Alpha Tickets

Happy New Year, Merry Christmas, and Hello Playoffs!

2006-01-03T17:59:00.001-05:00

Hello readers! Again, I must apoligize for being an absent blogger. This is our busy season and this ticket broker has been working his tail off. I just finished working for four straight days on and off the streets of Atlanta at the Peach Bowl, Widespread Panic, Falcons vs. Panthers, and the Sugar Bowl. The Sugar Bowl turned into an abysmal ticket, the worst of all four BCS games. The Rose Bowl is gigantic still with brokers asking $1000 each on Get-In's with the tickets carrying a face value of $175 each.

Now that the holiday season is over and there are just two bowl games left we are now in the very serious stages of getting our ducks in a row for the NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl. Our position at this point in the game is that we do not want to take too much risk one way or the other because we still see a lot of volatility in the price of the Super Bowl ticket. We do not see this one as being a solid $1750 get-in like San Diego three years ago, but as one that could go they way of one of the worst Super Bowl tickets ever or maybe one of the best ever. We feel very positive about the Colts making it to the big game, but the NFC is where all the uncertainty is and the way we look at it there are three teams out of six in the NFC that could make this thing blow up; Bears, Skins, and Giants. The Bears have a bye this weekend but the Skins and the Giants both play so it should be an exciting weekend. I will give you an update of what the ticket reserve and tradesports markets say about the future below.

Buccs vs. Skins - Spread is Buccs -2.5, Tradesports Buccs to win Bid 55 Ask 55.5 (Crap Shoot)

Giants vs. Panthers - Spread is Giants -2.5, Tradesports Giants to win Bid 54 Ask 55 (Crap Shoot)

Patriots vs. Jags, Spread is Pats -7.5, Tradesports Pats to win Bid 74 Ask 75

Bengals vs. Steelers, Spread is Steelers -2.5, Tradesports Steelers to win Bid 59 Ask 59.5

NFC Championship

Seahawks Tradesports Bid 45 Ask 48 --- Ticket Reserve Bid 475 Ask 525
Panthers Tradesports Bid 8 Ask 8.2 --- Ticket Reserve Bid 50 Ask 145
Bears Tradesports Bid 23 Ask 24.5 --- Ticket Reserve Bid 365 Ask 550
Giants Tradesports Bid 8.8 Ask 8.9 --- Ticket Reserve Bid 125 Ask 235
Buccs Tradesports Bid 7.3 Ask 7.8 --- Ticket Reserve Bid 50 Ask 120
Skins Tradesports Bid 6.4 Ask 7.0 --- Ticket Reserve Bid 75 Ask 140

Until next time - Adios!

NFL Super Bowl XL Update

2005-11-22T13:53:00.000-05:00

With everything that has been going on in the world of tickets I have been having a real hard time finding the time to write my blog. Now that Thanksgiving is upon us things have slowed a little and here I am again to update you on the current Tradesports.com and Ticketreserve.com prices for AFC/NFC conference champions and fan forwards for the Super Bowl. A lot has changed since I last updated you as you will see in the prices below.

AFC

Indianpolis Colts TS 57/58 Fan Forwards $595

Pittsburgh Steelers TS 9.5/11.5 Fan Forwards $300

New England Patriots TS 8.5/9.9 Fan Forwards $215

Denver Broncos TS 10/11 Fan Forwards $220

NFC

Atlanta Falcons TS 7.5/8.5 Fan Forwards $170

Seattle Seahawks TS 26.5/27.5 Fan Forwards $350

Carolina Panthers TS 18.5/20.5 Fan Forwards $350

New York Giants TS 10/11.9 Fan Forwards $250

Dallas Cowboys TS 13.0/16.5 Fan Forwards $180

Good thing we have not gone long the Falcons, Eagles, or Patriots this year. Instead we have gone long heavy on the Colts at lower than market prices, the Giants at lower than market prices, and the Bengals at around current market value. The Cowboys have been coming on strong, and the Seahawks appear to be the favorite in the NFC. We were trying to buy the Seahawks when the market was much lower and missed them and now they seem to be getting away from us.

Adios!

Such a sorry blogger

2005-11-08T08:51:00.000-05:00

Howdy People. I must say that I am sorry for being so absent in writing my daily blog. I must confess that when we started the blog it was in our slowest months of the year and it was easy for me to rant and rave every day, but now we are in the beginning of our busiest season and I am finding it harder and harder to make the time to write.

THE BALANCE OF POWER IS CHANGING!

Indianapolis 40 New England 21

Peyton Manning was 0-7 against the Patriots in New England until last night. The Patriots have now fallen to a record of 4-4, while the Colts have moved on to 8-0.

The Eagles continue to have problems with T.O., and some of you may recall that during training camp I blogged that due to the problems with T.O. that the Eagles would not make it back to the Super Bowl this year. After last weeks happenings and the Eagles loss to the Redskins I am even more sure of that prediction. The NFC looks like a race between the Falcons and the Panthers with a very hot Giants team threatening.

Below you will find current prices for Tradesports contracts for the AFC/NFC championships and prices for Super Bowl fan fowards next to them. The Tradesports contracts are 0-100 contracts on each team winning their conference, if you buy the Colts at 50 and the Colts win the AFC your contracts expire at a value of 100 so you double your money. Conversely, if the Colts lose in the AFC Championship game your contracts would expire at a value of 0. Fan Forwards are contracts on each team making the Super Bowl, but here if your team makes it you are granted the right to buy Super Bowl tickets at face value($600). So if you buy the Colts at $500 per contract and they make it to the Super Bowl and you buy your tickets for $600 your in the seats at $1100 total.

AFC

Indianapolis Colts TS 55/58 Fan Forwards $500

Pittsburgh Steelers TS 12/14 Fan Forwards $325

New England Patriots TS 8.1/9 Fan Forwards $300

NFC

Atlanta Falcons TS 21/22 Fan Forwards $190

Seattle Seahawks TS 19/19.1 Fan Fowards $200

Carolina Panthers TS 18/20 Fan Forwards $345

New York Giants TS 13/15.4 Fan Forwards $325

Ticket Update

2005-10-26T11:32:00.000-04:00

The White Sox beat the Astros last night in Houston in 14 innings and now prices in the secondary market for the game tonight are dropping fast indicating that Astros fans have thrown in the towel on their team. When it comes to gambling on sporting events I am normally a contrarian so the fact the Astros fans have given up so easy tells me the Astros may be a good bet for tonight.

I am a life long Auburn fan, and Auburn grad, but in my life I do not know that I have ever seen the Iron Bowl Classic ticket priced as high as it is today. For those of you who don't know, the Iron Bowl Classic is the annual Auburn vs. Alabama game. This year the game takes place on November 19, in Auburn, Alabama. Get-in's are currently fetching $295 per ticket, but the good seats lower between the 30's are very scarce and are currently worth $800-$1000 per ticket. If Alabama and Auburn both win out their schedules this game takes on huge meaning because the winner of this matchup will be the winner of the SEC West and go to the Championship game.

The NASCAR season finale, the Ford 400, is also a very tough ticket. Get-Ins are currently priced at around $150 per ticket, and the good seats are $300-$500. These tickets are in very short supply and if you can find them anywhere would be good to pick up on speculation because this thing looks like it could get tighter.

Until tomorrow - Adios.

Evening Update

2005-10-20T21:00:00.000-04:00

Folks as we get busier and busier and more into our hot season it is becoming harder and harder for me to write my blog on a daily basis. It's not that I have nothing to say, it's that I do not have time to say it! Right now my head is spinning because I am working all of the events listed below at the same time and it's a lot of details to keep straight.

Florida vs. Georgia
Georgia vs. Auburn
Auburn vs. Alabama
SEC Championship
Sugar Bowl
Rose Bowl
Super Bowl
Atlanta Falcons
Breeders Cup
Checker Auto Parts 500
Ford 400
World Series

To say the least we have our hands full!

The Florida Georgia ticket is dropping like a stone and next week we may see more blood letting. The Club Level seats on the Georgia side are very scarce and valuable but endzones and uppers are all over the place and losing value by the minute.

We really hoped the Cardinals would win last night but the Astros were just too tough. World Series tickets are still tough to come by and still pricey but the prices did ease up a bit today.

The Auburn/Georgia and Auburn/Alabama tickets are both still very strong and tough to come by. Get In's for the Iron Bowl are holding tight at $295 per.

The Ford 400 ticket is proving once again to be a very tight ticket. The Nextel Cup race is coming down to the wire and our boy Biffle is still in the hunt. As always I like to give you some tradesports data, but I have never given NASCAR tradesports data so here it us below.

Stewart 29.0/32.0
Johnson 23.1/27.0
Biffle 15.0/18.0
Newman 11.0/13.0
Martin 7.0/9.0
Kenseth 2.0/3.5
Busch 1.0/3.0

There are five more races to go; Martinsville, Atlanta, Texas, Phoenix, and Homestead. The Biff is only 11 points behind so we are putting our money on him to win it all.

Until tomorrow - Adios

Balls

2005-10-18T11:47:00.000-04:00

Congrats to all those that had the balls to buy the Cardinals contracts yesterday on tradesports. You made a nice pick up!

Houston Astros vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals to win 33.1/35.4

Big Update

2005-10-17T13:02:00.000-04:00

Again, I am sorry that I have not posted in several days. It just so happens that this ticket broker has been very busy with college football, pro football, baseball playoffs, and NASCAR. A lot has happened since I last posted. It appears that in baseball I will be half right again unless the Cardinals can start a big rally this afternoon in Houston. The Patriots lost again and I can not help but feel that the world of NFL is turning upside down again and we all may be very surprised at which teams make it to Super Bowl XL.

Below are your latest tradesports prices for the NLCS, and NFL Conference Championships.

NLCS

Houston Astros vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals to win 18.6/19.0

AFC

Indianapolis Colts 38.6/39.9
New England Patriots 10.0/12.5
Cincinnati Bengals 10.0/11.0
Pittsburgh Steelers 8.0/10.0

NFC

Philadelphia Eagles 24.1/26.0
Atlanta Falcons 13.5/16.0
Seattle Seahawks 12.0/14.5
Carolina Panthers 11.1/13.5
Tampa Buccaneers 10.0/12.5

Until tomorrow - Adios

Half Right

2005-10-11T08:49:00.000-04:00

Alpha Tickets was half right on our picks to win the divisional series in baseball. We had the Braves, Yankees, Cardinals, and the White Sox winning. We turned out being wrong about the Yanks and Braves but hey that is what happens when you have opinions!

On short rest we feel the Angels may not have it left in them to hang with the Sox and the Cardinals are just too tough for the Astros. If we get a St. Louis vs. Chicago World Series that could be huge because of the number of people from each city that will drive over to get tickets to the away games.

Below are the current tradesports prices for the AL and NL championship.

Houston Astros vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals to win 64.1/64.4

Los Angeles Angels vs. Chicago White Sox, White Sox to win 61.5/61.8

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Monday NFL Update

2005-10-10T09:36:00.000-04:00

There definitely seems to be a bit more parity in the NFC this year. The Cowboys really took it to the Eagles yesterday, and there are a lot of teams that are making noise like the Bucs, Giants, Redskins, Panthers, etc.. The Falcons played the Super Bowl Champion Patriots yesterday and Michael Vick sat the whole game out. The Falcons kept it tight and the Patriots needed a field goal with 20 seconds left to beat the Falcons 31-28. This is an impressive outing for the Falcons when they can hang tight with their star player and quarterback missing. Hats off to Matt Schaub who threw for three td's and did not turn the ball over once!

Here at Alpha Tickets we are constantly reviewing different scenarios for the big matchup in February and the effect it may have on ticket prices for the Super Bowl. Last weekend we came up with what we though could be the ultimate nightmare scenario for short sellers.

Indianapolis Colts vs. New York Giants

We feel the likelihood of this matchup is low, but if it were to come about it is bad for the short sellers for a whole host of reasons.

1. Indianapolis geographic proximity to Detroit should bring a lot of fans by car

2. The New York Giants come from the largest market in the country with the most money and a lot of dedicated fans.

3. The Media will take the Eli vs. Peyton matchup and whip the entire country into a Super Bowl Frenzy

I have listed the most recent prices for NFC and AFC Champions below. Take note that the Colts are still the big favorite in the AFC and the Giants are edging upwards but still at the bottom of my favorites list.

AFC

Colts 34.1/37.1
Patriots 16.1/17.9
Steelers 9.0/11.0
Broncos 7.1/8.4
Bengals 7.0/8.9
Chargers 5.1/7.0

NFC

Eagles 26.1/26.9
Falcons 13.1/14.9
Panthers 1.1/13.5
Bucs 8.6/10
Seahawks 7.8/8.0
Cowboys 6.0/8
Giants 5.1/6.5

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Baseball Update 10/7/05

2005-10-07T11:39:00.000-04:00

The White Sox tickets for the ALCS are white hot! The White Sox put ALCS game one and two on sale yesterday at 1PMEST and they sold out lightning quick. I guess when you have a team that has not won a post season game at home since 1959 and has not been to the World Series since 1917 people can get kind of crazy.

American League

Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox, Red Sox to win 20.5/21

Los Angeles Angels vs. New York Yankees, Yankees to win 62.1/64

National League

San Diego Padres vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals to win 94.6/96.9

Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros, Astros to win 53/56

You could drive a truck through the Astros/Braves Spread! We still like our picks from yesterday Braves, Cardinals, Yankees, White Sox.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

October 6th Baseball Update

2005-10-06T09:58:00.000-04:00

The White Sox rolled on against the Red Sox, the Yankees lost one to the Angels, and the Braves gave one up at home to the Astros. There was a lot of movement in the Tradesports Divisional Series contracts overnight and below you will find the prices as of this morning.

American League

Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox, Red Sox to win 18/19.5

Los Angeles Angels vs. New York Yankees, Yankees to win 62/64

National League

San Diego Padres vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals to win 88/90.5

Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros, Astros to win 69/71.5

For what it's worth, Alpha Tickets prediction is that the Yankees will face the White Sox in the ALCS, and the Braves will face the Cardinals in the NLCS.

Until tomorrow - Adios.

Tradesports Baseball Update

2005-10-05T09:57:00.000-04:00

We had the first three games of the post season last night and saw the Cardinals hang on to beat the Padres, the White Sox pounded the Red Sox, and the Yankees beat the Angels. Tonight The White Sox and Red Sox go at it again, as well as the Yankees and Angels, and the Braves will take on the Astros at home. Below you will find listed the current Tradesports prices for 0-100 contracts for the Winner of each divisional series.

American League

Los Angeles Angels vs. New York Yankees, Yankees to win 75/75.9

Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox, Red Sox to win 37.5/40.9

National League

San Diego Padres vs. St. Louis Cardinals, Cardinals to win 85/87

Atlanta Braves vs. Houston Astros, Astros to win 51.5/52.5

Until tomorrow - Adios!

NFL Update

2005-10-04T15:22:00.001-04:00

We have completed another week of the NFL season and things seem to be changing. The Patriots got pounded at home by the San Diego Chargers ending their 21 game home winning streak. The Buccaneers continue to plod through the season undefeated as do the Bengals, Colts, and Redskins. Below you will find the updated prices for 0-100 contracts on www.tradesports.com for NFC and AFC Champions. For my new readers these are contracts that trade on the tradesports exchange and fluctuate in price based on each teams chance of winning their conference championship. When a team wins their confererence championship the contract will expire at a value of 100 while all others will expire at 0.

NFC

Eagles 30.2/31.0
Falcons 16.1/18.9
Panthers 9.1/9.9
Buccaneers 11/11.5

AFC

Colts 33.6/35.9
Patriots 12/14
Steelers 10.1/11.5
Bengals 9.0/9.5

I am also going to update you on the same eight teams for the markets in fan forwards at www.ticketreserve.com. Fan forwards give you the right to buy Super Bowl XL tickets at face value, $600, if the underlying team on the contract wins their conference championship and advances to the Super Bowl. For example, if you purchase two forwards for the Philadelphia Eagles at $630 each for a total of $1260, and then the Eagles make it to the Super Bowl you would have the right to buy two tickets at face value for $1200 making your total investment in the two Super Bowl tickets $2460 or $1230 per ticket. $1230 per ticket would have been a fabulous buy last year when any seat was trading hands at $3000-$3500 per ticket.

Eagles $630
Falcons $185
Panthers $175
Buccaneers $149

Colts $474
Patriots $275
Steelers $350
Bengals $135

Until tomorrow - Adios

Three teams, two playoff spots, one wild weekend

2005-09-30T09:32:00.000-04:00

By NANCY ARMOUR, AP National WriterSeptember 30, 2005

Grab the remote and settle in, America. The last weekend of the baseball season should be a sizzler, with pennant races far from over and a wild-card berth up for grabs.

Three teams are fighting for the last two spots in the American League playoffs, the tightest finale in a decade. And it's going to take a backyard brawl to knock out the loser. Yankees vs. Red Sox, White Sox vs. Indians.

``We all know what the situation is,'' New York Yankees manager Joe Torre said. ``To think that it's come down to a handful of games to decide what 157 couldn't decide, that's great for baseball -- but not too good for my stomach.''

Things aren't nearly so exciting over in the National League, where Atlanta, St. Louis and San Diego have wrapped up the division titles. But the Philadelphia Phillies are still hanging around the wild-card race, trailing Houston by two games.

``It's fun, man,'' Philadelphia's Michael Tucker said. ``All you can do at this point is play hard. This is one of those things that not a lot of people experience. You have to go out there and have fun and see what happens.''

One or two races usually go down to the final weekend. But this weekend's matchups are particularly juicy. The Yankees and Red Sox are playing at Fenway Park for the AL East title, and that series could affect Cleveland's postseason chances. The Indians host the White Sox.

``It just doesn't get any better this,'' the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez said. ``This is the best time of my life, the most fun time in my baseball career. I don't remember a race like this since I've been around.''

The Yankees, Red Sox and Indians were within one game of each other with three to play, and it takes a calculator and some graph paper to figure out the different scenarios.

Chicago clinched the AL Central by beating Detroit 4-2 on Thursday. But Cleveland was still alive in the wild-card race, tied with Boston. The Red Sox were a game behind the Yankees in the AL East, with a three-game series at Fenway Park beginning Friday.

Got all that?

``I'm not good in math,'' White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen said. ``That's why I just say, `Come back tomorrow and win the game.' ``

While some fans don't like a schedule that loads up on games against division rivals, especially at the end of the season -- ``We're sick of seeing (fill in the blank)'' -- this weekend is the perfect argument for it.

Yankees-Red Sox is one of the best rivalries in all of sports no matter if it's April or October. They've finished 1-2 in the East the last seven years, and their feisty fan base reaches far beyond the East Coast.

The Yankees are baseball's glamour boys, loved and loathed in equal amounts for their big names and even bigger payroll. Boston remains America's lovable underdog even with their World Series title last year, a scrappy bunch that still plays with Little League enthusiasm.
If the Red Sox can't repeat last year's ALCS drama, when Boston rallied to win four straight after being three outs from being swept by the Yankees, this is the next best thing.

``It's the master plan,'' Boston's Johnny Damon said. ``God's way.''

The Red Sox were up by four games on Sept. 10, but the Yankees climbed back atop the division last week and they've been trading spots ever since. With a one-game lead, the Yankees will have to win at Fenway Park twice, at most, to clinch the East title.

According to Elias, the only time New York had a lead with four games to go and failed to win was 1904, back when the Yankees were called the Highlanders.

``Three teams in it, two make it and one will miss it. Every game is like a playoff game,'' said Yankees right-hander Mike Mussina, who is scheduled to start Sunday's game. ``It's going to be as big as if it were a seven-game series.''

The White Sox-Indians matchup doesn't quite have the drama it did last week when Chicago was on the verge of a historic collapse. The White Sox had blown all but 1 1/2 games of what had been a 15-game cushion on Aug. 1, and Cleveland looked unstoppable.

But the Indians chilled at the most inopportune time, losing three straight for the first time since the middle of August.

In the NL, Houston still needs one win to clinch a tie in the wild-card race with Philadelphia. The Astros' lead is down to two games after they lost to the Chicago Cubs on Thursday, 3-2. The Phillies had the night off before going to Washington for three games.

Oh, and if playoff races weren't exciting enough, there's a subplot to Yankees-Red Sox: Rodriguez and Boston's David Ortiz are the leading candidates for AL MVP.

``The focus is on the team. A nice side note behind that is, obviously, the MVP race,'' Rodriguez said. ``Front and center right now is the Yankees vs. Boston.''

AP Sports Writers Dan Gelston in Philadelphia, David Ginsburg in Baltimore and Jimmy Golen in Boston contributed to this report.

White Sox are a win away from clinching

2005-09-29T12:10:00.000-04:00

Despite their late-season slump, the Chicago White Sox are one victory away from clinching the AL-Central title as they conclude a four-game series with the Detroit Tigers.

Jose Contreras won his eighth straight start and Scott Podsednik had four hits to lead the White Sox to an 8-2 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday. Chicago, which has assured itself of at least a tie for the wild card and a possible playoff, opened a three-game lead in the Central as second-place Cleveland suffered its third straight loss, 1-0 to Tampa Bay.

Because of Cleveland's loss, the Sox could clinch their first division title since 2000 with a victory Thursday no matter what the Indians do later in the day. If the Sox and Indians are tied at the end of the season, the wild card will go to the Indians and the Sox will enter the playoffs as division champions.

After Thursday's series finale in Detroit, the White Sox finish the regular season with three games at Cleveland.

``To worry about what (the Indians are) going to do in another city, you worry about stupid stuff you can't control,'' White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. ``Just come back tomorrow and win the game.''

