THEY ARE the 'ticket brokers'. The aholes created many different companies to resell them directly, and to other scalpers (that's what they are). You can only buy crap thru their official website. You can try to buy nice tickets for a concert or race one second after they become available, and you'd never find one. They typically pretend there was a 'technical issue', so when they become available a few hours or days later, people are less suspicious of what really happened. That will never change if customers keep buying tickets from scalpers. So out of principle, I NEVER buy anything from those creeps, even it that means not attending.
You always want to charge what the market will bear. And, with one race and a limited number of seats available, the market is obviously allowing for high prices. Its called capitalism and I love it.
This is the state of big event ticket distribution here in America. Is there a similar model in other countries?
I'm all for capitalism and if they can sell the ticket at higher prices more power to them. I just doubt that this will fly: F1 is a niche sport in the US with a limited following. Austin is not exactly a prime vacation destination for Europeans (might work for South Americans though). So I'm not sure they're gonna sell out this race. Indy pursued a different strategy: Make the tickets so cheap that you not only attract US fans but also create an incentive for Europeans to come across the pond. At $ 100 for raceday Indy had the cheapest F1 tickets in the whole calendar. They didn't sell out but then again they had the biggest seating capacity, so compared to a regular F1 race they did sell out. We'll see how well Austin is doing with its high price strategy. My feeling is that as we get closer to raceday a lot of scalpers will sit on unsold tickets, which fans could have picked up at $ 100 a piece but no longer won't. Austin has the novelty going for it and quite frankly I feel tempted to go there myself if it is for no other reason as to have been there/done that in case it will turn out to be a once ever event (think Houston GP).
Quick update, on ticketmaster this morning. Top row in turn 12-15 complex available. Same cost 419/each
Makes me wonder, because it is ticketmaster, do they have the lower rows as better seats, like a concert. Curious.
LOL That'd be really stupid. But a very valid question. That's the thing I hate the most when ordering tickets: You never know whether you end up low or high in the stand. Which is why I prefer Saturday's qualifying where you can pick your seat.
The Lost Pines Hyatt in Cedar Creek is going to have a helicopter shuttle to COTA,,,the charge should be reasonable because Hyatt is east of COTA,, the birds will not intersect ABIA's flight path and will not have to call in to ABIA for air traffic controll.They are testing the shuttle and Ive been wondering why there are choppers all over the place,,LOL...Hyatt also has rooms available and motorhome parkng.,its a cool place,,1700acs,miles of Colorado river frontage.I will taxi my guests to the hotel bird shuttle and back.
Who cares what they do in other countries? It is other countries that care about what we do in the USA.
I just checked and they are now selling main grandstands, turn 1, and turn 15. I guess they are putting them out a little at a time. I am going to hold on and see if 3,4,&5 become available before I make a decision. Same for the future. Part of me wants to say this is the only time I'm putting up with this, but I am going to withhold judgment until I see the whole pitcher, including the race. I definitely think ALMS puts on a better race and am looking forward to seeing that series on this track.
What an incredibly arrogant and inaccurate statement! You don't honestly believe fans, or indeed almost anyone in Europe (or even Asia come to that) give a damn about what happens in the USA do you? It's comments like the above that lead to the (generally also incorrect btw ) belief that the USA is arrogant and filled with ignorant buffoons. /rant David; Yep, ticket distribution is the same corrupt mess as here - Nobody "knows" what's available at any one time and ticket "fees" are *outrageous* - A ****ing "convenience fee" when I print the damn thing myself? WTF?..... Cheers, Ian
Possibly..... Once again, given a simple "smiley", or even the comment come from outside the US, I'd have let it slide. No big deal - Let's see where it goes. Cheers, Ian
Oh boy...I wasn't going to say anything but since it got brought up anyway... Actually, and unfortunately, you're both right. As an American who's spent the last 11 years in different parts of Asia and Europe I can say that 1) people do care what we do in the USA and 2) this kind of jingoistic "we're the best at everything" attitude does indeed drive people nuts. The reason why they do care is because they're not stupid--they know that whenever the US wades into something, even relatively minor things, it typically has consequences for the rest of the world, like it or not. My opinion is that most foreigners tend to view us with equal parts fear, awe, jealousy, respect, and frustration. It's a complex topic.
We got on the seating waitlist ($100, refunded now) back in Jan. Talked with the people selling the seats back in May about the grandstands. They told us that the higher row numbers were at the top (they did not say how many rows the grandstands had). Our seats are in row 31. Everything went good, expensive, but good. Look forward tooooo a great race weekend and visiting Austin for the first time (staying at a family members house, sorry hotel people).
