the lobster mac and cheese and isn’t even sure who the opponent is. Okay, lobster mac and cheese does sound good.
If you’re a team in the midst of designing a new stadium/arena, remember these words: keep it simple stupid. Nobody needs a seat that comes with 3D glasses and a high tech big screen view.
I miss the allure of getting my hands on a pair of box seats.
In a completely unrelated note, I need a corporate job and a raise. .
Image via Shutterstock
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LifeOfaReilly
If you take everything I've accomplished in my entire life and condense it down into one day, it looks decent!
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I hate when you get in the box with a business client and all they want to talk about is business and I’m over here like dude literally none of this shit matters in the grand scheme of life, I don’t even like talking about work when I’m at work, do you really think I wanna talk about it while the game is on and I’m 3rd knuckle deep in a pile of buffalo chicken wings? GTFO with your analytics jargon. Last time I checked the numbers, we’re all gonna die and most of our time is spent doing shit we don’t want to to at all so I’m gonna enjoy this free game in a luxury box I can’t afford on the company time and get as drunk as humanly possible and eat as much free food as I can because my company doesn’t pay me enough to shop at whole foods and this box isn’t high enough to jump out of it and kill myself
… You okay man?
Legend.
Real.
Finally someone gets it. I do however fork over the $22 to sit behind home plate at my local Triple A baseball team. Cheap tickets. Good beer. Baseball. Worth all 22 bucks.
Minor League games are worth every dollar you spend. Only 87 days until Opening Day.
Rogers is that Indy?
Charlotte ranked one of the top Minor league stadiums in the US.
Bingo. A few times last year, we got front row tickets to the Frisco Roughriders for around $20. The $1 beers during the 6th inning was just icing on the cake.
When you’re stadium looks like this. $20 tickets and $1 beers are all you can ask for.
your* Dammit.
How often is the weather that nice there? I’mean thinkin’ I really need to get away from Houston weather.
5 days out of 7 I’d say it looks like this through the spring, fall and summer.
Box seats are too far back so the gram has to be super zoomed in, thus guaranteeing less than triple digit likes.
I got box seats for Bruins game tonight from a friend. Typically would agree, but when the box is full of free food and beer, you can’t complain much with that.
Bruins box seats? You lucky bastard.
I drank… A lot.
My old job had a box at the Verizon Center. As an intern, I was only ever able to get Mystics tickets. Not even box seats can make the WNBA bearable
Had box seats for the Blue Jackets vs Islanders earlier this year. Con confirm it was super tight.
Can* EDIT BUTTON.
The owner of my (small) manufacturing company is also one of the owners of the Milwaukee Bucks. He has box seats that he is always willing to have a drawing for, and I’ve been lucky more than a few times. Its ruined me for other seats. I won’t pay for seats that aren’t club level and it hurts my bank account. I can’t go back to the nosebleeds! I’m too used to nice things!
Big fan of what is going on up there. Giannis and Jabari are a ton of fun to watch.
I don’t know about the other major sports leagues but NFL clubs split all revenue from ticket sales with the other clubs. However, the ticket revenue sharing does not apply to luxury boxes, hence the financial incentive to offer state-of-the-art luxury box options to companies/millionaires willing to buy them.
Add in the unwritten rule of rewarding clubs who renovate or build new stadiums with Super Bowl host duties (+ a ton of other factors) you get several immaculate new stadiums built without the “average” fan as a priority
it all about the company tickets and suite even though as the most junior person I hardly ever see them
Couldn’t agree with you more. As someone who frequently attends Colts and Pacer games the pricing these days make zero sense.
In a stadium like Lucas Oil with 7 levels you can frequently get seats in the 100 or 200 level (100s being lowest) cheaper than the 400 level. The 400 level only has 4 rows and different ushers and that’s legit the only difference. People pay way too much for any hint of exclusivity.
Triple A ball is awesome. Nothing better than dollar hotdog night.