Carl Everett had a two-run triple, Juan Uribe homered and Aaron Rowand hit a three-run shot for the White Sox, who had lost 12 of their previous 19 games. They led the AL Central by 15 games on Aug. 1 -- no team with a lead of more than 13 games has ever failed to finish first.
Freddy Garcia will take the ball for the White Sox and looks to continue his success against Detroit. He has won seven of his last nine decisions against the Tigers, improving to 10-5 with a 3.61 ERA in 18 career starts. He is 2-1 with a 2.63 ERA in three outings this season against the Tigers.

The 29-year-old right-hander hopes to have turned the corner after eight strong innings in an 8-1 win over Minnesota on Saturday. He had been 1-4 with a 4.65 ERA in his previous nine starts.

Jason Grilli is looking to build on a stellar effort in his first career start for Detroit. The right-hander yielded one run and two hits in seven innings of a 7-1 win over Seattle on Saturday.
He won for the first time since Sept. 11, 2004, when he was with the White Sox, and is looking forward to facing his former team for the first time.

``You always love pitching against your old team, and now I can try to play spoiler against the White Sox,'' he said, ``That would be a great way to finish the year.''

Carlos Pena homered Wednesday for Detroit, which had won four straight since an eight-game skid.

Baseball Fever - It's Almost October

2005-09-28T10:48:00.000-04:00

Baseball Fever – It’s Almost October

Here at Alpha Tickets we try not to get too excited about Baseball. We are not particularly passionate baseball fans, and we rarely stock baseball tickets. However, we do get involved with the MLB All Star Game every year, and with post season play. Over the last few days, I have swapped my football helmet for a baseball cap to predict what may transpire over the next few weeks.

The picture of the National League seems clear. The Braves clinched last night for the 14th straight time - which is impressive in comparison to the number of times they’ve failed to complete. The Cardinals clinched several weeks ago, and the Padres have a magic number of two and are headed into the post season. The only question remaining is which team will take the wild card spot - Philadelphia or Houston. The Braves will play the wild card team in the divisional series, so this question is important, especially to an Atlanta Ticket Broker like me. The Astros appear to have a slight edge with their last three games at home (against the Cubs) while the Phillies have to go on the road against the Nationals.

The Phillies would probably make for a better ticket for the series against the braves and may also be a more beatable opponent than having to match up with the awesome pitching of the Astros.

Having yet another classic fall season race is The American League. The Yankees and the Red Sox are deadlocked in first place in their division and face off against one another for the last three games of the season at Fenway Park. The Angels have clinched, and the White Sox have a magic number of four. Again, like the National League the wild card spot is going to be interesting and in my opinion even more interesting than that of the National League. The Indians have been hot lately and will be fighting it out with the loser of the Red Sox/Yankees for the Wild Card Spot.

Below I have listed some of the current prices for 0-100 contracts on http://www.tradesports.com/ related to my predictions.

National League Wild Card Winner

Houston 88.1/90.9
Philadelphia 9.1/11.9

American League Wild Card Winner

Cleveland 48.6/50
New York Yankees 16.9/17.9
Boston 16.1/20
Chicago White Sox 15.7/18

National League Pennant Winner

St. Louis 44/44.8
Atlanta 21.2/23.4
San Diego 9.1/10.4
Houston 18.1/21.5
Philadelphia 1.1/1.9

American League Pennant Winner

Boston 21.5/23.9
Chicago White Sox 16.3/17
New York Yankees 21/23.9
Anaheim 22/23.4
Cleveland 14.1/15.5

- Until Tomorrow – Adios!

NFL Tradesports Update

2005-09-27T08:48:00.000-04:00

Wow! It is amazing that in three weeks so much can happen. My man Carnell Williams is helping Tampa Bay surprise everyone, the Ravens have already imploded, the Jets are now working with their third string quarterback, and the Patriots and Eagles have already lost! In the Tradesports markets for NFC and AFC Champions some things have remained constant but other things have changed markedly.

NFC

Eagles 28.4/30.0
Falcons 13.5/16.0
Panthers 7.1/9.5
Vikings 5.0/6.9
Seahawks 6.7/8.5
Rams 6.1/8.0
Giants 3.0/4.0

AFC

Colts 29.4/32.5
Patriots 19.0/20.5
Chiefs 8.0/10.0
Jaguars 5.5/6.5
Steelers 11.0/13.5
Ravens 0.7/2.1

If the Colts keep winning they may get what they needed last year but did not get - Home Field Advantage. There is no doubt that the colts are hot, and I have always believed that Peyton will get his ring on day so maybe it will be on 02/05/06 in Detroit!

Until tomorrow - Adios

The Face of Insanity - Cindy Sheehan

2005-09-26T14:53:00.000-04:00

OPEN LETTER TO CINDY SHEEHAN:

Residing in the same town as you once resided and knowing your family, I must ask you, "Whatever are you thinking?"

Your son was the one who encouraged my youngest son to enlist. You were very proud of Casey and what he was doing then and he believed very much in what he was doing.

After Casey was killed, my eldest was one of the local airmen who brought him home, facing hostile fire to do so, so you would not not have to wait.

My daughter comforted you and your family. You two spent hours and hours engaged in heartfelt grief. At that time, you were very, very supportive of the President, of our soldiers and of what was occurring in Iraq.

Cindy, you've changed since the Kerry campaign contacted you in early July of last summer. You're not the same grieving mom, especially after you started traveling on the road to support John Kerry's campaign.

You've turned into a political puppet for those who are exploiting you and its not pretty nor does it do anything for Casey's memory. You're not the same, quiet compassionate woman we saw at church or downtown, when you proudly sat as the entire town showed up on Memorial Day to honor Casey and Mike Williams.

How can you justify berating the President for honoring the soldiers who died while protecting America and following the directives of the Congress and the Senate? How can you consistently state that you don't want your son's name to be acknowledged by him and on the same hand, turn around and use the name of Joe Williams' Mike, as an example for your cause despite the many requests of the family for you not to do so? How could you print Mike's name in your anti-war advertisement in the newspaper even after seeing the grief and effort his mother went through to go to Crawford to personally remove it from your cross. You knew it caused them pain.

Mike died honorably and his father, a Vietnam vet is very proud of him. He believed in what he was doing, just like Casey. How could you bring so much pain to the Williams family and so much pain to a nation because of your own anger?

Cindy, how can you do this to your kids who don't know how to explain your actions to anyone here in town? They went through a lot last summer and still are.

The hours, days and weeks following Casey's death were emotionally gut wrenching as many of us with children, husbands, wives, friends and other loved ones in the military comforted you while living with the fears for our own loved ones over there. Everyone went above and beyond because we all believed and still believe in how very right, honorable and courageous our loved ones are in their mission to keep America safe.

We all went through considerable anguish when Casey died and I suspect none moreso than you. But how can you justify your anguish and place it on a higher level than that of Joe Williams?
The treatment you've returned to everyone is inexcusable. Placing Mike Williams' name on a cross despite the family's objections was unforgiveable and the reaction of Mike's mother when she saw it was heartbreaking.

What you are doing to neighbors, to friends, Casey's battle buddies and to a nation of people who are having to relieve the ugly pain of the late 60s and the 70s is unfair.

This is about you, Cindy. Not about anyone else. When you turn your back on your neighbors, your friends, your family and act in this manner, it only evidences that there is no consideration toward anyone or anything else.

Finally, and most disturbing, how can you support a group that supported John Kerry, who on April 7th, on National Public Radio stated that Al Sadr had a "legitimate voice" and that the Coalition (including your son) should not have closed down his newspaper after he called for the deaths of U.S. troops.

You know better than anyone else, Casey was killed in Sadr City by the Al Sadr militants. How can you join ranks with those who support the terrorist who called for the death of your son?
Its beyond me, Cindy, and something I suspect, someday in the future, you'll look back on and with considerable pain.

We don't want that for you. I believe you need to sit down and think about it long and hard. You are bringing so much pain to this nation and its people.

Linda

Update

2005-09-26T10:44:00.000-04:00

I am sorry that there have been no posts for a solid week. Last week was one of the busiest weeks of my career. The amount of things that were accomplished last week would stun most of you, but I will not bore you with the details.

I was going to update you on the tradesports markets for NFL this morning but the tradesports data is currently unavailable. We will shoot to update you tomorrow on the situation.

Until tomorrow - Adios

I'm Not That Fired Up Right Now About the Falcons Going to the Super Bowl

2005-09-18T22:20:00.000-04:00

I am tired tonight and trying really hard to get off the lazy boy to write a blog. This one is communicated through my wife, Marnie.

Tonight's game was an amazing come back. Down several players on the defense, the Dirty Birds finally rallied and got their act together in the second half.

In the end, disappointing, to say the least. Are they still a favorite to go to the Super Bowl? I hope so.

I am too tired right now to write much more - Monday I will post something good.

Tomorrow is Monday and back to my day to day business of being a ticket broker. No more trampoline jumping with my sons. Until then, adios.

Allen

It's all my fault

2005-09-14T11:25:00.000-04:00

I would like to accept full and total blame for Hurricane Katrina and for all of the problems that happened in the aftermath of the storm.

Falcons take opening statement in stride

2005-09-13T10:49:00.000-04:00

By Len Pasquarelli ESPN.com

ATLANTA -- For a team that spent most of the warm-ups talking smack, then turned the rhetoric into an ugly rumble that resulted in the pregame ejections of two key players, the Atlanta Falcons were an unusually measured bunch as they contemplated the big-picture ramifications of Monday night's gutsy victory here over the Philadelphia Eagles.

Some statement games, apparently, require only modest statements afterward.

In contrast to the bombast that preceded this much-anticipated rematch of last year's NFC championship game, a back-alley meeting of two teams that clearly don't like each other much at all, civility reigned in the victor's locker room. Here's why: As much as the Falcons pointed to Monday's game, as much as they prepared in an effort to reverse the results of the conference title game loss that left them a win shy of a Super Bowl berth, the Atlanta players understood that their 14-10 victory only slightly alters the NFC landscape.

For that demonstration of maturity, particularly in light of the lack of discipline that marked the pregame brawl, Falcons coach Jim Mora was clearly a proud man.

"I think the way we handled this win," said Mora, in what was arguably the most notable triumph of his brief career as a head coach, "is almost as important as the victory itself. This is a mature team, and they know what's ahead. I think they understand that what we have to do now is go out and validate this victory."

This is a franchise that, remarkably, has never enjoyed consecutive winning seasons. Now in their 40th year of existence, the Falcons haven't even strung together two or three big wins in a row during much of their four decades. Atlanta will wear a bull's-eye now, courtesy of Monday's win, and with four straight matchups against solid postseason contenders looming, will get a quick test of its ability to dodge the darts and arrows the NFL can toss.

Mora's words weren't so much cautionary as they were pragmatic. After having resided most of their existence in the NFL's basement, it will be interesting to see how the Falcons handle life in the penthouse.

Make no mistake, the Falcons are a chatty bunch, a team that can talk the talk and now, apparently walk the walk. But there was a notable absence of braggadocio in the Atlanta locker room, even though the payback to the Eagles certainly establishes Mora's young and aggressive bunch as a group capable of nudging Philadelphia from its perch as the NFC's highest-profile team.

In the media interview area, which is adjacent to the Atlanta locker room, there have been times in the past when the Falcons' hooting and hollering was so raucous following any sort of significant victory that it carried through the closed doors. On Monday night, either Atlanta owner Arthur Blank took advantage of his Home Depot connections to have the doors between the two areas soundproofed, or the group celebration was uncharacteristically muted.

Which is not to say that Falcons players don't comprehend the significance of upending the imperious Eagles, recognized for several years now as the NFC's premier franchise. The Eagles came here intending to turn the South into South Philly -- with a legion of throaty fans in attendance at the Georgia Dome -- and instead were turned away.

"Oh, definitely, people have to look at us a little differently now," said middle linebacker Ed Hartwell, the Falcons' most notable free agent addition in an offseason in which Mora and general manager Rich McKay made only minor tweaks to the roster. "That's a good team we beat. But to beat a good team, you have to be a good team, and I think this is a team that's better than good. We knocked off the best team the NFC has to offer, so that must say something about us."

Only time will tell if Monday's win was the kind of threshold moment and galvanizing event that shakes up the balance of power in the conference. The Eagles remain, despite a bitter defeat marked by offensive inconstancy, a formidable foe. The Falcons, however, view themselves now as more than an upstart. And sometimes the manner in which you view yourself is nearly as important as how others see you.

With the victory on Monday night, the Falcons don't have to look nearly so much in the rearview mirror, because the view out the front windshield is an inviting one.

"It's a great boost to our confidence," said second-year cornerback DeAngelo Hall. "You can talk about beating good teams but, until you do it, that's just talk. Empty words. You have to back it up, and that's what we did here tonight."

The team's first-round choice in 2004, and a player billed as a "shutdown" cornerback, Hall was a key to the Atlanta victory. Hell-bent on earning a Pro Bowl spot this season, and driven to succeed at the highest level and against the best players, he asked coaches last week to let him cover Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens all over the field. And, while Owens had seven catches for 112 yards, Hall kept him out of the end zone, had an interception, two other passes defensed and five tackles.

One huge play that probably went undetected by most observers came late in the third quarter. Hall jumped an inside slant route by Owens so quickly that it forced Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb to pull the ball down and turn to his left for an alternate receiver. Defensive end Patrick Kerney, given additional time because McNabb had to hold the ball, sacked the quarterback and caused a fumble.

Atlanta needed such defensive moments because, once again, the offense was sporadic.

Quarterback Michael Vick has grown testy at discussing his shortcomings as a pocket passer but Monday did little to quiet his critics. Vick was 12 for 23 for 156 yards and, beyond a huge, 58-yard completion to wideout Michael Jenkins to set up the Falcons' second and final touchdown, looked typically disjointed in the pocket. No matter, though, since Vick scampered for 68 yards and made enough plays with his feet.

Notable, as well, was the excellent run-blocking provided by the right side of the Falcons line, tackle Todd Weiner and guard Kynan Forney. Particularly early in the game, the two carved out big creases for mighty mite tailback Warrick Dunn. Unofficially, Dunn gained 74 of his 117 rushing yards on runs to the right side.

"I think it was our kind of game," said Jenkins, who has shown some modest signs of emerging as the go-to wide receiver Vick so desperately needs. "Run the ball, get some timely passes, let Mike make some plays, and let our defense stop people. It's a pretty good formula, and we're just hoping we can ride it a long way. This game just says we were the best team tonight. Now we've got to try to say it for 15 more [games]."

Roush has five in Chase, but Stewart is man to beat

2005-09-12T10:31:00.000-04:00

By HANK KURZ Jr., AP Sports Writer September 11, 2005

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Tony Stewart was in a good place before the final race to set the field for NASCAR's Chase for the championship, his spot atop the standings secure.

And now that the nine other drivers that will contend for the title have been decided, including five from Jack Roush's stable, Stewart still is the man to beat.

``All of the teams are running good,'' Greg Biffle said during a giddy postrace interview after teammates Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards completed Roush's five-man entry into the 10-race playoff. ``But the 20 car is still better than all of us.''

Stewart, the 2002 champion, will have his 185-point lead over Biffle cut to 5 points before next week's race in New Hampshire, but is feeling very good about his team's chances. Stewart is eager to finally get started in the pursuit of another title.

``I've been waiting for next week for quite a long time now,'' he said. ``I'm glad we finally get a chance to get it started and get on with what's really important.''

A year ago, the first stop in the playoffs became essentially the last for Stewart. Taken out by a crash early in the race at Loudon, N.H., he eventually retired after running just 83 of the 400 laps, fell to 10th in the standings and didn't contend.

This time, he goes back to New England riding a hot streak that was already in progress when he dominated at New Hampshire Speedway in July. The victory was one of five for Stewart in the last 12 races, and he's never finished outside the top eight.

``We're pretty happy about that,'' the Joe Gibbs Racing star said. ``We're ready for next week. I don't feel like we're lacking anything or waiting on anything.''

The hot streak included one stretch of five victories in seven races, almost unprecedented in the age of multicar teams and big-money sponsorship. It also included a lot of good fortune, something that will need to continue as the Chase begins.

``There are 43 guys who start the race and there's 10 of us in the Chase. You can't control the other 33 guys. They've got a right to race just like everyone else,'' Stewart said.

``When you're in the top 10 there at the end you've got to protect yourself. You've got to race hard, but you've also got to protect yourself, and that's how you get into the Chase to begin with. It was just an unfortunate deal, but we always knew in the back of our minds that something like that could happen.''

With the roll he's on, Stewart sees no reason to change his approach.

``These next 10 races are no different than the last 26 of them,'' he said.
There is one difference -- the Nextel Cup that awaits the winner.

``We've just got to go out and win it and be done with it,'' he said.

Also making the Chase were Roush's Mark Martin and defending series champion Kurt Busch, who won Saturday night's Chevrolet Rock & Roll 400; Jeremy Mayfield; Ryan Newman; Jimmie Johnson; and Rusty Wallace, who is in his final season of Nextel Cup action.

Ready for some Football?

2005-09-08T09:52:00.000-04:00

Sorry it has been a few days since the last blog, but this blogger needed a little vacation. I hope all of you enjoyed our last post about Super Bowl tickets and found yourself some useful information.

Tonight is the opening game of the 2005 NFL season and it should be a good one. The Oakland Raiders are visiting the New England Patriots. The Patriots are favored by 7 1/2 points and are still considered one of the heavy favorites in Vegas to repeat as Super Bowl Champions.

Monday night here in Atlanta we will witness the Philadelphia Eagles playing the Atlanta Falcons. The Eagles are favored by 1 1/2 points and are the heavy favorite in Vegas to at least win the NFC Championship and maybe the Super Bowl.

I have been periodically keeping you updated on the Tradesports market for NFC and AFC Champions because it is very important in our business when trying to figure out where we think prices for Super Bowl tickets will be. Below is your first game day of the season update:

The numbers next to the team name are the bid/ask spread to purchase 0-100 contracts on tradesports.com for each team to win their respective conference championship.

AFC

Colts 23.6/25.4
Patriots 19.8/21.0
Steelers 11.0/11.1
Ravens 10.6/11.1

NFC

Eagles 26.5/28.0
Falcons 12.2/13.0
Panthers 12.6/13.9
Vikings 11.1/12.9

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Super Bowl Ticket Dreams

2005-09-03T11:48:00.000-04:00

Super Bowl Ticket Dreams

Many football fans dream about attending the biggest and most marvelous football game of every season – The Super Bowl. But without the favor of celebrity, wealth, or sheer luck, actually going to the Super Bowl is trickier than finding the golden ticket in one of those auspicious Wonka bars (after seeing the movie I admit Johnny Depp scares me - not unlike Jacko). And truthfully, for the average person, acquiring Super Bowl tickets really is just that – a dream.

So let’s just say you’re Brad Pitt. You wanna take little Maddox to his first Super Bowl. And you might need an extra ticket for Angelina. No problem. I can’t see Brad missing out on the Super Bowl next February, unless they start housing Katrina refugees from New Orleans in Detroit’s Ford Field.

Could Paris and Nikki Hilton get comped 50-yard line tickets on the DL - with a mere text message from a Swarovski encrusted Sidekick? I would bet yes. I ran into one of the Hilton sisters and her entourage last year in Houston. I think I’ll ring her up to be my Super Bowl date this year, if my wife can’t make it. As Paris says, “That’s hot”. Celebrity has its rewards.

Where Have All The Tickets Gone?

The answer to this question has everything to do with the National Football League (NFL) and their perplexing allocation of tickets. Each year, the powers that be at the National Football League (NFL) conduct a Super Bowl ticket lottery. To participate, the normal guy fills out an index card with his name, address, and phone number, and sends it by certified mail to the NFL Super Bowl Ticket Lottery office. If his is one of the 500 names selected from the 50,000 entries, he doesn’t actually win tickets. He wins an option to purchase tickets – at face value (about $600). The winners are sent an invoice, after which they pay for the tickets via mail using a credit card. It sounds simple, but unfortunately, only 1% of the entire 70,000 Super Bowl Tickets are actually bestowed upon the average American football fan.

There you have it - the number one reason Super Bowl Tickets are impossible to get and therefore, so expensive. Demand drives price.

I Didn’t Find A Golden Ticket… Now What?

If you don’t have the ability to rustle up a Super Bowl ticket from one of these sources directly, your options for Super Bowl tickets are somewhat limited. You can buy a package, including an overpriced hotel room from an NFL approved tour operator, or from anyone able to put together and advertise packages to the average consumer.

Your best option is to purchase tickets on the secondary market from a licensed, reputable ticket broker.

Who Has All The Super Bowl Tickets?

Below you will find the distribution breakdown of the 76,877 tickets for last year’s game in Jacksonville (numbers are approximate).

Receiving Party
Percentage of Tickets Received - Number of Tickets Distributed

National Football League (NFL)
25.2% - 19,373 tickets (includes 1,000 lottery-distributed tickets)

AFC Championship Team
17.5% - 13,454 tickets

NFC Championship Team
17.5% - 13,454 tickets

Host Venue Team
5% - 3,844 tickets

All Other Teams
34.2% - 26,292 tickets

All teams distribute their allotment of Super Bowl Tickets to players, coaches, family, friends, and staff. The individual venues have the option of selling seats to suite holders or club seat holders. The NFL keeps the largest share of tickets are given to advertisers, athletes, sponsors, NFL staff, and VIP's. The AFC and NFC champions also distribute to their own players, families, coaches, donors, supporters, suite and club seat holders -- and then sell remaining tickets. Some of these extra tickets are sold at a profit to tour operators who include them in packages with hotel rooms, transportation, and hospitality. All these packages are sold to fans at inflated prices.
By the time the teams are determined, about two weeks before the big game, Super Bowl tickets are printed and then distributed in phases, with lottery tickets delivered in the first or second week of January. The host team is typically the second group to receive tickets, followed by the rest of the league. Of course, no one knows who the AFC and NFC champions will be, and that group of tickets (comprising 35% of the total) is held until the week after the championship games. Once the teams are identified and tickets are printed, it is generally eight or nine days before the big game. Over the years, the NFL has not distributed Super Bowl tickets until just days before the game, and at that point they require guests (with ID) to pick up their Super Bowl Tickets up in the host city.

This essay is not meant to discourage you, so read on. If you’re not Donald Trump or Lindsay Lohan … just an average guy who dreams about a once in a lifetime chance to go to the Super Bowl … there are options.

The Secret Life of Super Bowl Ticket Brokers

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I am a ticket broker. My company’s customers are from all walks of life. We take a lot of phone calls from people looking for Super Bowl tickets, and we are always happy to educate our callers on techniques to obtain one of sports’ toughest tickets.

Many of our customers ask questions about the mysterious world of Super Bowl Tickets, like:

Where do you get your Super Bowl Tickets?

If Super Bowl tickets aren’t released until a week before the game, how can you sell them now?

How do you decide on prices for Super Bowl Tickets?

Why are tickets so expensive?

How can a regular guy like me get Super Bowl Tickets?

How can I get Super Bowl Tickets at Face Value?

Ticket prices in the secondary market are affected by many factors, including the host city; venue, weather, fan loyalty, and team match up.

Location, Location, Location

Locations such as tropical climates and luxurious locales definitely send Super Bowl Ticket prices over to the high side. A resort-like or destination city such as Las Vegas draws more attendees, thus increasing demand and price. The Super Bowl, like the Kentucky Derby, is a global party, and many jet setters are far more interested in the party around the Super Bowl Football Game, rather than the actual game itself.

2004’s Super Bowl in San Diego was a fabulous destination, but without real regard for the teams actually playing in the Super Bowl. It was an easy commute by private jet, limo, or deluxe motor coach from LA, Hollywood, and Vegas. I superbly enjoyed working from my hotel room with a view of San Diego Marina, and delivering tickets to customers in the California ocean breeze.

The following year I found that many folks in Houston were not big Panther or Patriot fans, so tickets were about as hot as Anna Nicole Smith. And to reinforce my theory, Playboy Party tickets were actually scarcer than Super Bowl Tickets!

As a side comment, Houston and New Orleans’ future as future Super Bowl locations are questionable right now in my mind – after Katrina, I don’t think the SuperDome will ever smell the same – and neither will the AstroDome or Reliant Stadium. The thought of what has occurred in the SuperDome this week is somewhat frightful and surely it will affect the future of that venue.

Last year’s Jacksonville setting quickly shifted my locale expertise with the fierce loyalty of fans. While we here in the South sometimes liken SEC Football to a religion, the Eagles all out command for tickets was stronger than any I’d ever seen. While the loyalty of the the Eagles se fans was intense, unfortunately this drove the prices beyond reach for many people. In addition, there were many tour operators who preyed on the passion of these ticket seekers. In the streets of Jacksonville I saw many Super Bowl Dreams decimated by unethical tour operators, the frenzy for tickets, and inflated prices.

VERSUS

The teams also have a lot to do with the price of the tickets. Certain teams come from much larger cities than others; have a history in their market, and a strong following and loyal fan base. In Houston two years ago, the Panthers were not a strong draw. At only nine years young and from Charlotte, North Carolina, the Panthers had nowhere near the established fan base like that of the Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles are obviously well established, in a city with a long and deeply rooted history in America.

Last year in Jacksonville, Super Bowl Ticket prices soared higher than other years largely due to the Eagles willingness to pay high prices. There were stories of fans mortgaging homes to see their beloved Eagles play in their first Super Bowl in some 20+ years.

How Do You Like Detroit?

The average temperature that time of year is 26 degrees. Ford Field normally only holds 65,000 people but the minimum requirement of the NFL for Super Bowls is 70,000 and supposedly they are adding 5,000 seats to meet those criteria. Detroit is not really a destination during the winter months, when compared to a city like San Diego, but I doubt the cold weather will deter the Eagles or Steelers fans if they make it into the big game. As a former resident of Birmingham, Michigan, I am really looking forward to seeing Detroit put up some really top-notch hospitality and professionalism. We’ve worked many Detroit events and have even enjoyed some press there due to our Super Bowl expertise.

The Super Bowl Ticket Pricing Formula

Here is our analysis of recent Super Bowl Ticket Prices, including:

Location

Venue Capacity

Team Match Up

Final Scores

Prices (based on “Get In” or “Anything Available” ticket prices)

2005 - Jacksonville, FL
Alltel Stadium, - 76,877
New England 24, Philadelphia 21
$3,250

2004 - Houston, TX
Reliant Stadium - 69,500
New England 32, Carolina 29
$2,000

2003 - San Diego, CA
Qualcomm Stadium - 71,000
Tampa Bay 48, Oakland 21
$1,750

2002 - New Orleans, LA
SuperDome - 72,000
New England 21, St. Louis 17
$500

2001 - Tampa, FL
Raymond James Stadium - 72,000
New England 21, St. Louis 17
$500

2000 - Atlanta, GA
Georgia Dome - 71,000
St. Louis 23, Tennessee 16
$1,200

1999 - Miami, FL
Joe Robbie Stadium - 75,000
Denver 34, Atlanta 19
$900

1998 - San Diego, CA
Qualcomm Stadium - 71,000
Denver 31, Green Bay 24
$2,500

Super Bowl Ticket prices are affected by the capacity of the stadium or number of seats. Logically, one thinks that the greater number of seats available, the lower the prices. However, this is not what we saw last year. If you look at the breakdown above, note that Alltel Stadium had more seats than any prior games, yet had a higher price. I think this is explained by the extreme fanaticism of Philadelphia Eagles fans… exemplified by demand simply trumping supply.

The 2002 Super Bowl game stands out above others on the list, with day-of ticket prices actually running at face value or less. This occurred after the 9/11 tragedy in New York. This was the first Super Bowl game after 9/11 and security for national events was unprecedented. Remember, people were wearing gloves just to go get their mail!

What to Look for in a Super Bowl Ticket Broker

Before you go with the broker who has the lowest price, you should examine indicators of a broker’s credibility and reputation, such as time in the business, office location (do they operate with a cell phone only?), participation in organizations such as the NATB or BBB, eBay feedback, etc. Do they have a professionally done web site and is it current and update? Is the broker licensed by their state and do they abide by any applicable state laws?

Buy from a broker licensed by a state regulating secondary market ticket sales, such as Georgia or Illinois. That gives you an avenue of recourse if there are any problems, and you will find a much higher quality ticket purchasing experience due to the guidelines these brokers follow.

You should expect to pay market value at time of purchase and will be locked in at that price the day the transaction occurs. You should expect to know what the guarantees are associated with your purchase. You should expect to pick your tickets up in the host city, and most brokers will not guarantee availability until the day of the game. Local and late pick up is standard operating procedure for most brokers due to the late distribution of the actual printed Super Bowl tickets.

If a ticket “broker” insists on cash payment, buyer beware. Unethical brokers may have lost their charge card merchant privileges and operate on a cash basis, which gives the buyer no protection from a credit card company or recourse if there is a problem later.

If you are buying directly from a ticket broker, choose a member of the National Association of Ticket Brokers (http://www.natb.org/). The NATB is an organization that has implemented some regulation to the ticket brokerage industry by setting forth a code of standards and ethics for all members to follow. They require all of their members to support Super Bowl ticket orders with a 200% guarantee. That means if for some reason they fail to deliver the tickets to you, you are due a refund equivalent to 200% of the purchase price.

Some brokers offer only a 100% guarantee, which means that if the market price is higher than your original purchase price, the broker may fail to deliver - so they won’t lose money on the deal. The customer will have to come out of pocket even more money at that moment to purchase a ticket. The NATB instituted a 200% guarantee to protect consumers from that very situation forcing the brokers to do the right thing and either take the loss and deliver tickets or take the loss by refunding 200%.

What are the Risks?

If you are dealing with an authorized seller of NFL Super Bowl packages, you have decreased concern regarding delivery of or the authenticity of your tickets. These sellers have been selected either by the NFL or one of the Championship teams to market Super Bowl packages. The price for these packages rolls the operator’s costs for the hotel, tickets, and hospitality into one so it is impossible to know exactly what you are paying for Super Bowl tickets.

Just about anyone can create and promote a Super Bowl package, which gives fans little faith that a hotel room or Super Bowl tickets even exist until you arrive in the host city. Last year I saw many disheartened Eagles fans stuck watching the Super Bowl from a hotel bar.

Last year in Jacksonville, with unprecedented demand and prices rising beyond expectations, busted orders were commonplace. (Busted Order = tickets are not delivered as contracted at time of purchase). Many people who purchased tickets to the game were stranded – left to watch the Super Bowl from a bar TV somewhere in Jacksonville and uneasily hoped for refunds from unprofessional ticket hustlers.

The Lock of the Year

If you want to lock a price on Super Bowl tickets and avoid the stress of watching prices each week, you can buy Super Bowl tickets today. Checkout the listings on eBay, StubHub, or with a licensed, experienced ticket broker such as AlphaTickets.com. Brokers will generally give you pricing options, guaranteeing certain sections based on your price tolerance and seat desires.

Remember that a price you are quoted on one week may change the next. Don’t expect any broker to honor a Super Bowl Ticket price quote, unless you’ve got something in writing stating that the quote is good for a certain amount of time.

Tickets do trade for well above face value, and based on the factors I’ve outlined, could become quite expensive.

Now that the NFL season is almost underway, prices for Super Bowl tickets will start their usual pattern of fluctuation. Changes will occur with consumers buying patterns, as well as the fame and fortune of each team.

You, the fans, are now armed with some knowledge you might not have had before – the secrets of Super Bowl Ticket Brokers. Use this information to protect your investments, and make your dreams come true.

Until tomorrow, Adios.

Allen

For Expert Comment: NFL and Scalping

2005-09-01T09:53:00.000-04:00

08-30-2005 News from Washington University in St. Louis

How undervalued tickets are good for scalpers and good for the team

Aug. 30, 2005 — The National Football League season has kicked off with a bang and once again, ticket prices are higher than ever. Fans who pay anywhere from $50 to $250 for a single ticket may grouse about the price, but Dan Elfenbein, a business professor in the Olin School of Business at Washington University in St. Louis, said football teams routinely under-price their tickets and online ticket scalpers are reaping the benefits.

That teams sell tickets at prices far lower than their market value may seem to contradict economic logic. On average people who buy NFL tickets from scalpers online pay more than 50 percent above a ticket's face value. Markups are even higher in football-loving locales such as Green Bay and New England, Elfenbein said. Despite the disparity between face value and street value, Elfenbein says it actually makes sense that owners don't jack up ticket prices even more.

"With that kind of a markup on the street, the owners are leaving lot of value on the table," Elfenbein said. "By keeping the tickets below market price, the owners are more likely to fill the stadium, creating more opportunities for concession sales. Parking troubles aside, people really seem to enjoy going to full stadiums — the excitement level is that much greater. On the flip side, since most NFL teams have received some sort of public funding for stadium construction or other services, raising prices to levels that the market would support might cause people to rethink the use of public funds"

Elfenbein is an assistant professor of organization and strategy in the Olin School of Business at Washington University. Elfenbein's conclusions are derived in part from a study he conducted on the impact anti-scalping laws have on people selling regular season NFL tickets online. He examined more than 100,000 transactions processed by e-Bay and more than 100,000 "ask" prices for tickets sold via Ticketsnow.com, a leading Internet-based ticket reseller.

Although technically illegal in many states, ticket scalping online is quite hearty. Elfenbein says scalpers selling tickets to games in states with anti-scalping laws were able to command higher prices and higher mark-ups over face value than in states without those laws. Yet at the same time, anti-scalping states didn't see as much online trading.

Elfenbein says it's relatively predictable how much over face value a ticket will cost.

"There's a distinct pattern to how much more fans are willing to pay for a ticket depending on when it's sold during the season and how well the team is doing. But it also depends on which team we're talking about," Elfenbein said. "In the data that I've looked at, being 6-4 rather than 4-6 raises the price that a fan is willing to pay by about $24 on average. It really tells you a lot about the psychology of being a sports fan."

Mojo this: Muller upset ranks right up there

2005-08-31T09:26:00.000-04:00

NEW YORK -- For the last four years, Andy Roddick has been money in the early rounds of the U.S. Open. After losing his first-ever match here in 2000, Roddick went 16-0 on his way into the quarterfinals and broke through with the title -- his only Grand Slam -- in 2003.

On Tuesday night, Roddick ran into an unconscious 22-year-old from Luxembourg who didn't care if he has the fastest serve ever recorded. He wasn't concerned that Roddick is the latest, greatest hope of a nation in search of a new men's tennis hero. Or that he is the centerpiece of an elaborate promotional campaign.

Where's Andy's mojo? American Express advertisements have posed the question relentlessly for days. Look no further than Gilles Muller, a free-swinging, 6-foot-5 left-hander who actually hit the ball harder than Roddick on the day Roddick turned 23.

Before an eerily quiet near-capacity crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the No. 68-ranked player among ATP players destroyed and stunned the No. 4-seeded Roddick, prevailing in three consecutive tiebreakers, 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (1). Muller won seven of the last eight points in a upset of epic proportion.

Villanova over Georgetown in 1985? The New York Jets in Super Bowl III? Buster Douglas over Mike Tyson? In its modest first-round way, this match was right up there on the scale of surprise.

Muller hit 24 aces -- seven more than Roddick -- and a fairly hysterical 65 winners. Muller never really seemed to understand where he was or what he was doing. They each managed one break of service, but Muller played the big points better.

How did he do it?

"I have no idea," Muller said. "I told myself to enjoy it -- and I did, every minute."
Afterward, Roddick was stoic.

"I don't really remember a loss where I felt that bad afterwards," he said. "I just felt like the whole time I was trying to find something, as opposed to just having it."

Mojo.

The USA Network had some jingoistic fun at Muller's expense early in the match, wondering who the second-ranked Luxumbourgian was -- the answer: Laurent Bram and Gilles Kremer, tied at No. 1414. And while Luxumbourg, a country tucked in among Belgium, France and Germany, is smaller than Rhode Island and has a population of less than a half million, it produced a massive result.

Muller was 0-3 in career Grand Slam singles matches until breaking through earlier this year in the first round at Wimbledon. In the second round he took out Rafael Nadal -- the second seed here -- in four sets. Last year he beat Andre Agassi in a run to the final in Washington, the closest he has come to a significant title.

The pivotal game was the ninth of the match. Roddick was serving, predictably, for the set and seemed destined to enjoy a typical straight-sets first-round victory, like ones authored earlier by Roger Federer, Nadal and Agassi. But Roddick was broken and Muller seemed to steady his game.

In the tie-break he ran out to a 4-0 lead, but even when Roddick came back to narrow the margin to 5-4 he didn't flinch. In fact, he had the audacity to try a drop shot at that critical juncture -- and it succeeded.

"I let him back in," Roddick allowed, "and he started playing really well after that."
Roddick's serve was serviceable enough, it was his backhand that betrayed him. Muller said his strategy going in was to work the backhand -- Roddick's weakest shot -- and, when it never seemed to materialize, he attacked it. At one point in the third set, USA commentator John McEnroe called it "beyond abysmal."

The second-set tiebreaker was a thrilling display of good tennis. Muller erased a set point at 5-6, then Roddick did the same at 6-7. With Roddick leading 8-7, Muller laced an unreturnable forehand. At 8-all, a lunging forehand volley dropped for a clean winner. With Roddick serving at 8-9, a weak volley allowed Muller to push a backhand down the line.

The third-set tiebreaker was a disaster for Roddick. Down 5-1, he walked to the other side of the court with his white Lacoste shirt in his mouth. A final, laconic (and appropriate) backhand into the net.

And so, the eager, brown-eyed Muller -- officially, the best male player in the history of Luxembourg -- heads into the second round of the tournament, where he will play Robby Ginepri on Thursday. But first, he will play with Ginepri in doubles, against the Czech team of Frantosek Cermak and Leos Freidl in the relative obscurity of Court 14.
Muller insisted it wasn't the best match he ever played.

"I don't think I was playing unreal," he said. "I was playing good. The most important thing was that I stayed focused and calm the whole match. I told myself, 'Don't be nervous, it's a big chance to play. The whole world is watching.'

"I was also sometimes lucky. In the tiebreak in the last set, I hit some balls like to the line, with the frame to the line on one return."

Roddick won this event in 2003 and finished the year ranked No. 1. He was 21. Considering the expectation that he created, the subsequent two years, despite a steady flow of titles and prize money, have been vaguely disappointing.

Roddick lost in last year's Open quarterfinals to Joachim Johansson in five sets, and now this loss will live with him or a long, long time. Will it spur him to the level of a multi-Grand Slam winner or is he a one-hit wonder?

"Twenty-four hours ago, I was really optimistic about my chances here," Roddick said. "I had the best week of practice I've ever had before a Grand Slam. I'm in a little bit of shock right now.

"I'd give anything to go back four hours right now."

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Two to go: Chase race heats up after Bristol (AP)

2005-08-30T10:49:00.000-04:00

BRISTOL, Tenn. (AP) - Jeff Gordon is in, Dale Earnhardt Jr. is out and Matt Kenseth suddenly is knocking on the door.

The typical bumping and banging at Bristol Motor Speedway shuffled the championship standings, ensuring the race to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup championship will go down to the wire.

Kenseth, written off months ago as an also-ran this season, has surged back into playoff contention. His dominating victory Saturday night in the Sharpie 500 - Kenseth's first win in more than a year - pushed him right onto the playoff bubble.

The top 10 drivers in the standings after the Sept. 10 race in Richmond, Va., will be eligible to race for the title, and Kenseth is a mere 11 points out of contention. His climb has taken everyone by surprise, from his rivals to Kenseth himself.

"I was saying the last few weeks that I thought we were out of (the Chase)," Kenseth said. "We were in the late 30s (in the points standings), and we were 200-and-some points out. And not just 200-and-some points out, but we had six cars in between us and 10th.

"That's hard to do - to gain points and have a great day, that can happen. But to have five or six people have trouble and have a great day for several weeks in a row is a difficult task."

Somehow Kenseth has pulled it off. He was as low as 36th in the points standings early in the season, was 20th eight races ago and 15th when he started Saturday night's race.

But after starting from the pole and leading 415 of the 500 laps, Kenseth jumped four spots in the standings to 11th.

Now on the verge of making the Chase, Kenseth could give car owner Jack Roush all five of his drivers in the 10-car field. Roush drivers Greg Biffle (third), Mark Martin (fifth), Kurt Busch (seventh) and Carl Edwards (eighth) are currently in the top 10.

"We've got a really nice group of cars that can go do pretty much on any given day what anybody can do in the business," Roush said. "If we don't put (all five) in the top 10, it's going to be because I've done something to screw them up. I sure don't want to face that."

The Roush contingent will face stiff competition from the drivers vying for their spots.
Gordon, the four-time series champion, raced his way into eligibility with a sixth-place finish Saturday night. It felt almost as good as a victory for Gordon, who has struggled the past two months to put a complete race together.

Considered one of the best drivers in history at adapting over the course of a race, Gordon and his team have struggled lately with changing conditions and mid-race adjustments to the car. The problems have threatened to keep him out of the title hunt, but his Bristol run moved him into the 10th and final qualifying spot.

It's the first time since mid-June that Gordon has been in playoff contention, but Gordon isn't breathing easy yet. He knows he needs strong runs in California and Richmond to lock himself in.

"I'm still concerned," Gordon said. "The way our season's gone, no matter how good we're running, no matter how bad, you just never know what's going to happen."

Earnhardt, meanwhile, isn't concerned about anything.

His team is showing signs of life after a season-long slump, and he was able to rally from starting 41st at Bristol to an eighth-place finish. Still, he's 15th in the standings and would need all five drivers in front of him to have terrible runs for Earnhardt to qualify.

"I'm not even worried about it," he said. "I'm having fun driving these race cars, and that's all I think about. We dug ourselves a pretty big hole (in the points), so I'm just going to keep driving and have a hell of a good time doing it."

One driver not enjoying anything right now is Kevin Harvick, who likely saw his championship hopes eliminated at Bristol when he was inadvertently wrecked by Dale Jarrett.

Harvick dropped two places in the standings to 16th after Jarrett intentionally wrecked Ryan Newman as payback for earlier contact. Harvick was trailing the two cars when Jarrett made a sharp right turn into Newman, and Harvick couldn't avoid running into them.

But instead of blaming Jarrett, Harvick focused on the inability of his Richard Childress Racing team to field a competitive car this season.

"We don't deserve to be in the Chase, anyway," he shrugged.

Harvick has been so frustrated with his team that he has postponed discussing a contract extension with Childress, claiming he doesn't want to lock himself into a new deal until he's comfortable with the direction the team is headed.

Jarrett, meanwhile, likely ended his Chase hopes in a fit of road rage. NASCAR believed he intentionally wrecked Newman and penalized him two laps, causing Jarrett to finish 31st.
It dropped him three spots in the standings to 14th and likely out of playoff contention.
Jarrett left the track without comment, but Newman had plenty to say.

"Mine was unintentional and his was intentional and that's all I'm saying," Newman said.

"NASCAR can do what they want with it. By no means did I purposely wreck Dale Jarrett.
"I was surprised and shocked when he later ran into us. I wasn't expecting it. I'm really disappointed, as is this whole team."

Tradesports Update

2005-08-29T11:48:00.000-04:00

With College and Pro Football season both starting this week I thought it would be appropriate to update you as to the Tradesports markets for both BCS Champion and NFC/AFC conference Champions.

In the NCAA, USC is far and away the favorite to win the Rose Bowl at 33.5/34.9. The University of Texas would be a distant second at 9/9.9. Other teams worth mentioning but priced below Texas would incude Oklahoma, Miami, Michigan, and LSU.

The picture in the NFL has not changed that much since our last update but I have listed the AFC and NFC prices below for the favorites.

NFC

Eagles 27/28 (I still think this is a solid short, bet it and bank your 27 points)
Falcons 12.1/12.5
Panthers 11.6/12.5
Vikings 11.0/12.5

AFC

Colts 22/22.8
Patriots 19.1/21.2 (Alpha thinks the Pats are a solid buy at 21.2)
Steelers 11/11.5
Ravens 10.4/11

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Double Conspiracy?

2005-08-26T10:03:00.000-04:00

I had an interesting thought the other day while I was in my smaller office with the white chair. I was thinking about how watching Cindy Sheehan, Howard Dean, and the rest of the Democratic Party continue their slide into oblivion was in a large part connected to the mega powerful 3.3 Million Member Moveon.Org. For those of you who still believe the lie that the Republicans are the party of the rich you ought to take a look at the braintrust behind moveon.org, it's kind of like looking at the Forbes 400 list. Anyway, Moveon.org is very radical and a bit anti-American to say the least and I was thinking how great it is that they came about because as long as they are around and are influencing the Democrats the left will continue to run as fast as they can from mainstream America and will fast become irrelevant as a national party. So I got to thinking about this and all of sudden I said, "Wa-La."

Just maybe! Just maybe! Moveon.org was actually started by a bunch of very smart Republican double secret agents? Just maybe! Maybe, they said, "hey - we can finally destroy the Democratic Party forever and ever!" So these smart guys decided to run with their idea and they went and got the richest leftists they could find including our good friend George Soros and his buddy John Sperling and conned them into believing their aim was true! George grabbed the idea and started to pour his body, soul, and money into it thinking "we can finally destroy the Republican Party forever and ever!" The problem is that George and John are so rich that they are completely out of touch with what America is and what normal American people are like so it never occurred to them the end result of their actions would be to actually destroy forever the message they so cherished, the message of liberalism.

Howard Dean and Cindy Sheehan are perfect examples of just exactly how this destruction is taking place. The reason these wacko's are so angry with the President and his administration is the Republicans don't even take them seriously anymore. How could you?

You can look at Cindy and tell she is mad. You can listen to the tape of Howard Dean's blood curdling scream and tell that he is mad.

The only way the Democrats will be able to win in the next cycle will be to distance themselves from moveon.org and Howard Dean. Will they do it? I don't think so. I think the Democrats have effectively places themselves in a car with no breaks going down a steep hill with Howard Dean at the steering wheel, and Cynthia McKinney, George Soros, and Cindy Sheehan all trying to take the wheel from him.

We here at Alpha Tickets are all hoping that Dick Cheney will run and mainly to see Helen Thomas off her self in a public way and to see the rage of the left finally go over the cliff at the bottom of that steep hill.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Countdown to September

2005-08-25T09:33:00.000-04:00

Stewart Mandel, SI.Com

You'll have to excuse me, but with the first Saturday of the college football season a mere 10 days away, I no longer can contain my excitement. It's getting to the point where I feel the need to break into song.

When the moooooooon is in the seventh house ...

It's a little strange no longer having a Kickoff Classic or BCA Bowl to serve as an appetizer, like last season's Virginia Tech-USC game. How many hours did the NCAA waste on that decision, and did it somehow determine those events to be "hostile" or "demeaning?"

And Jupiter aligns with Mars ...

And don't give me this South Carolina-UCF-on-Thursday-night b.s., either. I'm supposed to be so excited about Steve Spurrier's return that I should want to watch his Gamecocks play a team that went 0-11 last year?

The peace will guide the planets ...

Arizona-Utah on Friday night is slightly more compelling, but then again, you're going to need a program to recognize anyone on this year's Utes. I think even the trainers followed Urban Meyer to Florida.

And love will steer the stars.

But then there's Saturday! A full-blown, honest-to-goodness, noon-to-midnight slate of gridiron madness. With 10 days to go, here are the 10 things I'm most looking forward to about Sept. 3:

10. Omar Jacobs. I must admit, for all his gaudy numbers, I didn't see the Bowling Green QB in action very much last year. High noon, on ESPN, at Camp Randall. Prediction: Jacobs lights up Wisconsin's rebuilding defense for 380 yards.

9. The Charlie Weis show. Although it's a little ridiculous that a 5-7 and 6-6 team the past two years merits an ABC primetime kickoff and a GameDay visit, I admit to being curious to see whether Brady Quinn suddenly goes Tom Brady on Pittsburgh.

8. Frank Solich visits Northwestern. The ex-Nebraska coach won't really know what he's getting into until his Ohio team plays at Central Michigan or Buffalo, but a season opener at half-empty Ryan Field should provide a nice preview. Curiosity factor No. 2: Whether a Wildcats team that's already lost five projected starters for the season will be able to field 22 by kickoff.

7. Derrick Williams and Justin King. All right, JoePa. You've been building these guys up for eight months. If I'm going to make the effort to find someone who gets ESPNU just to watch your boys take on South Florida, I want to see nothing less than reverses, crazy motion plays, 100-yard kick returns and five-receiver sets.

6. How quickly will USC score 50? I say early in the third quarter. One of the most talented college offenses ever assembled opens its three-peat campaign against Hawaii, one of the nation's worst defensive teams the past several seasons. New coordinator Jerry Glanville should leave his extra tickets not for Elvis, but former player Deion Sanders. The Warriors could use the help defending USC's receivers.

5. My girlfriend's birthday. Yes, believe it or not, it's that day. But in a sign of her considerable coolness, she's agreed to do the actual, reservations-and-champagne birthday dinner a night earlier and join me for dinner on the couch in front of the television Saturday night. Not bad for a girl who just six months ago thought first and 10 were New York City cross streets.

4. Ted Ginn Jr. vs. Ryne Robinson. Ohio State fans are foaming at the mouth waiting for the first time Ginn breaks an 80-yard punt return or turns a short underneath route into a 60-yard touchdown. Who wouldn't want to see that? But you know, the Buckeyes' opening opponent, Miami of Ohio, has a speedster of its own in Robinson, who's returned five punts for scores.

3. Chris Leak running the option. I covered Florida's spring game yet never got to see it happen. I did get to see the junior throw some nifty long passes, but he did that under Ron Zook, too. Something tells me that sometime fairly early against Wyoming, Meyer will dust off his first shotgun triple-option play. Of course, the Cowboys saw it the past two years against Utah.

2. The new Auburn. A prominent Atlanta columnist predicted this week that Georgia Tech not only would win at Jordan-Hare on opening night but that the two teams would finish with the same record: 7-5. Apparently no one's bothered to tell him how good Auburn's defense is. The Tigers might not score much, but there's a distinct possibility stadium workers will need to scrape Jackets QB Reggie Ball off the turf afterward.

1. Boise invades Athens. In one of the most interesting intersectional matchups in recent memory, the WAC's Broncos visit SEC power Georgia, which, according to both the rankings (the Dawgs are No. 13, Boise No. 18) and the oddsmakers (Georgia by 6.5), isn't considered all that much of a favorite. Will Jared Zabransky run wild against the Dawgs' NFL-depleted defense?

Survey says ... not likely, but it will still be a lot more fun to watch than ESPN's 5:30 p.m. ET programming this Saturday: horse racing. Yes, it must be college football season.

By the way, for those of you who got the lyrical reference at the top of the Mailbag ... you're welcome. For those of you who didn't ... please, I beg of you, hurry up and go see The 40 Year-Old Virgin. You'll thank me later.

With all of the hype about Urban Meyer at Florida and Les Miles at LSU, and how those two teams could battle it out for the SEC crown, no one seems to have noticed that a first-year coach never has won an SEC title. What makes Meyer and Miles the favorites to win the conference? --Sam, Thomasville, Ga.

I've been sensing a lot of Meyer-and-Miles skepticism among their SEC rivals, and understandably so. If you're a Tennessee fan, and your coach has been consistently successful for 13 years, you're probably wondering, what's so special about this Meyer guy that he's going to come in and beat the Vols with a team that's lost five games each of the past three years? However, I have to laugh whenever fans reference that "no first-year coach has ever won the SEC title" stat. Fifteen years ago, a guy you may have heard of named Steve Spurrier took over a Florida team that had lost five games the year before and, using an unconventional new offense, led the Gators to the best record in the conference. Technically, they did not win the conference championship, but only because the program was ineligible due to NCAA sanctions.

The situations Meyer and Miles are walking into seem similar, and in fact the very nature of the SEC actually can lend itself to quick success by an outsider (provided there's already talent on hand). The conference is very conservative, with schools usually firing one lifelong Southerner and replacing him with another, who proceeds to run virtually the same system as the guy before him, and the guy before that. Therefore on the rare occasion when someone actually does introduce a new concept, opposing coaches are caught off-guard.

Witness Auburn last season, where offensive coordinator Al Borges, primarily of a West Coast background, came in, installed some nifty new plays and, voila! Using almost the same personnel that lost five games a year earlier, he helped shape an undefeated season. Nick Saban, another "outsider," took over an LSU team that had won three games the year before and led it to eight wins his first season and an SEC title his second. I'm not guaranteeing Meyer or Miles will have that profound of an impact -- in fact, in Miles' case, the high rankings seem based more on the work of his predecessor -- but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the newbies, either.

With all of the talk of high-powered offenses and the spread option, there seems to be a notion that defenses are always trying to "catch up." However, we have seen some great defenses on the last few national title winners. What would you say is the most important component that characterized all these great defenses: raw talent of the players, the scheme itself, or the coach's ability to game plan for a specific opponent? --Steve, San Jose, Calif.

There's no question that every national title winner since 2000 (Oklahoma, Miami, Ohio State, LSU and USC) has had a dominant defense. I would argue the most important aspect of the Trojans' success the past two seasons -- more than Matt Leinart, more than Reggie Bush -- has been their overpowering defensive linemen (Kenechi Udeze, Shaun Cody, Mike Patterson), who helped produce the nation's No. 1 run defense both seasons and paved the way for a combined 105 sacks in 26 games.

If you look at the other teams, the one, unifying theme is dominant defensive linemen (LSU with Marcus Spears and Chad Lavalais, Ohio State with Will Smith and Darrion Scott, Miami with Jerome McDougle and William Joseph), who, in turn, help produce an impenetrable rush defense (In addition to USC's No. 1 ranking, both LSU and Ohio State finished third in the country against the run).

However, you also have to give credit to the minds behind those defenses. Oklahoma's Bob and Mike Stoops did things with disguised coverages and zone blitzes that opposing offenses simply couldn't handle. Saban was on the absolute cutting edge when it came to NFL-style blitz packages. And Pete Carroll's staff is hands-down the best in the country at devising plans to fit a particular opponent (i.e. giving Aaron Rodgers the short stuff but preventing the big plays that allowed the Trojans to hold Cal to 17 points last year, or the way their linebackers went after Jason White in the Orange Bowl in a way few previous opponents had attempted).

Every year, recruiting practices by major programs seem to be getting worse. I just read that Myron Rolle, a top recruit from New Jersey, received a message from Florida governor Jeb Bush [relayed by Florida State University president T.K. Wetherell] to apologize for missing dinner with Rolle while he was visiting the Seminoles. I know FSU is a state school and all, but this seems a little over the top. Do you think the governor of a state should get involved in recruiting high school players? --Keith, New York

As you may recall, the NCAA formed an emergency task force two years ago -- a response in part to the steak-and-lobster treatment of another one-time FSU recruit, Willie Williams -- to enact a stricter set of guidelines on what schools can and cannot do to lure prospects. In fact, just last week Tennessee self-reported a secondary violation after a basketball assistant posted a hand-colored sign next to the Vols' locker room door welcoming a visiting recruit. Only the NCAA would take the time to draft legislation outlawing a sign -- or a personalized jersey, or a putting a player's picture on the JumboTron -- but never think to address whether it's appropriate to invoke the help of the governor in landing a stud cornerback. (Speaking of which, do Miami and Florida get the same favor when they need it?)

Why is it that you only answer quirky questions? I asked about a month ago how you thought Greg Robinson would do at Syracuse and got no response, yet you printed questions about Arrested Development, Jennifer Love Hewitt et. al. What's the deal? --Pete Kiely, Jacksonville Beach, Fla.

Well, Pete, we're dealing with a national audience here, and, no offense, but there's a whole lot more interest in Arrested Development, Jennifer Love Hewitt or any number of other cute-yet-somehow-already-over-the-hill-at-26 actresses than there is about a perennial 6-6 football team that plays its games in a garage in upstate New York.

OK, sorry, that's a little harsh. To answer your question, I have mixed feelings about Robinson. I have great respect for what he did as a coordinator, both with the NFL's Broncos and Texas, and I understand why AD Darryl Gross would want to try to emulate USC's approach by bringing in a defensive-minded guy with pro experience. But USC is USC and Syracuse is Syracuse. USC has both a strong home base and national appeal from which it can recruit the type of athletes necessary to run a pro-style system.

Robinson may well turn the Orange into a dominant defensive team, but I question the decision to go with a West Coast offense. He's going to have a hard time getting a lot of 4.4 receivers from Florida and California to come to snow city. Granted, it's the same challenge Bill Callahan is facing at Nebraska, and he's done quite well recruiting-wise, but Nebraska also has a much more recent history of excellence to sell. There's only so many times you can say to a kid, "Donovan McNabb played here."

Recently I was offered a free trip to Puerto Vallarta by my girlfriend's parents. I was totally stoked for the vacation ... until they told me when we would be making this little voyage. The dates: Dec. 30-Jan. 7. This, as you know, falls during possibly the most exciting week of college football -- and that's especially true when you consider my Hawkeyes could be playing in one of the biggest games of their illustrious history. My question is, do I take the trip or turn it down for the possible chance of seeing Iowa play in a major bowl game? --Fisk, San Diego

I guess it all comes down to just how much faith you have in your boys, Fisk. As far as I know, Puerto Vallarta, though in another country, is not exactly the middle of Bangladesh. I'm sure the hotel gets American TV, and I'm sure you'd have no trouble getting away from the family for four hours to watch Drew Tate and Co. in the Outback Bowl, if that's where they end up. If, however, this does turn out to be the season of all seasons for Iowa, and the Hawkeyes not only reach their first Rose Bowl in 15 years but are also playing for the national title -- and you're stuck watching it at a tiki bar in Mexico while your buddies are in Pasadena -- there's simply no way you're going to live that down for the rest of your life. Sorry, it's true. Choose wisely, my friend.

I'm curious about your thoughts on coaching changes in the Pac-10. Which new coach -- Tyrone Willingham at Washington or Walt Harris at Stanford -- is most likely to significantly improve his team's record in 2005? And which additions/subtractions at the coordinator level do you think will be most significant? --Jeff Stockwell, Winston-Salem, N.C.

In my opinion, Willingham, who's already demonstrated he can win in the Pac-10, is a better coach than Harris. Willingham will return Washington to respectability at some point, whereas I'm not as sold on Harris' chances at Stanford. In the short-term, though, Harris has better personnel on hand -- particularly players who fit his pass-happy system -- and has a better chance of having a good first season.

In terms of coordinators, the obvious "subtraction" that comes to mind is Norm Chow, but I really don't think USC will feel the brunt of his departure until next year. Matt Leinart can coach that offense on his own this season. The true test of Lane Kiffin and Steve Sarkisian will come when they have to break in a new QB, either John David Booty or Mark Sanchez. So for most painful subtraction, I'll go with Oregon State losing offensive coordinator Paul Chryst, who had great success there the past two years but is now at Wisconsin.

The best addition, as I've mentioned several times before in this space, is Gary Crowton as Oregon's new offensive coordinator. Things may not have gone well at BYU, but back when he was at Louisiana Tech there wasn't a much scarier offense in the country (Nebraska fans still remember the day Tim Rattay threw for 590 yards on them).

Being an Alabama alum and lifelong Crimson Tide fan, I've always had a natural hatred for Notre Dame. However, I've also recently developed a severe loathing of Tennessee. When Tennessee and Notre Dame play each other, whom do you think I should pull for to win? My in-laws are die-hard Irish fans, so if I pull for the Vols, they will throw things at me and cut me out of the will. (I am married to their daughter, an Auburn alum). Yet I would rather kiss you on the mouth than root for Notre Dame. What should I do? --Aldon Hughes, Atlanta

Let me get this straight. You're an Alabama fan married to an Auburn fan -- and your in-laws are Notre Dame fans. Are there ever any mornings where you wake up and just want to run away?

But c'mon, Aldon, this isn't hard. Tennessee is your school's hated rival, not Notre Dame. The Vols are the ones who ratted your team out to the NCAA, remember? I thought 'Bama sends you a letter explaining that with your tickets. So, clearly, if given a choice, you have to side with the Irish. But sorry, I don't exactly care to kiss you, either.

Opposite directions

2005-08-24T10:59:00.000-04:00

BROOKLYN, Mich. – When it comes to qualifying for this season's Chase for the Nextel Cup, life has resembled a freeway lately for Matt Kenseth and Elliott Sadler.

Like being mired in stop-and-go traffic, Kenseth has been slowly plodding along in the local lanes, trying to get himself and the No. 17 Ford back into contention for the Chase.
"We're just running the best we can run every week," Kenseth said.

Sadler, on the other hand, has been in the fast lane – in reverse. In the last eight races, he has plummeted 10 spots in the standings from third to 13th.

"I think my worst nightmare has come true," Sadler said. "I've put us in a position where we've got to win the next couple of races to try and get into the Chase."

While most attention in recent weeks has been on whether Jeff Gordon or Dale Earnhardt Jr. will make NASCAR's so-called playoffs, Kenseth has been quietly moving up in the standings.
His third-place run in Sunday's GFS Marketplace 400 at Michigan International Speedway marked his fourth top-five and seventh top-11 finish in the last nine races. During that period, the Wisconsin native has climbed from 24th to 15th in points.

"I still don't think we're quite in the form that we were maybe a couple of years ago or three years ago, but we're turning it around and we're getting better and that's all I can ask for," said Kenseth, who won the Winston Cup championship in 2003.

Being in the top 15 is quite a contrast to where he was a month ago. After finishing 36th in the season's second Pocono race, Kenseth thought his Chase chances were gone.

"After we left there, we were so far behind that I sort of forgot about it," Kenseth said.
But Kenseth suddenly is back in the running – although he quickly adds that time may not be on his side – sitting just 104 points behind 10th-place holder Jamie McMurray.

"All you can do is the best you can every week and let those points fall where they may," Kenseth said. "Yeah, if everything goes perfect the next three weeks we could make it, but it's definitely a real, real long shot.

"We're still trying to get as many points as we can every week and still try to lead laps and try to win if you can and finish as high as you can. So, we'll just see how it shakes out."

Sadler's performance, meanwhile, has been the antithesis of Kenseth's of late, as the Virginian has been mired in one of the worst slumps of his nearly seven-year Cup career.

The driver of the No. 38 Ford tied his season-low (39th) Sunday at Michigan, marking his fourth finish of 32nd or worst in the last six races.

Sadler ran as high as seventh at MIS before making a costly error, losing control of his car and crashing on lap 82. He finished 26 laps down.

"I don't know what I'm doing as a driver to mess up so many times," he said. "I was a little loose in traffic all day, but I didn't really expect it to be that loose. So I just made a driver mistake and I have dug a hole that's maybe too deep for my team to get me out."

Sadler mathematically is still in the hunt, sitting eight points behind No. 12 Gordon, 15 points behind No. 11 Dale Jarrett and only 66 points behind McMurray. He also remains 38 points ahead of Kenseth and 16 points in front of 14th-place Kevin Harvick.

But missing the top 10 in each of the last seven races has definitely cost Sadler. One more bad finish and his Chase hopes will likely be all but gone.

But Sadler does have something to look forward to in the next two races.
Nextel Cup now heads to Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday night's Sharpie 500, where Sadler sat on the pole and finished second in the spring. Sadler also has one of his three career Cup wins there.

If he can avoid trouble and have a strong performance at BMS, he also has high hopes for the following week at California Speedway, where he won last fall.

"We're not going to give up," said Sadler, who is winless this season. "Yeah, we're making our chances a long shot, but it's not over with yet."

Veteran motorsports writer Jerry Bonkowski is a Yahoo! Sports NASCAR analyst. Send Jerry a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Departures aside, Pats are 'talented' bunch

2005-08-23T11:25:00.000-04:00

FOXBORO, Mass. -- It could be I'm just way too into electronics, but when I consider the Patriots and all the challenges they've overcome the past four seasons -- and the new ones some feel will lead to their dethronement -- I can't help thinking of … Radio Shack.

We've got questions. The Patriots, well, usually they've got the answers. They have a way, by the end of the season, of turning "How in the world are they going to?" into "How on earth did they?"

"We have handled a lot of change in the last two years," said linebacker Don Davis, who played two games at safety last season. "Tons and tons of change. Whether we're going to Washington and we have four starters out, or our safeties go down and we have a linebacker playing safety, or we have two street free agents playing corner -- we've been able to step up to the challenge, every single time. So why would this year be any different?"

For starters -- and this is just what some people say -- former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis is now the head coach at Notre Dame, and defensive coordinator Romeo Crennel is the head coach of the Browns. And if that weren't enough, Joe Andruzzi, Tedy Bruschi, Ted Johnson, Ty Law, David Patten and Roman Phifer -- all members of three championship teams -- are gone.

But if we've learned anything about the Patriots, it's that they know how to plug in players. New inside linebackers Monty Beisel and Chad Brown are having trouble plugging holes, but there are a few things to keep in mind about their struggles. First, they're learning a new, highly complex system. Together. Bruschi and Johnson played thousands of snaps in Belichick and Crennel's defense. Together. And it isn't as though Bruschi was the same guy in 2000 that he had been the past two seasons. He got better, enough to become a Pro Bowler. Not to sound like a coach, but if Beisel and Brown continue to work at it as diligently as they have been, they're bound to improve.

The Patriots' problems defending the run in the preseason aren't all their fault, either; there have been breakdowns in other areas, committed by veterans of the system. Plus, there is a lot of thinking that takes place in this defense. Miami is adopting a similar scheme, and after the Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, Zach Thomas talked about how the Dolphins were a step slow because they were thinking and not reacting. The same thing is happening in the middle of New England's defense. The coaches are working to try to figure this out, too, while the rest of the league has spent the last four years studying the Patriots. For all we know, Beisel and Brown might not even start on opening night.

"Anytime a player goes from one system to another," Belichick said, "one thing that could be a problem is breaking old habits. It's not that you don't understand what the new responsibilities or plays are, but just the fact that you've been doing something a long time and you're kind of used to doing it, it's a habit, and that's not what's required in the other system and that means kind of undoing something before you can even start to do something new … There's a period of time where you are a little bit, I don't know, unsure might be the word, or it might just be that you're not reacting as quickly as you would when you become more confident and have experienced more plays."

"I can remember my first year coming here," Davis said. "When you come from a 4-3 to a 3-4, it's just totally different. Your thinking is different. I consider myself a fairly intelligent guy, but it took me a minute to pick it up."

It may take a while for Belichick's young offensive assistants to develop the feel for the game and the gift of anticipation Weis possesses. Certainly, the Patriots will miss him on game days. Still, the offense shouldn't miss a beat. Belichick knows offense; you don't get that good at defense without knowing something about how the other side lives. Belichick has thought this offensive coordinator plan through, for sure, and he believes it will work.

So do his assistants. Ask Belichick the best way to become a good head coach, and he'll tell you it's to hire a good staff. Ask anyone who's seen Belichick then (Cleveland in the early '90s) and now, and he will tell you Belichick isn't as much of a micromanager today. Depth isn't limited to the Patriots' roster. Belichick has coached his young coaches on how to coach his way, a la Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells and Bill Walsh. Receivers coach Brian Daboll, 31, and quarterbacks coach Josh McDaniels, 28, who appear to be the key members of the coordinator committee, both will hold the title of offensive coordinator for some team in the very near future.

For now, though, it's likely that Belichick is trying to protect them by not naming one OC and making him accountable/accessible to the public. "We'll work it out," he said. "We'll call something. Ultimately, in the end, I think I will be responsible for it, just like I've always been. I'm sure when [something] goes wrong you will be asking me about it. I understand that. Whatever we call, ultimately that will be my responsibility. If you want to put me down as the play caller, then go ahead and put me down."

Eric Mangini will do just fine running the defense. He's coached with Belichick for eight years and knows how to teach his scheme. You've seen him work miracles with the secondary the past two seasons. "Sometimes people can be so smart and lose their personality and it's difficult to learn from them," Chad Brown said of Mangini. "He has that teacher side that makes him a great communicator."

I hear folks talking about the Patriots being vulnerable, but I just don't see it. They are deeper in the secondary and they're still stacked at D-line. They look loaded at receiver and should be better on special teams. Tom Brady, Deion Branch, Corey Dillon, Rodney Harrison, Richard Seymour, Adam Vinatieri, et al -- New England still has enough good players to make the new coaches look good.

"Sometimes, when it seems like we've had the most changes," Belichick said, "those have turned out to be some of the better years."

The knock on recent Patriots teams always has been that they "lacked talent." Each championship season they've improved as the year progressed, and they always seem to peak around playoff time. But not this group. This has the potential to be the best of this run.
Two exhibition games. We've had what amounts to a peek at the Patriots. It's too early to declare the dynasty dead.

Michael Smith is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Good Morning Sports Fans

2005-08-22T10:12:00.000-04:00

Well my prediction of Greg Biffle dominating the NASCAR scene in August is not playing out. Greg is currently hanging in at third in the overall standings for the Nextel Cup. I predicted a win at the Brickyard, the GFS, and the Sharpie so I guess I could be right once out of three shots.

Get your Sharpie 500 tickets here:

www.alphatickets.com

I must be maturing

2005-08-19T09:05:00.000-04:00

I just want everyone to know that I have exercised considerable restraint from weighing in on the Cindy Sheehan story. I am sure that most of my readers can guess that I place her in the same group as Tom Cruise, and Terrell Owens. In this case I have restrained only because she is a Mother who has lost her son. Of course her leftist inspired lunacy and rantings at the President have made me almost go over the edge on a daily basis but still I remain silent.

I do have one vent in general at Ms. Cindy, Moveon.org, and all of the other lemmings following the leftist movement without clue.

If this war in Iraq is a war for oil then why in the hell am I paying $70 to fill up my wife's car and close to $50 to fill up mine?

No Mas

2005-08-18T10:50:00.000-04:00

We have finally grown tired of the T.O. debacle just like we did Mr. Cruise. While they are both idiots and we have found a lot of humor in them we can no longer take it. It's time to move on to other things.

As for the Eagles, before the week started I was sure they would repeat as NFC Champions but now that the week is coming to an end I am sure they will not. After all of my T.O. bashing and the smart story I provided you about the Madden and Campbell Soup curses I am positive that the Eagles just have too many obstacles in their way. We also can't forget what a hard time the Eagles had getting into the Super Bowl with their many NFC Championship appearances where they came up short.

On Tradesports.com it may be a smart bet to just start selling the shit out of the Eagles to win the NFC contracts at 28. If I am right you can pick up a nice easy 28 points. Another way to play this is to buy the Falcons, Panthers, and Vikings because you have to figure that one of those three teams will be in the Super Bowl if the Eagles are not.

Until tomorrow - Adios

Rich T.O. Biographical Info

2005-08-17T09:23:00.000-04:00

I was surfing news sites yesterday looking for more scoop on what will happen with Terrell and I found that he has his own web site www.terrellowens.com. If you go to his web site and read his most interesting Bio you will find that:

1) Terrell's Father's name is Tit

2) Terrell's full name is Terrell Eldorado Owens

3) Where Elvis had the Jungle Room in Graceland, Terrell has the Chocolate Room at his Atlanta Mansion.

These are all very funny things about Terrell. I have been getting a lot of mileage out of the Father's name. Hi, please meet my Father, his name is Tit.

Until tomorrow - Adios

More on T.O., My Own Observations

2005-08-16T09:46:00.000-04:00

I once heard someone say that they could not help themselves from watching Howard Dean whenever they saw him on T.V. because it was like watching a car wreck in slow motion. Watching Terrell Owens saga is somewhat like this for me. T.O. is an exceptionally gifted athlete, but not a very smart person. My prediction is that his relationship with the Philadelphia Eagles organization is coming to an end. The Eagles would be smart to either trade T.O. or just flat out release him. It is possible that no team would want the man. He creates such a freak side show wherever he goes and is certainly not what you would want for team chemistry.

T.O. showed himself in Atlanta over the weekend and attended the Atlanta Falcons pre-season matchup against the Baltimore Ravens. Mr. Owens sat right behind the Falcons bench. There was a lot of talk the next day that Owens was trying to get himself traded to the Falcons. It makes a lot of sense when you consider that Owens played on a San Francisco team that had Falcons Head Coach Jim Mora as an assistant coach. Owens has also played with several of the players on the current Falcons roster and maintains a home in the Atlanta Metro area. Owens is from Alexander City, AL which is a short two hour drive from Atlanta. All of these things add up, but one thing does not. In to the picture walks Arthur Blank. Arthur Blank is the owner of the Atlanta Falcons and former head of Home Depot, Inc. Mr. Blank is all business and runs his team in that fashion. In my opinion there is no way in Hell that Arthur Blank will bring a player like T.O. into his organization.

Rumors were flying yesterday that the Eagles were trying to set up a trade with Detroit to send T.O. to the Lions. A spokesperson for the Lions flatly denied this Rumor and said the Lions would not be interested in Terrell.

I think the logical place for Terrell is Oakland. I think Miami ought to send Ricky Williams out to Oakland and the Eagles should send Terrell to Oakland. The Raider Nation would certainly welcome these gifted misfits with open arms. The combination of Williams, Owens, and Moss may be tough to beat if you can keep them out of jail and off drugs.

Meanwhile in the Tradesports market the Eagles have been losing a little ground due to all the controversy surrounding the Owens freak show. The Falcons, Vikings, and the Panthers seem to be equally picking up the slack. Over in the AFC, the Patriots have re-assumed their role as the bettor’s favorite to win the AFC Championship.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

No Way Eagles Will Survive 2005 Season

2005-08-15T09:42:00.000-04:00

This is from Peter Schrager at Fox Sports.com.

I'm one of those ridiculously superstitious sports fans. Friends and family hate watching games with me. Yes, I'm the guy who will sit on the same spot of the same couch for three straight hours as long as my team is winning. I saw absolutely nothing wrong with the 1991 Minnesota North Stars (remember them?) when they refused to change their underwear throughout a dazzling playoff run. Wade Boggs' pregame chicken routine struck me as obvious, not bizarre. And I didn't have to watch Games 4, 5, 6 and 7 of the ALCS last year. The second my buddy Patrick asked me, "Who's it going to be for the Yankees in the World Series — the Astros or the Cardinals?" during the Game 3 blowout at Fenway, I knew all three teams were doomed.

So when I witnessed Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb appear in Sports Illustrated, grace the cover of Madden 06 and show up in a Campbell's Soup commercial — all in a seven-day span — I immediately deemed the Giants NFC East champions. There was no way — no chance — the Eagles were going to survive the 2005-06 season.

You see, the Madden cover curse, the Campbell's soup commercial curse and the Sports Illustrated cover curse (though McNabb merely appeared in the mag and was not actually on the cover) are like the holy trinity of sports hexes. Imagine seeing a black cat, walking under a ladder and saying "candyman" three times into a mirror all at once. That's what Donovan McNabb did this week. Eagles fans better get ready for the Mike McMahon era. Not to be a doom-and-gloomer, but there's simply no possible way McNabb lasts at quarterback for the entire season. You can overcome team conflict, major injuries and a divided lockerroom; you can't overcome the hands of fate.

For those of you unfamiliar with the three curses, let me enlighten you.

The Madden cover curse dates back to 2000, the first year the Electronic Arts video game featured a player instead of John Madden on its cover. Coming into the season, Eddie George was the most consistent running back in the NFL, ready to take the Tennessee Titans to their second straight Super Bowl. Instead, he was the Madden cover boy, suffered an injury-plagued season and saw the Ravens manhandle the Titans three times en route to a Super Bowl trip of their own.

In 2001, Vikings quarterback Daunte Culpepper graced the game's cover. Sure enough, he suffered a season-ending injury in Chicago. 2002's cover boy? Coming off seven straight 1,000 yard seasons, Marshall Faulk rolled his ankle, missed six games and failed to carry the Rams deep into the playoffs. 2003? With the "Madden curse" already of great legend, Michael Vick stood up and assumed the role. As a result, he got hurt, missed most the season and saw the Falcons stumble to a losing record. Last year, Ray Lewis was the game's face. Though he avoided any major injuries, the Ravens went 9-7 and missed the playoffs.

The Campbell's Soup commercial curse, though less publicized, is just as damaging. Over the past few seasons, Chunky soup commercial victims tend to either suffer major injuries or blow big games in clutch situations. After appearing in a few of these ads with an actress playing his mother, Pittsburgh Steelers running back Jerome Bettis battled with injuries throughout the 2002 and 2003 seasons. Kurt Warner, a virtual lock for the Hall of Fame after record-breaking seasons in 1999-2001, has had a disastrous NFL career since his inspiring cameos in the soup commercials. I'm convinced Terrell Davis' early retirement can be directly linked to his involvement in these ads. Neil Smith? Done. Out of the league altogether. Brian Urlacher? The guy's like the Allan Houston of football — apparently really talented, but always in street clothes, injured on the sidelines. After Michael Strahan became the face of the soup ads, the New York Post discovered that he had been guilty of foul play, messing around with the nanny behind his wife's back. He also spent most of last season out with an injury.

And then there's Donovan McNabb. Lest we forget the fourth quarter of last year's Super Bowl? Yes, Andy Warhol or not, there's something "funky" linked to these soup cans.

The granddaddy of sports curses, though, has to be the Sports Illustrated cover jinx. Granted, McNabb only appeared in last week's issue, not on the magazine's front cover. Nevertheless, the coincidence of any article focused on McNabb (this one on his workout routine) and his tumultuous week in the headlines can not be ignored. Some of the famous Sports Illustrated cover hexes? Here's just a few from the past 15 years:

Sept. 30, 1991: Ramon Martinez graces the cover with the Dodgers up two games in the National League West. Martinez subsequently loses his next two starts, and the Dodgers finish the season a game behind the Braves.

Aug. 30, 1993: Florida State kicker Scott Bentley is the face of the college football preview. He goes on to miss seven extra points that season.

April 25, 1994: Dan "Big Daddy" Wilkinson headlines the NFL Draft Preview. Ten years later, it is safe to say "Big Daddy's" NFL career was nothing more than a "Big Bust."

Jan. 13, 1997: Kerry Collins and Mark Brunell appear on the cover after leading their expansion teams to the NFC and AFC championship games. Sure enough, both teams lose the next week.

Oct. 20, 1997: After upsetting top-ranked Florida, LSU's football team gets the cover. They lose the next week to Ole Miss 36-21.

Aug. 13, 2001: Sports Illustrated preseason No. 1 Oregon State is on the cover of the College Football Preview. They go 5-6 and fail to play in a bowl game.

Nov. 26, 2001: Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch is the SI cover boy. His next game, Colorado upsets the Huskers 62-36.

Combine these three jinxes, and it should be to absolutely no one's surprise that Donovan McNabb was front and center in the week's biggest sports controversy. At this point, Eagle fans might want to stop reading (if they haven't already). Unfortunately, it seems as though things are only going to get worse.

Todd Pinkston's season-ending injury? Hmm…

Freddy Mitchell got injured too. Though he's not even an Eagle anymore, it seems as though anyone ever linked with McNabb is going down.

If I were an Eagle player, I probably wouldn't leave the house this preseason. Bad things will undoubtedly happen.

Ugh, and now Rush Limbaugh wants to get involved. It's only August, and already these curses are overlapping, producing disastrous results. Run for the hills, Eagles fans. Run for the hills. Watch the Phillies blow the NL wild card now too. Yes, hexes such as these are so powerful, that they carry over to different sports too.

All in all, I'm rooting for Donovan McNabb. If he defies the football gods and leads the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory, he will free me from my many strange superstitious rituals. He will also put to rest three of the most powerful sports jinxes.

I just don't have much faith. It's one thing to win an argument with Terrell Owens. It's another to defy destiny.

You can e-mail FOXSports.com contributor Peter Schrager at PeterSchrager@gmail.com.

Freak Style

2005-08-11T10:56:00.000-04:00

This piece is from John Clayton at ESPN.COM on TO.

Eagles knew T.O. spelled trouble

By John Clayton ESPN.comArchive

In retrospect, Terrell Owens should have followed through on his threat to hold out of training camp. By showing up and having a verbal fight with coach Andy Reid that caused him to leave the Philadelphia Eagles camp Wednesday, Owens did a disservice to himself and the Eagles.

The Eagles knew Owens could be trouble. They put clauses in his $49 million to protect themselves for situations like Wednesday. According to his contract, Owens could be forced to pay back $1.725 million of his $2.3 million signing bonus if he's involved in any incident that is considered conduct detrimental to the team.

Clearly, a verbal fight with his head coach is conduct detrimental. Supposedly, Owens was suspended for refusing to attend a mandatory autograph session, and for practicing away from the rest of the team. That was violation of his contract because it clearly states he has to do some mandatory signings.

Whether he was told to go home or left on his own Wednesday is irrelevant. Owens' attitude kept getting worse as camp dragged on. Quarterback Donovan McNabb said last week his relationship with Owens was businesslike, a clear dropoff from the good relationship of a year ago.

Owens went his way after practice. McNabb went another way. It's similar to the way Owens reacted with Jeff Garcia before Owens had some blowups with his former 49ers quarterback. Owens and McNabb are two of the best offensive talents in the game. They don't have to be buddy-buddy to be successful on the field.

But, by showing up and getting the one-week suspension, Owens is only causing his problems with the team to bubble over. Pretty soon, it's going to be hard for McNabb and the offense to accept him back.

The problem for the Eagles is that the team needs Owens more than ever. Todd Pinkston is out for the season with a torn Achilles. Greg Lewis is too short to be asked to be the other starter. Lewis is a great inside threat because of his great speed. Second-round choice Reggie Brown has to come through just to make the three-receiver set work, but it's going to be hard for the Eagles to think Super Bowl if Lewis and Brown are the starters.

Something has to be done to patch this relationship. A suggestion would be telling Owens what is probably ahead for him after the season. While the Eagles can't let Owens win by having his way in getting a new contract or his release, the two sides need to part ways after the season. He has a $7.5 million roster bonus that was purposely negotiated as a way to either firm up the relationship or simply say two years was enough.

Telling Owens this will be his final year in Philadelphia could be the settlement of the differences. First, Owens would get what he wants free agency and a chance at a bigger contract. Second, this wouldn't be a contract renegotiation. It's just making a decision. For the Eagles, Owens creates too many distractions for the relationship to go beyond two years.

Pinkston's injury leaves the Eagles in a tough spot. They need Owens if they want to be in the NFC title game. They have to get through this year and then say goodbye to him.

It's management's job to provide leadership and direction. Owens' direction with the Eagles is clearly heading out the door. So tell him. Tell T.O. to be on his best behavior the rest of the season and let him start making plans for the future.

In the meantime, the Eagles can start shopping for replacements. Maybe they can make a trade with the Falcons for Peerless Price, who doesn't have a long future in Atlanta as a $5 million-a-year third receiver. Price is a very good second receiver. It didn't work in Atlanta for him being a No. 1 receiver, but he could be a good No. 2 for the Eagles.

The Eagles got a steal when they got Owens for two second-day draft choices. His presence in the offense helped propel them to their first Super Bowl under Reid. But good things can turn bad and the problems only get worse for Owens in Philadelphia.

If Owens knows he is a free agent after the season, he can focus on his game and help the Eagles win. The situation wouldn't be this ugly had Owens simply stayed out camp. Owens wouldn't be in a position to lose $1.725 million. The Eagles wouldn't have such a disrupted training camp.

Holdouts normally aren't good. Under the circumstances, though, an Owens holdout would have made life a little easier for Eagles in their Lehigh training camp.

John Clayton is a senior writer for ESPN.com.

Super Freaky 2

2005-08-10T15:54:00.000-04:00

I hate to double blog in a day but this is breaking news....

Word is that T.O. has left the Eagles training camp at Lehigh University.

There are reports this afternoon that wide receiver Terrell Owens exchanged words with Head Coach Andy Reid at a team meeting and was asked to leave.

Owens then got his belongings and cleared out of Eagles training camp at Lehigh University, according to one television report.

Welcome to the Republican Party

2005-08-10T09:16:00.000-04:00

I did not write what you will find below, but I wish I did. I found this piece this morning and thought it was so right on that I had to share it with you.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. She considered herself to be a very liberal Democrat, but her father was a staunch Republican. One day she was challenging her father on his beliefs and his opposition to high taxes and welfare programs. He stopped her and asked how she was doing in school.

She answered that she had a 4.0 GPA, but it was really tough. She had to study all the time and never had time to go out and party. She didn't have time for a boyfriend and didn't really have many college friends because of spending all her time studying. On top of that, the part-time job her father insisted she keep left absolutely no time for anything else.

He asked, "How is your friend Mary?"

She replied that Mary was barely getting by. She had a 2.0 GPA, never studied, but was very popular on campus, didn't have a job, and went to all the parties. She was always complaining about not having any money, but didn't want to work. Why, she often didn't show up for classes because she was hung over.

Dad then asked his daughter why she didn't go to the Dean's office and request that 1.0 be taken off her 4.0 and given it to her friend who only had a 2.0. That way they would both have a respectable 3.0 GPA. Then, she could also give her friend half the money she'd earned from her job so that her friend would no longer be broke.

The daughter angrily fired back, "That wouldn't be fair. I worked really hard for my grades and money, and Mary just loafs. Why should her laziness and irresponsibility be rewarded with half of what I've worked for?"

The father slowly smiled and said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

The Deportation Blues

2005-08-09T12:47:00.000-04:00

I do not really have time for a full fledged blog today due to Sarah being out at the immigration department all day. Sarah is in hopes of finally obtaining her "green card" or permanent residency. Sarah hails from England, but since she came to America she has married my good and helpful fishing buddy Joel Pharr, had a child named Evan, bought a car, bought a house, and has a pretty decent job working for me so needless to say she wants to stay! We want her to stay also. Sarah has proven to be a great employee and friend. The worst case scenario for todays appointment would be that they deport her and while her family in England would welcome her with open arms we would all be at a loss without her here.

Good luck Sarah!

T.O. - A Super Freak, Super Freaky

2005-08-08T11:23:00.000-04:00

I think a reality show starring Terrell Owens may be almost as interesting as, "Being Bobby Brown." Maybe they ought to take some cameras out to Lehigh University and film some of the Philadelphia Eagles Training camp. Below you will find a piece that I read off ESPN.com this morning that I thought you all might find interesting.

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- Just as the sun came up Friday morning over what's called South Mountain at Lehigh University and began the day-long process of baking the Eagles practice field into a soufflé of stifling humidity and sweat, Philadelphia Mayor John Street showed up.
"I'm here to see Donovan," Street said. "I plan to tell them I'm looking forward to a trip to Detroit."

Within minutes, Street was on the sideline, and Donovan McNabb, all smiles, spotted him. Terrell Owens was in the training room for the second straight day, nursing a groin injury, so McNabb had shed the tension he'd exhibited all week.

He was loose, joking around with Greg Lewis and Reno Mahe, putting on a show in front of the mayor. When coach Andy Reid blew the whistle and the team shifted practice fields, McNabb stopped and grabbed the mayor's outstretched hand. The mayor got right down to business.

"I'm ready to go to Detroit," said Street, referring to the site of this season's Super Bowl.
McNabb let out his trademark hearty laugh.

"I'm looking forward to that parade," said McNabb, quickly joining his teammates. And Mayor Street joined about 15,000 of his constituents to witness another chapter in the longest running soap opera in all of pro football.

No one can stay away from Lehigh. The intrigue and drama change daily. The theater is fascinating and complex -- just like the cast of characters.

After losing three consecutive NFC championship games, the Eagles finally got within three points of winning their first Super Bowl. But their mercurial star wide receiver -- who many in the league warned the Eagles would be more of a cancer than a cure -- became a strange sideshow on a team that has been tortured by some of the more bizarre happenings in NFL history.

And the people of Eagles nation -- from the mayor to union workers -- are fixated on staying to the end, determined to find out how it all turns out. What is the final chapter? Will Owens pout his way through the season and cause the team to fall deeper into dysfunction? Or will McNabb blaze a trail to the Lombardi Trophy?

Terrell Owens has expended his good will with Philly fans. For the most part, Owens has been mute about his mindset. In a very curt interview with a local TV reporter, Owens said, "If it wasn't for my family ... I wouldn't be here." His body language and tone of voice suggested he was only in camp out of a sense of obligation.

In the process, Owens has kept his distance. After practice one day last week, he put on his noise-eliminating headphones and shot baskets by himself with an under-inflated ball in a parking lot behind the Eagles locker room on campus. It was a sad sight for a man who one year ago was celebrated as a savior.

In one year, he's gone from Prometheus to pariah.

Now, during practice, players do not come up to him and volunteer conversation. He walks on and off the field by himself, staring straight ahead, ignoring fans and cameras. Last year, he roomed with McNabb. This year, he's rooming alone.

The Eagles' public relations staff, which won the Pete Rozelle Award last season for P.R. excellence, has been jumping through hoops to try to anticipate what he wants, while keeping the media mollified. Reporters were so skeptical of Owens' groin injury on Thursday that, after the afternoon practice, Reid held an unscheduled media availability to emphasize his unhappy wide receiver was not faking it.

"He wouldn't do that," said Reid, even though no one suggested publicly that Owens would.

The fans, too, don't know what to think. On his first morning of practice Wednesday, Owens was greeted with hearty boos, then cheers. And then boos erupted again when he dropped a deep rainbow from McNabb. Owens has expended all the public relations capital that he built up last season -- the spectacular showmanship and the miraculous return from injury to play in Super Bowl XXXIX, all of that has been forgotten in the long spring and summer of his discontent.

Why wouldn't the fans have a schizophrenic reaction to Owens? His behavior has been impossible to predict. One day he wanted to be traded or cut, saying "I don't have to play for the Eagles." The very next day he announced he was coming to training camp because he didn't want to lose money in fines or the signing bonus the Eagles were ready to recoup.

"I plan to boo him all year long," said Jim Buchanon, a truck driver from northeast Philly.

"He's just trying to get his money," said Angela Arlen of Bala Cynwyd, Pa., who says she became an Eagles fan because of Owens. "The Eagles are making so much money. Look at all these fans here."

The mayor came equipped with an opinion.

"They are tough," said Street, referring to Eagles owner Jeff Lurie and team president Joe Banner. "This is their business. They can't be focused on one player. They have to be concerned with the big picture."

Street also recognized what is the worst-kept secret in the city -- that McNabb and Owens have become estranged. "They need to work it out," Street said. "They will."

It all started when Owens said to ESPN.com, "I wasn't the one who got tired in the Super Bowl." McNabb reacted angrily, saying "Just keep my name out of your mouth."

And that's exactly what the quarterback has attempted to do. In news conferences and interviews, McNabb refuses to utter Owens' name. For example, when Todd Pinkston got hurt on Thursday, McNabb said, "We had one wide receiver go down yesterday and Todd today."

Referring to Owens as "one wide receiver" was a significant clue that McNabb can't bring himself to give Owens any personal respect right now.

McNabb was asked if he needed to have a one-on-one summit with Owens to iron things out.

"I particularly don't want a private moment -- not right now," McNabb said. "It's really not needed. He's going through his situation, and that's between him and his agent, and management. The situation I'm going with is just making sure I'm doing the right thing out here on this field."

"I don't think you particularly have to like the individual or hang out with the individual," McNabb added. "I think you all have to have a good business relationship."

But this is not IBM. It's the NFL, where coaches constantly preach building team chemistry and forming the kind of family bond that can turn winners into champions.

Don't forget that no team since the Miami Dolphins in 1972 has lost the Super Bowl, then won it the following year. So this season the Eagles are attempting to make some serious history. They need to make it easier on themselves.

Early Indications

2005-08-05T10:29:00.000-04:00

Nobody is selling rooms, nobody is selling tickets. It is now August 5th, the first pre-season football games will be played this weekend and we still have yet to sell a Super Bowl ticket. This is highly unusual. We normally sell a few right after the last Super Bowl is over and then a few more during the early summer and around the start of training camp. This year we have sold none. I just did something I said I would not do, which was to lower our prices on Super Bowl tickets. We are still not the lowest priced broker in the universe but like I always say to those looking at the lowest price, "you get what you pay for and sometimes that is nothing." I did not lower our prices dramatically, but I lowered them just slightly. We will see if things start to pick up here once the season gets underway.

We are also still getting quite a few calls from people who want to unload hotel rooms which is another bad sign. Hell, it was this early last year that a panic started to ensue around the lack of hotel rooms in Jacksonville.

The Falcons will get it on with the Colts tomorrow morning at around 5am EST. In case you did not know the game is in Tokyo.

Thanks again to John Poggendorf for writing our blog for us yesterday. He did a fine job yesterday even though we may disagree with his assessment on the Auburn/LSU matchup. However, I do agree with John the USC will run the table and play for all the marble in the Rose Bowl. My brother-in-law, Matt Bruder, has been working for us this summer while on break from High School and he read John's blog and disagreed with the USC theory. Matt believes that Arizona State will beat the Trojans, and he believes it so strongly that he bet me $10 that USC will not play in the Rose Bowl. We went ahead and priced out the Rose Bowl yesterday and put up a page on our web site. You can check it out at http://www.alphatickets.com/rose-bowl-tickets.htm.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

The View from Prescott, AZ

2005-08-04T09:15:00.000-04:00

My name is John Poggendorf. All together now: WHO? Pronounced….HOW???

I live in Prescott, AZ. And that would be…..WHERE? 30 miles from nowhere and 20 from water?

And I’m spewing a few unbiased words on what Division 1 College Football Phanatics might expect to see this season…..WHY? Either because the owner of this blog needed a breather, or because he thinks the view is clearer from someplace where there’s nothing for a college football fan to do but keep up on the current, or during the annual great sports blackout (aka: baseball season), the next Division 1 College Football season (say: “Hallelujah!”).

I come from both the land and time of football’s Big 10 Tyranny, and was considered a heretic for following the likes of Texas A&M, Tennessee, Clemson, Auburn, GA Tech, VA Tech, West VA, LSU and my beloved USC (the REAL USC, the Trojans) and having the chutzpa to say they put a better grade of ball on the field than Woody and Bo. I still say it….and it’s truer today than it ever was! Now you get how unbiased this is all gonna be!

But back to the assignment. Here’s my psychohistorical take on what can we the addicted can look for in the way of world class adrenalin rushes this coming season.

Overall, I think we see my USC Trojans playing Tennessee for all the marbles in The Rose Bowl on Jan 4th. In fact, I’ve already asked the owner of this blog for two tickets to the game. But how do we get there, and more invigorating what are the key games en route to Pasadena?

First things first: If anyone runs the table this season, it’s USC. But even that could be in jeopardy. In the off season we lost half our coaching staff including Norm Chow (at least he’s in the pro’s) and a ton of defense both on the line and at linebacker. But we had a great recruiting year, remain deep at every position, return a star-studded offense and do have Dallas Sartz and Keith Rivers at LB. If we remain focused and healthy USC goes undefeated. Arizona State (Oct 1) will push us very hard. But more than ASU or even Cal, the game I’m looking forward to most is a late season contest with Fresno State (Nov 19). They are a dramatically underrated squad in my opinion, returning a ton of lettermen and a superb defense. And….don’t forget this is Pat Hill’s live audition for inclusion in the soon-to-be PAC 12, a seat they richly deserve! Beware Fresno State!!!

The SEC is THE power in college football….period! But Tennessee gets to the Rose Bowl to play USC with a wealth of wealth. They’re solid and deep everywhere you look: a defensive front, linebackers and secondary that can stop trains; skill extraordinaire; the single best recruiting year in the country; improved special teams….and more. If the Vol’s get past their back-to-back killer games against @ Florida (Sept 17) and much worse @ LSU (Sept 24) they go all the way too. I think the Vol’s loose at Tiger Stadium but they win the SEC Championship and BCS-rate their way to Pasadena.

LSU is my other personal heartthrob of a team. The fans make for a rough crowd more often than not, but I L-O-V-E dem Bayou Bengals. This year LSU is one of the most gifted teams in the country! The main fears for me this year with LSU is the new head coach situation in general and the uncertainly of the quarterback situation in particular. Miles style is visibly different from Saban’s and will have some difficulties with the treasure trove of remaining (and recently recruited) Saban-style players. Then there’s JaMarcus Russell’s uneven, dare we say it erratic, performances. If he settles down all’s right in Baton Rouge; if he doesn’t Miles goes with true freshman and #2 QB recruit in the country Ryan Perrilloux (second to #1 Mark Sanchez who went to USC thank you very much). The problem there is that as good as Perrilloux is, he’s a true freshman QB in the SEC. Think that through.

The first real Seldon crisis of the 2005-6 season rears it’s ugly head early on Sept 10 when Ohio State plays Texas. This will be a rape-and-pillage, take-no-prisoners barfight between two of the country’s best teams that will define both their seasons and their post season bowl rankings. Texas brings fantastic offensive and defensive lines into play and an unbelievably talented young QB to the party while Ohio State returns nearly everyone, has it’s QB situation now in hand, sports superb linebackers on “D” and world-class wide-outs on offense. But…they play in The Horseshoe. The long and short of this is that I see Texas losing to Ohio State here. Then Ohio State has trouble with Iowa and ultimately drops its season finale’ to Michigan in the Big House which takes the Buc’s out of the hunt while Texas rolls on from here but plays a mega-weak schedule…..thus putting both Texas and Ohio State out of the hunt for a Rose Bowl berth.

Other than these, the “must see” games for me all year are:
(1) LSU –vs- Auburn on Oct. 22 @ Death Valley. Were Saban at the helm for the Bayou Bengals I’d be more comfortable, but the 10-9 Auburn win last year and 130+ decibels in Death Valley’s North End year will be enough. GEAUX TIGERS!!!
(2) Bama –vs- Auburn on Nov 19 @ Jordan-Hare. Bama wants revenge but TS. Fly War Eagle!
(3) Boise St. –vs- Fresno State on Nov 12 @ Fresno. An aerial circus and bare-knuckled brawl all the way and for the WAC Title even though it’s early. Go Dawgs!
(4) Georgia –vs- Florida on Oct 29 in The Swamp. The annual hate spree made all the worse by last years 31-24 Georgia win. Go Gators!
(5) GA Tech –vs- Clemson on Oct 29 in Atlanta. Both in the top 25 and a real grudge match given last years 28-24 GA Tech win at Clemson. GO JACKETS!!!
(6) Tennessee –vs- Florida on Sept. 17 @ The Swamp. Especially after last years 30-28 Tennessee win in Knoxville. What a bar-fight this will be! GO VOLS!!!
(7) Miami –vs- VA Tech on Nov 5 in Blacksburg. Last year 16-10 advantage VA Tech. I’m going out on a limb here and say this year VA Tech surprises Miami again…and embarrassingly by more. Go Hokies!
(8) And lastly….every SEC game you can catch. Guys who are 3rd and 4th on the depth charts in the SEC could darn well start for clubs in other conferences. There IS no off week for any team this year in the SEC!

FIGHT ON!

John Poggendorf

Busy Busy

2005-08-03T15:17:00.000-04:00

In an effort to provide the search engines with their much needed fresh daily content I write to you today only to let you know that there will be no blog entry for the day. We are just too damn busy here at Alpha Tickets. Please check back tomorrow. Later this week we will have a guest entry from my good and knowledgeable friend John Poggendorf of Prescott, AZ. John will update all of you on what we can expect when the pigskin hits the field in the NCAA this fall.

Adios!

NFL Tradesports/Ticket Reserve Update

2005-08-02T10:28:00.000-04:00

Here we are in August with training camp almost over and the first pre-season NFL games fast approaching. Things are heating up and teams are starting to come together. Consequently we have started to see some action and minor changes in the markets for conference champions. Both conferences still favor the same teams but there has been some movement amongst some other teams that we have no discussed here yet.

Below I will list the Tradesports and Ticket Reserve prices for specific teams to reach the Super Bowl. The Tradesports prices are prices of 0-100 contracts that will trade all season long and if the underlying team wins the conference the contract will expire at a value of 100, and if not 0. In the meantime, the prices of the contracts will fluctuate with the fortunes of the team. One way to look at it is if the Eagles are 26.8/29.7 that means it would cost you 29.7 per contract and that the price reflects that bettors see the Eagles as a 30% chance to win the conference. The Ticket Reserve prices are prices for what they call Fan Forwards. A Fan Forward gives the holder the right to purchase one Super Bowl ticket at face value if the underlying team on the contract reaches the Super Bowl by winning its conference championship.

NFC Tradesports Ticket Reserve

Philadelphia Eagles 26.8/29.7 699

Atlanta Falcons 9.5/10.9 100

Minnesota Vikings 9.6/11.7 125

Carolina Panthers 8.6/9.9 125

AFC

Indianapolis Colts 17.0/20.9 225

New England Patriots 18.0/18.9 369

Pittsburgh Steelers 9.0/10.9 245

Baltimore Ravens 9.7/11.9 99

I am here to go on record as saying there is only one way the Indianapolis Colts make it to the Super Bowl and it is the same way the Atlanta Falcons will have to do it. Home Field Advantage throughout the playoffs.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

She's Back!

2005-08-01T10:25:00.000-04:00

All of us here at Alpha Tickets were very relieved on Friday when Ainu appeared again for her second post. While we were concerned that she may have killed herself after her inaugural blog it appears that she is only minorly disturbed and claims to find humor in the dark side of life. We here at Alpha Tickets can certainly appreciate the dark side of life since we work inside of it everyday. You can check out the warm currents blog at http://kuroshio.blogspot.com/.

If you read my blog from last week about forcing Nature's hand it seems to have worked. Temperatures here in the Southeast have come down by about ten degrees since I started drinking brown liquor again. Hell, it was even cool enough on Friday that I fished in the afternoon. I went out with my good and helpful friend Joel Pharr and we caught a slew of bass on a variety of different soft baits. I landed a 5lber on a YUM dinger! The world of soft plastic baits is an ever growing world and it includes some of the craziest product names. I will soon be devoting an entire blog to soft plastic baits for your amusement.

The Brickyard 400 is this weekend and we are in the late stages of covering orders. The event is following the same predictable pattern which is buy them at less than face and try like hell to get face out of them. If you have to send them to the street, May God Bless you, because more than likely they will come right back to you unsold like a boomerang.

The PGA Championship is almost here starting next Monday at Baltusrol in Springfield, NJ. The tickets for this event are also predictably below face with the exception being the Sunday ticket which is the only day that is sold out. The Sunday tickets are going for around $130 for the grounds pass which puts it significantly above face value. Tiger Woods is hot, can he do it again?

Until tomorrow - Adios!

I drink my coffee from a Bagpuss Mug

2005-07-29T09:38:00.000-04:00

Bagpuss is a magical cat. When he wakes up, all his friends come to life. He can also make his thoughts visible in bubbles above his head
All in all, he's just an old, saggy cloth cat. Baggy, and a bit loose at the seams.But Emily loved him.

Bagpuss was a BBC TV children's programme, first shown in 1974 and oft-repeated throughout my childhood. It was a product of the fertile and frankly strange minds of Oliver Postgate and Peter Firmin, whose company, Smallfilms, also spawned such famous offspring as Noggin the Nog, Ivor the Engine and of course, the Clangers. (There were others too, apparently, such as Pogle's Wood, but I'm too young to remember those...)

Innocent fun though it seemed at the time, Bagpuss shares a characteristic of many children's programmes of that era, that being a suitability for post-modern reappraisal. However, far from containing the famous references to 60s counter-culture present in The Magic Roundabout, it instead represents a much more considered and politically aware study of world culture, social forces and examination of humankind's place in the world. Honestly. It does.

The Setting

All activity takes place within the realm of the shop: the shop which is unusual because "it didn't sell anything". All the toy characters move within this setting, although we as viewers are made aware that another, outer sphere of activity does exist, the 'street' where we see sepia pictures of Emily and other children (her sisters? Friends? Fellow intergalactic omnipotent superbeings? We can only wonder.)

The Characters

The closest thing we possess to an authorial statement on the significance of the characters is the epilogue which ended every episode. Here it is, followed by a deeper analysis of each toy in turn:

Bagpuss gave a big yawn, and settled down to sleep. And when Bagpuss goes to sleep, all his friends go to sleep too.

The mice are ornaments on the Mouse Organ, Gabriel and Madeleine are just dolls. And

Professor Yaffle is just a carved wooden book-end in the shape of a woodpecker.

Even Bagpuss himself, once he is asleep, is just an old, saggy cloth cat; baggy and a bit loose at the seams. But Emily loved him.

Bagpuss, Himself

The dreamer, the existentialist hero, through whose eyes everything is seen, and who, through a process of doubt and questioning, manages to synthesise all possible reasonings and pathways into one affirmative act.

Professor Yaffle

A 'carved wooden bookend in the shape of a woodpecker'. Catchphrase: 'Nyek nyek nyek nyek'. Represents the intellectual, with the implication that traditional forms of knowledge are stagnant, in a petrified form which cannot develop ('carved', 'wooden'). Frequently disapproved of the antics of the other denizens of Emily's shop, yet usually failed to come up with any better ideas. Conventional "book" learning is therefore shown to be inferior to the intuitive, instinctive approach to problem-solving favoured by Bagpuss.

The Mice on the Mouse Organ

They represent the workforce, the proletariat. Normally frozen on the mouse organ (the 'organ' of the state which controls and represses them) they are animated by the waking of Bagpuss, showing the enervative power that a single individual's vision can wield within society. They serve a dramatic function similar to that of the Chorus in Greek tragedy, speaking mainly as a collective, with Charlie Mouse acting as Leader of the Chorus. The plays of Sophocles, however, are notable for their lack of anyone singing "We will wash it, we will scrub it..."

Madeleine the Rag Doll

Some sort of maternal figure. Told a lot of stories, representing folk wisdom, the inherited learning which is traditionally associated with the home and therefore the established feminine role. Also wore a stripey dress, the sociopolitical significance of which has yet to be determined.

Gabriel the Toad

Played a banjo and sang songs which invariably contained a message; a possible association with the Angel Gabriel who was messenger of God. However, he was never shown to have a direct line to the wisdom of Emily (see under Emily) or the People Who Had Lost The Things. Possibly this indicates that conventional religious teaching is far removed from the truly spiritual. Or maybe not. Most critics consider he and Madeleine to be the most boring characters, and this one is no exception.

Emily

Probably the most interesting and challenging character. We know that she is a little girl and she owns a shop. She is frequently associated by critics with God, or at least a 'Godot' type figure who does not actually appear. However, it should be noted that, while Bagpuss and his friends require Emily to awaken them, they are not actually waiting for her. She provides them with lost and damaged objects, as a proof of her existence and of her love, but the true uncertainty in the minds of the toy characters is directed not towards her, but towards the People Who Had Lost The Things, who may someday return to reclaim those items.

The PWHLTTs, as I shall call them, are even more of a mystery than Emily. We know certain facts about Emily, such as her ownership of a shop, and her love for Bagpuss, but the only two available facts about the PWHLTTs are:

(1) They have lost a particular item (a single ballet shoe, a cloth house that turns inside out...and several other esoteric items).

(2) They will, at some unspecified future date, return to reclaim it.

It is generally assumed that the PWHLTTs will be grateful to have their belongings cleaned, mended, and restored to order, and this would seem to associate them with Supreme Beings who require veneration and tribute from lesser beings. However, we are not led to believe that they will be angry if they are not served, but rather that they may be simply unhappy to remain without their belongings.

The relationship between Emily and Bagpuss is one of mutual interdependence. Bagpuss and his friends require Emily to reanimate them and to provide objects for them to restore. But Emily also requires Bagpuss to do this work for her: although she owns the shop, she cannot do the work herself. Emily's unconditional love is a comfort in the void of human existence, but even this comfort does not eliminate uncertainty about the future, or about the true nature of the People Who Had Lost The Things.

The Psychoanalytical Approach

So far we have only examined one possible deconstruction of Bagpuss. Bagpuss himself could be seen as inhabiting the earthly realm, while Emily moves on the divine plane, but this is a very traditionalist view. A modern, more psychoanalytical interpretion might be that the 'real' world as we know it is the outside world inhabited by Emily. Bagpuss and his friends occupy the inner world of consciousness, and represent not forces within society but within the mind of a human being. Not just one human, in fact. Bagpuss could be said to exist within the mind of each one of us, a creative force that lies dormant but full of potential. He only needs to be awakened. Or something.

Forcing Natures Hand

2005-07-28T10:41:00.000-04:00

This summer has been one of the longest and lately hottest summers I can remember. I just can not wait for cooler temperatures and football season. Truth be known, I hate summer. It is my least favorite season. You will never hear me bitch during the winter about how cold it is. The summer just sucks for a multitude of reasons. Trout fishing gets real slow here in Georgia during the summer due to high temperatures and lots of rain and about the only time you can Bass fish is in the later hours just before dark. Baseball, America's former passion now replaced by NFL, who needs it - I just can't stand it. Hell, I would rather watch my two dogs fight or attempt intercourse than watch baseball. Somedays it's just too damn hot to go outside at all. I just can not wait to be able to sit on my back deck and enjoy a cocktail in the evenings and the pleasant world of late summer/early fall.

Last night in a moment of frustration with this heatwave and this long summer I made a decision that I would attempt to force nature’s hand. I went to the liquor store and I bought myself a bottle of Wild Turkey and some Sweet Vermouth and then when I got home I resumed my normal pattern of drinking Manhattan's. Frankly I have grown quite tired of white liquor drinks and the weather in which we drink them. My hope is that maybe the liquor god's and the god's of weather will get together and say, "Enough is enough!" This poor boy in Georgia is drinking bourbon again we need to turn the air down for him.

Screw baseball and the boy's of summer with their beer and hot dogs. Bring me bourbon, pigskin, and a change in the weather!

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Ryder Cup 2006

2005-07-27T09:39:00.000-04:00

The Ryder Cup will be back again in 2006. The event will take place at the K Club, in Straffan, County Kildare, Ireland. Looks like a beautiful club and a great location for the event. You can check out their web site at www.kclub.ie.

I read this week that PGA Europe will be notifying lottery participants sometime in September of 2005 as to if they were granted tickets or not. On the application for the lottery they requested your passport number which originally led me to think they would be trying the same sort of tom-foolery as FIFA is with the World Cup. However, I went on to read and find out that their mechanism for eliminating the black market in tickets to the event will be requiring all lottery winners to pick their tickets up in Ireland and they will have to show their Passport to get them. I could almost hear a collective sigh from scalpers, brokers, and touts worldwide. Big Deal! We take our orders, show up in Dublin and start buying!

There will be 40,000 people admitted to the event each day, but only 32,500 of those will be made available to the public.

One unusual thing of note about this Ryder Cup is that there appears to be no International Pavilion ticket like we had at Oakland Hills last September. If you look at the ticket order page there are only grounds tickets listed. I guess it is always possible they will make them available for sale at a later date. It would be a shame if they do not have the International Pavilion because that is the ticket I used when I attended the event last year and I found the IP tent to be first class and well worth the extra coin.

Currently there are only a handful of brokers in America that are taking orders for the event but many in the UK. When you check prices you will find that they are all over the board. We are priced significantly higher than we were for the event at Oakland Hills. We think it will be a tougher ticket, we also are factoring in currency exchange risk, the unknown of the policing environment, and our cost of travel. Interest remains steady and we have had buyers trickling in so we see no reason to lower our prices and in fact we just raised them last week. You can check our prices at http://www.alphatickets.com/golf/ryder-cup-golf-tickets.htm.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

More Falcons - The Heat Is On!

2005-07-26T09:06:00.000-04:00

I cut and paste this directly from the ESPN web site....

NFC SouthAtlanta FalconsKey veteran additions: S Rich Coady; P Toby Gowin; LB Ed Hartwell; S Ronnie Heard; OG Matt Lehr; PK Todd Peterson; LB Ike Reese; OL Barry Stokes. Key veteran departures: LB Chris Draft; PK Jay Feely; OL Roberto Garza; S Cory Hall; DE Travis Hall; DT Ed Jasper; P Chris Mohr; LB Matt Stewart.

Most significant change: The Falcons' offseason was pretty quiet, and considering the team was one win away from the Super Bowl, it wasn't in need of much change. Ex-Raven Hartwell adds more speed to the LB corps and should create more playmaking opportunities for Keith Brooking on the weak side.

Reasons for optimism: Atlanta's running attack was the best in the NFL last season, thanks to QB Michael Vick's athleticism, but Vick believes he can add some balance with an improved passing attack. Vick says he is more comfortable with the offense this season and is ready to put up big numbers through the air. With a solid, young receiving corps, he just might make good on his promise.

Causes for concern: The Falcons' run defense was porous at times last season, and DT Rod Coleman's recent off-the-field troubles could make a bad situation worse. The loss of DE Brady Smith for training camp (and possibly the start of the regular season) following surgery on his neck also is a huge blow that leaves the defensive line thin and vulnerable.

Battle to watch: WRs Michael Jenkins and Roddy White are itching to prove they can be stars in the NFL, and it could come at the cost of Peerless Price. Price is expensive and has been disappointing, and Jenkins has shown a lot of potential in workouts. If Price has a tough camp, he could find himself cut loose.

Don't be surprised if … second-year LB Demorrio Williams beats out free-agent addition Reese for the starting job on the strong side. Williams needs to find some consistency, but he has the speed and hunger that head coach Jim Mora Jr. is looking for in his linebackers this year.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

The Michael Vick Show

2005-07-25T09:49:00.000-04:00

Today marks the first day of training camp for the Atlanta Falcons as they prepare for the 2006 season. Do the Falcons have what it takes to go all the way this year? The Falcons drafted two tall receivers in Roddy White and Michael Jenkins hoping that they would be more acceptable targets for Mr. Vick to throw the ball. Vick got his completion percentage from 50 to 56.4 percent last year, but to be a real contender he needs to have it in the 60's.

A lot of mystery will fade from the picture after the Falcons first home game against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, Terrell Owens is still holding out for that new contract the Eagles keep saying they will not give him. Word is he will miss training camp but not the pay checks associated with those regular season contests. If Terrell misses the Falcons home opener, the Falcons win, and then Owens returns later in the season there will still be some question marks.

The ticket situation for the Falcons vs. Eagles is pretty strong. The contest is on a Monday night in front of a national television audience. Get-Ins are running around $140 right now and the best seats in the house asking as much as $600 per ticket. If the Falcons win that first game and a few more of the early ones the tickets for the rest of the season should go up in value.

I still think the Eagles have the edge in this match up and that if for some reason the Falcons end up in Detroit on 02/05/05 it will be one bomb of a ticket.

Ricky Williams has returned to training camp with the Dolphins which should make for an interesting season in South Florida. They recruited Ronnie Brown from Auburn who should become one of the best backs in the NFL so if Ricky gets his game back it should be interesting to see how the Dolphins fair with both of them in the backfield.
Until tomorrow - Adios

Music From Big Pink

2005-07-22T09:31:00.000-04:00

I walked into the office today, got my self a solpadeine plus, a cup of coffee, and popped in The Band's classic "Music From Big Pink." Music From Big Pink is a great way to start off any Friday.

Last night Sarah and her husband watched the movie "Shakes the Clown" on my recommendation. Bobcat Goldthwait plays an alcoholic clown and spends most of the movie drinking and taking drugs with other clowns. Shakes is truly a dark comedy and it is not for everyone. If you find the idea of an alcoholic clown to be amusing you should take a look.

Might be time to stock up on warm clothing, bicycle tires, and crude oil futures contracts. Below you can see a chart with Elliott Wave labels showing that by the end of the year the analyst is forecasting Oil to be trading at $70 per barrel. If you look back to 2001 you can see that there has been quite a run since this "war on terror" thing started. The chart does not go all the way back to the bottom which I believe was in 1999 when oil was trading below $10 per barrel. In 1999 I working as a retail stock broker at J.C. Bradford & Company and one of the older and wiser brokers there said to me and a couple of the other young guys, "boys, when you can buy a barrel of oil for less than a case of budweiser it's time to buy oil and oil services stocks." Of course the gentleman turned out to be dead on with his simple analysis. If the labeling on this chart turns out to be right then the spot where the five is will not the end of this move, just a temporary stopping point on the way to $100 per barrel oil.

Oh No! Not Again.

2005-07-21T09:55:00.000-04:00

This morning a cowardly group of animals botched an attempt to set off four bombs on tube stations in London. At the moment this is considered a low casualty event and not of the magnitude of the 07/07 bombings. I am quite sure that Red Ken Livingston and George Galloway are already preparing their statements in support of the bombing. Hopefully the boys up at Millwall are meeting right now to discuss their plans to start kicking some Muslim ass, maybe they should start with Red Ken and George? Millwall Hooligans vs. Various Paki's and liberal Mp's would be quite an interesting match.

Back to work....

Until tomorrow - Adios.

Joe's Garage

2005-07-20T09:39:00.000-04:00

In NASCAR it's currently a three man race for the Nextel Cup. Jimmie Johnson is in the lead with our man Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart right behind him. This weekend the boys will head to the Pennsylvania 500 and then we will be in the enormous month of August with races in Indy, Michigan, and Bristol.

The Allstate 400 at the Brickyard comes to us on 08/07/05, last year the pansy Jeff Gordon won there so let's hope that does not happen again. We will look for the National Guard number 16 car to do it in Indy. The tickets for the Brickyard seem to be running in the same ranges as usual which means it is a buy at less than face and sell at face market.

Our boy Greg Biffle won last years August contest in Michigan and we will look for a repeat. After Biffle wins at the Brickyard and Michigan he should be back at the top of the list.

The Sharpie 500 ticket also appears to be on track for normalcy. Right now get-ins will fetch around $250 and the best seats in the house over in the Allison Terrace are going for about $500 per ticket. Dale Jr. won last year at Bristol and we are quite sure there was a lot of Budweiser spilled because of it. We hate to sound monotonous but we are again predicting that the number 16 car will prevail.

Of course if you need tickets to the Sharpie 500, the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, or the GFS Marketplace 400 please check our website at www.alphatickets.com.
Until tomorrow - Adios!

God Save The Touts

2005-07-19T09:24:00.000-04:00

Today I bring you a piece I found on the internet written by Duncan Campbell, of the Guardian Newspapers in the UK.

Save This Great National Tradition
Ticket touts are both entrepreneurs and part of the welfare state, so all politicians should oppose a ban.

Duncan Campbell By Guardian Newspapers, 6/21/2005

It is one of the great romantic street cries of London, the words delivered out of the corner of the mouth with a gentle and familiar lilt: "Tickets? Tickets? Anybody want tickets?" Or alternatively: "Tickets, tickets, anybody got tickets?"

For years, one of the outstanding traditions of Wimbledon, along with the rain, the strawberries and British failure by the end of the first week, has been the presence outside the grounds of the ticket tout, with that wonderful combination of bonhomie and a range of centre-court seats at three-figure prices. Alas now the ticket tout, like other ancient and revered figures of British life, such as the blacksmith and the bus conductor, is under threat.

There have already been attempts to drive him - if there are female ticket touts I have yet to meet one - out of business. Under the 1994 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, amended by the 1999 Football (Offences and Disorder) Act, a tout outside a football ground can be fined £5,000. You can still find them outside football grounds, although their friendly cries must now be delivered sotto voce. This week they are being hounded away from Wimbledon too, whether they come from the old-fashioned street-corner team or are of the new online persuasion. Tessa Jowell, the culture secretary, is under pressure from major sporting and entertainment bodies to introduce even tougher measures to ban them for ever.

It would be sad if the ticket tout was to disappear. A campaign to keep him should be a cross-party affair. For the Tories, the ticket tout can be seen as an old-fashioned small businessman (or, in the case of the late, great Stan Flashman, an old-fashioned large businessman). Teresa Gorman, the former Conservative MP for Billericay, recognised that the touts represented the spirit of free enterprise and championed them. Surely one of the 43 current Tory leadership candidates might have the vision to take the same stance now that touts are in their hour of need?

For the left, the ticket tout represents a very necessary part of the welfare state, providing care for those too disorganised to buy their tickets well in advance despite having told their family or friends that it was all sorted out and not to worry. For the libertarian left, anyone who, like the tout, can annoy so many leaders of our major sports and so many corporate purveyors of overpriced tickets must deserve support.

For football fans, ticket touts are needed now more than ever. In the old days it was possible to go to what was then a first-division football match without having to either own a season ticket or be part of a cartel (or membership scheme, as they are officially called). The introduction of all-seater football stadiums ended this happy state of affairs and, as a result, tickets to Premiership games are now mainly in the hands of barristers, senior media executives and merchant bankers. The average fans who might not want to go to a game every week but still want to see their team live have been cut out. Almost their only way back into the ground now is through the ticket tout. (And sometimes, if you wait until the very last minute and it's wet, you can even get the tickets at cost price.)

The arrival of the Australian cricketers this summer has caused inflation on the ticket front, with £102 seats for the Lord's Test now fetching £700. The English Cricket Board last month condemned "touts and their vile practice" as though they were selling small boys rather than tickets to the Compton Stand.

Wimbledon has, to its credit, traditionally catered for the ordinary fans who cannot get their tickets through the masonic corporate route by allowing them to sleep in the street for a few weeks prior to the tournament. This is fine for some, but many people don't have access to the necessary all-weather camping equipment or don't want to be interviewed on local radio about their experience. For them the ticket tout provides a swift way out - or rather in.

And there is the aspect of tradition. After all, the word "tout", according to Eric Partridge's Dictionary of the Underworld, first appeared in 1718, more than two and half centuries before such terms as "executive box". Sadly, we no longer hear other old street cries such as "any old iron", "who will buy my wonderful roses?" and "bring out your dead"; but wouldn't London be a poorer place without the occasional "tickets, tickets"?

Finally, and most importantly, does any one have two seats, preferably in the first two rows of the Edrich Stand, for the Friday of the Ashes test at Lord's and, if possible, two for the West Stand at Highbury for Arsenal v Chelsea? Contact the address below. No time-wasters.© Guardian Newspapers Limited

Super Bowl XL

2005-07-18T09:41:00.000-04:00

Having just returned from Detroit for the MLB All Star game I feel that it may be time to comment on the upcoming Super Bowl in the same city. I did not go inside of Ford Field but I can tell you that from the Outside it looks like a super nice venue. I did enjoy a beer at the Elwood Bar & Grill which is right across the street from both Ford Field and Comerica Park.
Detroit did a great job with the All Star game as a practice run for the big show coming in February. It was Hot as hell last week in Detroit so I sincerely hope we do not see the opposite extreme in February. The nerve center for the All Star game was definitely the Marriott at the Renaissance Center and I expect the same at the Super Bowl. I am guessing that the NFL will headquarter at the Marriott, and I hear the AFC will be somewhere out on the North Side of town and the NFC out West of town. The area around Greek town should be hot during Super Bowl week with all the restaurants, bars, and Casinos getting lot's of action.

As far as Super Bowl ticket prices go I still think this one is a crap shoot at this point. Maybe when we get a few games into the season it will clear up a little. I have noticed that some of our competition on the internet is offering lower and lower prices for get-ins. I have to assume that the lower prices are a result of seeing no buyers. We have still not sold any tickets for this years game which is unusual for us at this time of year. I have also been getting lots of calls from people trying to unload Hotel Rooms and that is not the hallmark of a strong market. My prices are going to stay right where there are and if anything go up until I see a strong indication that the teams heading to Detroit will not pull a crowd. I think to lower your prices now because you have no buyers may be suicidal. Detroit has far fewer seats than the last several venues for the Super Bowl and if we get Pittsburgh vs. Philadelphia you can forget about making money on those get-ins you’re selling at $1750 each.

A lot of people say that Detroit will be a bad ticket because it's Detroit in February. Do you really think that if Pittsburgh goes to the Super Bowl that their fans will stay home because it's too cold in Detroit? Do you think the Eagles fans will stay home because it's too cold?

I think it is a safe bet that the teams in the Super Bowl will come from the following list:
(with www.tradesports.com prices, and fan futures prices from www.ticketreserve.com)

New England Patriots 18.1/19.9 Fan Futures @ $345
Pittsburgh Steelers 9.0/11.0 Fan Futures @ $249
Indianapolis Colts 18.0/21.0 Fan Futures @ $225

Atlanta Falcons 9.6/10.0 Fan Futures @ $119
Minnesota Vikings 10.0/12.0 Fan Futures @ $125
Philadelphia Eagles 29.1/29.5 Fan Futures @ $550

The Falcons are the only team in that mix that I think would be bad for prices. I hope that clears things up for any of you doubters. You have a 1 in 6 chance of having a bad team in the Super Bowl. No offense to the Falcons, they are my team and I love them. The Falcons just do not have the fan base that the other teams have, nor are their fans as fanatical or devoted enough to brave the cold Detroit winter when they can watch on TV in the bars of Buckhead.

I guess that on September 12, 2005 we will get a good idea of how the Falcons will match up with the Eagles. The Falcons will host the Eagles in their home opener on Monday Night Football. We could see a lot of movement in pricing on both Tradesports and Ticket Reserve if the Falcons trounce the Eagles, but I would not expect much movement if the Eagles win the game because it is already priced in.

Wie Wie and the Masters

2005-07-15T10:26:00.000-04:00

Michelle Wie is taking the golf world by storm this week playing in the Men's Amatuer Public Links tournament in Lebanon, OH. She has already advanced to the quarterfinals and traditionally the Masters invites the winner of this tournament to play in their event each year. Hootie Johnson, Chairmen of Augusta National, says that the club will welcome Wie or any other female that qualifies. Wie is going to be a Junior in High School this fall and may find herself being the first female to ever compete in the Masters come next April. I wonder if the Masters will provide any distraction to her school work?

If Wie gets in the Masters what will become of prices for badges? I am not sure it will be like Tiger's feaux grand slam event, but I do think there will certainly be a lot of added interest and the media will whip everyone into a frenzy. Heaven forbid, if Ms. Wie makes the cut and is challenging on Saturday and Sunday at the least the weekend badge rentals should be hot.

Good luck Michelle!

Until tomorrow -Adios.

Football, Football, Football

2005-07-14T14:28:00.000-04:00

Not too much has changed since I last updated you on the futures markets for NFL conference champions. The www.tradesports.com market still favors the Eagles in the NFC and the Colts in the AFC. The www.ticketreserve.com market is also still about the same showing the following prices for the favorites:

Eagles $550
Falcons $119
Vikings $125

Colts $225
Patriots $345
Steelers $250

I have just returned from the Host city where the Super Bowl will be played and have come away with a gut feeling that this will be the Keystone State Super Bowl that was talked about last year and did not happen. I am looking for Pittsburgh to play Philadelphia and ticket prices to be as out of control as last year or maybe more so. If you have been watching our prices and waiting for them to go down then you may want to rethink your strategy and go ahead and purchase now before they go up.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Quickie Blog

2005-07-13T08:53:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the missed blog yesterday. I just got so busy with the All Star Game that I never had a chance to write.

The All Star game did firm up a bit after my last blog but only in so much as prices did not fall any further for that day or for most of yesterday. It was not until late yesterday afternoon that we saw prices start to move lower as those who were still holding large stacks had to start cutting prices in desperation to move the seats. As of yesterday evening you could buy All Star Game tickets at prices below face value.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Falling Knives

2005-07-11T09:29:00.000-04:00

I am writing to you this morning from my partner's location in Bloomfield Hills, MI. I have been here since Saturday morning and have been busy working filling our orders for the All Star Game and buying and selling tickets. Right now it appears that get-ins for tonights Home Run Derby are going for around $100 and in our opinion very soon to break through that barrier to the downside, and the All Star Game get-ins are getting around $250 and also heading lower. The situation is that there is just more supply here than there is demand or more sellers than buyers. We are unaware of any brokers that still need tickets, so the only buying to hold this market up is retail buying and the retail customers who wait to the last minute are usually not looking to spend a lot of money. When I used to work in the securities industry one of the traders I worked with used to talk about markets like this and say that you would feel tempted to buy into it and take shot but that was like stepping in front of falling knives.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Back to business

2005-07-08T10:17:00.000-04:00

If any readers need MLB All Star Game tickets or Home Run Derby tickets remember that Alpha Tickets will be on site to do late deliveries or handle consignments. All you need to do is call our office at 800-990-0259 and after hours the phones will be forwarded to a cell phone.

Yesterday the MLB All Star tickets and Home Run Derby tickets seemed to gain a bit of a bid in the afternoon. This morning the market appears to be a bit more firm than yesterday. This is one of the classic battles of supply and demand and we will not know the winner until the battle is over Tuesday night. My gut feeling right now is that there were some brokers that had to start buying yesterday to fill early and that was the bid under the market, but supply still seems to be coming strong so I do not see a huge run up in prices. Of course this is all my opionion and I could be wrong like yesterday around noon when I was calling this thing a total free fall right at the moment things were turning.

Our www.eventhomerentals.com web site has been receiving a lot of attention this week. The New York Times mentioned us in a story about home rentals for the PGA Championship and I did an interview with the New Jersey Star Ledger yesterday. We are considering doing a major overhaul of the web site and completely automating it and turning it into something bigger and better. There is a tremendous amount of interest in home rentals for the PGA Championship since the US Open was over. The tickets for the PGA are doing about the same as ever and we will start to cover the pricing and trends for it in more detail in the weeks to come. If you want to see how they are priced now you can always check the prices on our web site at http://www.alphatickets.com/golf/pga-golf-tickets-2005.htm.

Wa Da Ta!

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Our Condolences

2005-07-07T09:55:00.000-04:00

Our heartfelt condolences go out to our British brothers and sisters today. A group of cowards from third world shit holes has decided again to attack innocent Mothers, Fathers, Sisters, and Brothers. Bombs exploded at tube stations all over London this morning and working people of London were killed and injured in large numbers. I am sincerely upset over the loss of life and the injuries.

There is a silver lining to this attack. The silver lining is that perhaps this will be a wake up call to the folks in England that continually find themselves sympathetic with the Terrorists causes and aims. I see that Mayor Ken Livingston actually came out of his hole in Singapore this morning long enough to condemn the terrorists that I was quite sure that he loved. Funny how an attack on your own people in your own city may change your mind about things Ken.

I want to remind everyone of a very simple truth that is often overlooked when the War on Terror is argued about. The truth is this:

When America and her allies attack the terrorists in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries that aid and harbor them we take great care to attack specific targets and minimize civilian or innocent people casualties. We are not perfect, but we do this better than anyone.

When the terrorists strike they specifically seek to attack the innocents by blowing up tube stations in London, Buses in Israel, and knocking down towers in New York. They say there are no innocents, that we are all guilty and enemies. Folks, they want to kill you, your Mom, and your children, and they want to do it the most gruesome and dramatic way for the world to see. These people will actually sacrifice their own sons and daughters at young and tender ages and send them on a bus full of innocent’s children and mothers to maim and destroy.

The point is that we are fighting animals and cowards and we need to remember this. Animals can be dangerous but we are for the most part smarter and bigger than them so in the end we prevail. Treat them like animals, kill them like animals.

Wa Da Ta!

Until tomorrow - Adios!

After I finished my blog I saw this and felt I had to show you what a huge pussy is.

PUSSY
(Keep in mind this is from the Socialist Worker and we all know that Socialists are non-competitive pussies)

Statement on the London bombings by George Galloway on behalf of Respect
We extend our condolences to those who have lost their lives today and our heartfelt sympathy to all those who have been injured by the bombs in London.
No one can condone acts of violence aimed at working people going about their daily lives. They have not been a party to, nor are they responsible for, the decisions of their government. They are entirely innocent and we condemn those who have killed or injured them.
The loss of innocent lives, whether in this country or Iraq, is precisely the result of a world that has become a less safe and peaceful place in recent years.
We have worked without rest to remove the causes of such violence from our world. We argued, as did the Security Services in this country, that the attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq would increase the threat of terrorist attack in Britain. Tragically Londoners have now paid the price of the government ignoring such warnings.
We urge the government to remove people in this country from harms way, as the Spanish government acted to remove its people from harm, by ending the occupation of Iraq and by turning its full attention to the development of a real solution to the wider conflicts in the Middle East.
Only then will the innocents here and abroad be able to enjoy a life free of the threat of needless violence.
George Galloway, Respect MP for Bethnal Green and Bow

WHAT HE IS SAYING IS - WE SURRENDER - LEAVE US ALONE

I posted a picture so you could get a good look at what a modern day pussy looks like. You can use this link to communicate with George. Send him a message and let him know that he has no balls and that he is a big wimp.

http://www.locata.co.uk/cgi-bin/webdriver?MIval=commons_mail&id=26

Wa Da Ta - Again!

Sine your pity on the runny kine

2005-07-06T10:46:00.000-04:00

The title of my blog today would be something that Pooty Tang may be saying right now about the current state of affairs with MLB All Star Game tickets. This one appears to be dead or at best on its last legs. Of course there is always the possibility that this weekend brokers who have been waiting it out start buying to fill orders.

In other news, Greg Berger has created the perfect egg sandwich. Greg claims to have been dreaming about exactly how to create this sandwich and has it down. I hope to see Greg while I am in Detroit for the All Star game and perhaps share an egg sandwich with him.

Wa Da Ta!
Until tomorrow - Adios!

MLB All Star Game Tickets

2005-07-05T10:05:00.000-04:00

This is the week that will really let us know what will happen with the price for the MLB All Star Game tickets. If there are still a lot of brokers out there with orders I would imagine that some of them are going to have to start covering this week. The market for the All Star Game tickets appears to have loosened up a bit with get-ins being offered by brokers at $395, and Home Run Derby get-in tickets being offered by brokers at $190. Alpha Tickets will be on site at the All Star Game for all events and is available to fill any orders you may have or take any unsold tickets on consignment.

My good friend Curtis and I went to the Bass Pond on Saturday night and besides getting pretty drunk on Svedka Vodka we managed to catch a bunch of fish and one really big one. I was using a Zoom Pumpkin Seed Salamander worm made right here in Georgia and it was almost as if every time I cast when the Salamander was sinking you could see the line tighten up and there he was. Curtis had never caught Bass before and did real well with crankbaits and spinners and then he requested that I set him up with the Salamander. I rigged up a Salamander for Curtis and he tossed it out there and boom there was his five pound bass. I had to temper his enthusiasm for the sport a bit and explain to him that he would not catch a fish like this every time and in fact it would be very rare, but needless to say I think he is hooked. Curtis had a very big weekend because on Friday he went out and played golf and had a hole in one! A hole in one and a five lb. bass all in one weekend!

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Credibility

2005-07-01T09:47:00.000-04:00

A few years ago there was a notable war of words in the mainstream media between writer and producer Michael Moore and his arch nemesis Ann Coulter. At the time they had both released new books, Mr. Moore's, "Stupid White Men," and Ms. Coulter's, "Slander." For those of you who need to be illuminated, Slander was a rant on the left wing dominated mainstream media, and Stupid White Men was an indictment on President Bush and all of the powerful evil elite white men that surround him and how they control everything. My Mother-in-law's husband, John Gault is a big fan of Michael Moore and a big hater of President Bush. John and I tend to argue about politics quite a bit when the family gets together and we were together when these books came out. I attempted to make the "credibility" argument with John that Ms. Coulter attended Cornell, one of the finest colleges in the country, and also graduated from the University of Michigan Law School and was editor of the Michigan Law Review therefore I felt she had more credibility than Mr. Moore who never attended college and based on what I have read may or may not have completed high school. Of course I forgot I was dealing with a hardcore liberal, and hardcore liberals hate to accept fact and instead like to distort reality into lies that themselves really believe to be true. John just kept telling me that Michael was a genius who spoke the truth and that Ms. Coulter was a moron. I did try to point out that Mr. Moore's movies about Columbine and Roger and Me were both totally discredited as being full of half truths and innuendo but again to no avail. As far as John's credibility is concerned, he believes that President Bush perpetrated the 9/11 tragedy and killed thousands of innocent Americans and that pretty much says it all.

Now I seem to be witnessing the same sort of match of wits between a half wit and another beautiful and intelligent lady. Yes I am blogging about Mr. Cruise again. Mr. Cruise and Brooke Shields have been fighting a war of words in the MSM(mainstream media) for several weeks now with the latest being that Mr. Cruise wanted to make amends and be friends but as of today it appears that Brooke wants nothing of that. We no for a fact that Tom is both dyslexic and a High School dropout, and we know for a fact that Brooke attended and completed schooling at one of our nation’s finest Universities, Princeton. Now of course some of you may be saying that I have laid out a compelling argument that Ms. Shields and Ms. Coulter are smarter than there opponents but that does not equate into being more credible because smart people do lie. What I am saying is that in both cases we are dealing in subject matter that someone with the fine ladies education would definitely grasp and have more experience with. The Cruise/Shields war is only words, but in the Coulter/Moore fiasco we had books to deal with and Ms. Coulter's was meticulously footnoted showing that she had done her research while Mr. Moore's did not include similar documentation for his so called research.

All Star Game tickets are still holding tight with get-ins around $450. We will be up there next week and willing to take all consignments and work to fill any orders you may have.

Everyone have a great 4th of July weekend. I will work as I always do and ignore the holiday but you all can go enjoy it for me.

Until Tuesday - Adios!

Bloggers Go Crazy For Cruise

2005-06-30T09:20:00.000-04:00

I encourage everyone to go to Google and type in, "tom cruise is an idiot." There are close to 250,000 returns. Sarah tells me that all of the radio stations she listened to in on her way in to work this morning were hammering home the same message that seemingly thousands of bloggers are, TOM CRUISE IS AN IDIOT. Tom is a dyslexic high school drop out and now he wants to lecture the world!

I read that Katie's parents are not too happy about her engagement and recent conversion to Scientology. I love the capitalist spirit of our country because someone has already created some merchandise and a web site where you can buy it. We hope that you all will throw some financial support to http://www.freekatie.com/.

Wow! It is easy to get off track when you have actors totally showing the world how stupid they are.

Major League Baseball All Star Game Tickets are still holding up pretty well. It will be interesting to see what happens to the market next week. If there are truly a lot of orders out there then next week we should see the market edge up a bit. It is always possible that we will see more supply come on the market and if that supply is larger than the demand that the remaining orders bring the market should soften.

I received an inquiry yesterday from one of our customers about Live 8 tickets in London. I immediately checked the broker secondary market because there were brokers accepting pre-orders for the tickets at $900 each last week for delivery the day of the event somewhere near Hyde Park. I was amazed that not only were there no brokers accepting pre-orders but that the entire listing for Live 8 had been removed from the market. Maybe Sir Bob has been pressuring some of the American Broker-to-Broker networks also. For the life of me I still can not figure out why eBay succumbed to the pressure and why anyone else would. I just don't see that Sir Bob had anything on eBay that would make them give it up. I did check http://www.craigslist.com/ for London and found lots of Live 8 tickets going for somewhere around 600 Pounds per pair.

I have also been following the situation in England in regards to ticket touts very closely. It seems to me that the combination of the Live 8 fiasco and Wimbledon happening around the same time has been more than the anti free market forces could withstand. The anti touting crowd in England has been whipped into a frenzy. I read that there have been injunctions against around 28 different companies for selling Wimbledon tickets over the internet. The leadership of the four sports(Rugby, Football, Cricket, and Tennis) have petitioned the government to make it illegal to re-sell tickets for all sports. It is currently only illegal to re-sell football tickets in England. They also want a higher penalty for violations of this law and argue that the current 500 pound penalty for reselling football tickets is not high enough is so small that it is merely a nuisance to the touts and does deter them from breaking the law.

I continue to find it amazing that Europe and now England are running very fast in the opposite direction that we seem to be running. There have been several major pro ticket broker breakthroughs in America just in the last two months. Meanwhile across the pond they are trying as hard as they can to make it difficult for the touts using both the law, RFID technology, and named tickets.

I will go on record with a prediction. If the English courts decide to make it very difficult for the touts we will see a lot more British touts running around on the streets of America. This business is too profitable and too necessary for them to give it up. I say let them come over here and create profitable companies that create jobs and tax revenues for our State and Federal Governments.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

You must be shitting me!

2005-06-29T13:25:00.000-04:00

I don't normally double blog in one day but I just read what follows in the magazine called, "The Week."

The Church of Scientology has apparently assigned Katie Holmes a "handler" who follows the actress everywhere, says the New York Post. Holmes, who became engaged last week to ardent Scientologist Tom Cruise, now is accompanied everywhere by Scientology official Jessica Rodriguez. "Jessica is reporting back to top-level people on a daily basis about how Katie is faring," a former Scientologist told the New York Post. "In all my years with the church, I never saw them assign a handler to travel with a celeb.... They're obviously worried that Katie's conversion will backfire."

This is just unbelievable to me. Poor beautiful Katie has become engaged to an half brained egomaniac totalitarian idiot. They're worried Katie's conversion won't stick? I guess I would be too if I was suckering people with some bull shit religion started by a science fiction author. I'm sure little Katie lays awake in bed at night wondering if Xenu really exists or if maybe Tom is Xenu. The stupidity here is hilarious.

Katie, wake up and get out while you still can.

Later!

Biffle Out Front

2005-06-29T10:11:00.000-04:00

Greg Biffle is out in front leading the pack in the Nextel Cup race. Go Greg, you know you are our favorite driver!

The race this weekend at Daytona is another disappointing ticket. It is always sort of less than face grind it out event, but we just have not been able to do the volume on it we normally do. We bought in all the tickets from our regular sellers of the events and have been able to move all but two of them for low margins so at least we are not losing money.

The Taco Bell MLB All Star game seems to show some signs of loosening but it is still a very tight ticket. I will be heading to Detroit at some point late next week and will blog you from there to keep you updated. Get-Ins appear to be available at around $450 right now, and decent field level infield seats are going for $1200-$2000.

Unfortunately we will not be fishing with the folks from the Gray Drake while in Michigan. I waited to long to book my date and they got all booked up on me. It is unfortunate, but from what I hear the fishing is tough up there right now do to low water levels and high temperatures. I will definitely book with them for a date around the Super Bowl. It will be witches titty cold but the fishing is great on the Muskegon River during the winter. Meanwhile, here in Georgia we were forecasted to have a hot dry summer which would have been bad for trout fishing but so far it has been cool and wet which has produced some pretty good fishing opportunities. I hope to hit one of our mountain streams over the next few days before I head to Detroit, but if not there is always the pond!

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Average actor becomes moron

2005-06-28T09:27:00.000-04:00

Tom Cruise, a small man, has been in the news more than his fair share lately. There are several story lines to follow with the most vivid being his recent engagement to the lovely Katie Holmes. Tom had his moment on Oprah where he made a fool of himself professing his love for Katie. Tom, I was very proud of you at that moment. Tom also decided to go public about Brooke Shields use of the anti-depressant Paxil to combat her bouts with post-partum depression. I guess Tom has ovaries and feels he knows a little about post-partum depression now. Then the little man goes ballistic on Matt Lauer's program about prescription drugs and Psychiatry, etc. Tom is a Scientologist and Scientologists do not believe in Psychiatry or drugs as a treatment for anything, what they believe in is a self help cult that is slowly bilking its members out of every penny they have.

Scientology provides a deep well of incredibly comical stuff, I'll just mention the bit I found most hilarious. It involves a guy named Xenu.
According to Wikipedia: "In Scientology doctrine, Xenu is a galactic ruler who, 75 million years ago, brought billions of people to Earth, stacked them around volcanoes, and blew them up with hydrogen bombs. Their souls then clustered together and stuck to the bodies of the living, and continue to cause people problems today."
The details of the story are outrageously funny. For giggles, search for "Xenu" on linkWikipedia.org. Or just check out the web page "operation clambake", at www.xenu.com.

I think the fact that little Tom believes in this Scientologists version of creation is testament to what little brainpower he has. We are estimating Tom's IQ to be somewhere around 105, which is smart enough to memorize lines and make nice facial expressions but well below genius. Hell, even some IQ expert put a number on the President's IQ and John Kerry's during the campaign and they both came in the mid 120's.

Katie Holmes may be beautiful, but Tom is an idiot.

Shut up little man.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Abused child becomes angry adult

2005-06-27T10:11:00.000-04:00

Heavy metal singer Axl Rose, who was raised as Bill Bailey, describes his childhood in mostly angry terms. He speaks of physical and sexual abuse, of a mother who was never there for him, of a stepfather who whacked him for singing along with Barry Manilow's "Mandy." He talks about singing songs of Elvis in front of the smaller children at recess when he was in third grade. He tells stories of witnessing astonishing things springing from a fervent Pentecostal upbringing, and winning prizes for learning Bible verses, yet being unable to believe anything of what he was taught.

By the age of 16, young Bill had developed into a "full-fledged juvenile delinquent," and was banned from his parents' home. He was jailed many times, though says he was not guilty except for some arrests for underage drinking. At 17 he learned that the man who had raised him, Stephen Bailey, was not his natural father, and adopted his natural father's surname of Rose. "Axl" was the name of one of his early bands. Pundits have noted that "Axl Rose" is an anagram of "oral sex," which may have appealed to the rebellious young man.

At 18 Axl hitchhiked to Los Angeles to seek his fortune. There he met up with school friend Izzy Stradlin, and over the next several years the two struggled their way toward success, sometimes living on the streets, playing wherever and whenever they could. The band Guns N' Roses, formed in 1985, had enough success to start playing as a lead act for established groups, and eventually made a name for themselves.

Between 1987 and 1991, Axl was arrested several times for assault. At some point he was diagnosed as bipolar and put on lithium; one source says he also underwent anger management therapy. Axl himself has been quoted as saying, "I'm very sensitive and emotional and things upset me and make me feel like not functioning or dealing with people... I went to a clinic, thinking it would help my moods. The only thing I did was to take one 500 question test - ya know, filling in the little black dots. All of a sudden I'm diagnosed manic-depressive. 'Let's put Axl on medication.' Well, the medication doesn't help me deal with the stress. The only thing it does is help keep people off my back because they figure I'm on medication."

It's impossible to say categorically whether Axl Rose is bipolar. Some of his behaviors - explosive anger, alcohol use in youth, substance abuse - could point to this, but could also be signs of post-traumatic stress disorder or other affective disorders. Accounts of his life give information about his childhood that is conflicting at times. Yet certainly he has had a turbulent life, and by all accounts, not a happy one.

Axl Rose is a loser.

Until tomorrow - Adios.

The Sharpie 500 Ticket Hawk

2005-06-24T09:34:00.000-04:00

It's about that time of year again folks. Yes, it's the time of year to start scoping out the scene for the Sharpie 500, other wise known as the Bristol Night Race. Year after year we continue to sell more tickets for this race than any other on the NASCAR circuit. Something about the night race just drives NASCAR fans mad.

The eBay market for Sharpie 500 tickets is starting to take hold and thicken up with inventory, and the broker secondary market seems to be a tad tight. I am in the opinion developing process on this one and right now all I see are mixed signals. While we are still selling more of the Sharpie than any other race, it is not selling as well as last year and at the same time other brokers and tour operators tell me that it is selling very well. Our current pricing seems to be about the same as it always is around this time of year and you can check it out at http://www.alphatickets.com/catalog/sharpie_500_at_bristol_motor_speedway_414181_products.htm.

Alpha Tickets official favorite driver, Greg Biffle, won again last weekend at the Batman Begins 400. Greg has more first place finishes this year than any other driver and is just 49 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson. You have to wonder about a guy named Jimmie and why he spells his name the way he does. We think that Jimmie may be a metrosexual blumpkin afficiando. The boys will head to Sonoma this weekend to do it all again at the Dodge/Save Mart 350. Greg, good luck to you out there!

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Mr. Won't You Please Help My Pony

2005-06-23T10:17:00.000-04:00

There is a book called, "the purpose driven life," by Rick Warren. The premise of this book is that God has a purpose for everyone's life. I am beginning to think that I may have uncovered what the purpose of Howard Dean's life is. The purpose of the good Dr.'s life is to complete the total destruction of the Democratic Party as we know it. Hillary and Bill, one of you two better swing into action and save the day before this crazy man drives your bus off the cliff.

Thanks God.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

College Football Tickets & Predictions

2005-06-22T09:38:00.000-04:00

To follow on from yesterday I have been taking a look at what the punters think is going to happen in NCAA Football. On Tradesports, The USC Trojans are the overwhealming favorites to win it all. The Trojans are priced in at a 32% chance of winning the whole shooting match at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on January 4, 2006. The Miami Hurricanes are priced at an 8.6% chance and the Texas Longhorns are coming at 7.9%. The Buckeyes of Ohio State are at 7% and they will get to face off with Texas on September 10th at home where one of those two teams chances will die and one will go up. In the SEC, Florida is priced at a 6.5% chance, Tennessee at 5.9%, and LSU at 4.4%.

The tickets for the Ohio State vs. Texas game are very hot and we are seeing a lot of early interest. Get-ins are running around $275 per ticket and the best seats in the house are in the $600-$1000 range.

My prediction is that Ohio State will win the game and go on to win the Big Ten title and may end up playing USC in the Rose Bowl but this will all depend on the fortunes of the big boys in the Southeastern Conference. If Tennessee, LSU, or Florida can run the table and win in the SEC Championship game you will have another situation like we had last year and the BCS folks will have another hard decision to make. Whatever happens, I think I agree with the punters that USC will play in the Rose and win it.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Early Football Line

2005-06-21T09:14:00.000-04:00

Some of you may not realize this but if your taking short orders on the Super Bowl you really need to be paying attention to who may get in the game. As we saw last year, the teams that go to the Super Bowl can have a major effect on the price of tickets. Location can also be a factor but we have not had a desirable location since the San Diego game in 2003, and Detroit will certainly not be a place where people will want to go to the Super Bowl just to go and get away from the cold.

I have been on Tradesports(www.tradesports.com) this morning checking out the early money on who will win the NFC and AFC. The pricing seems to be about the same as where we left off last season which as luck would have it is the way ticket brokers seem to have the tickets priced.

In the NFC the punters believe that the Eagles are the only team that has a chance and have them priced in at a 30% chance of winning the NFC. The Falcons and the Vikings are tied for runner up and are priced in at around an 11.5% chance of winning the NFC. Personally I think the Vikings and the Falcons would make smart bets.

In the AFC we have more of a contest. The bettors currently have the Colts slightly over the Patriots to win it all. The Colts are priced in at 20% chance to win the AFC, and the Patsies at 19.9%. Flying under the radar screen and probably a decent bet for one who wants to take a shot are the Pittsburgh Steelers priced in at 11.4%.

Meanwhile over at the Ticket Reserve(www.ticketreserve.com) they are selling Fan Forwards for the Super Bowl. Alpha Tickets did real well last year with the Fan Forwards owning 16 of them combined between the Eagles and the Patriots. A Fan Forward is an option to buy one Super Bowl ticket at face value if the underlying team on your contract advances to the Super Bowl by winning their conference championship. Currently the asking price for a Fan Forward for the Philadelphia Eagles is $600. If you were to buy two Fan Forwards for the Eagles at $600 plus commission it would cost you $1260. If the Eagles win the NFC you would then have the option to buy two tickets at face value of $500 or $1000 for the pair which would net you into your two seats at $1130 per ticket. If the Eagles are in the Super Bowl it is a safe bet that $1130 per ticket has you well into the money, even in Detroit.

Below are some current prices off Ticket Reserve for some of the favorite teams:

Atlanta Falcons $120
Minnesota Vikings $75
Philadelphia Eagles $600

Indy Colts $250
NE Patriots $389
Pittsburgh Steelers $259

Traders take note of how on Tradesports Pittsburgh is priced about the same as the Falcons and Vikings but on Ticket Reserve they are priced slightly higher than the Tradesports favorite Indianapolis Colts. Could be the makings of a Super Bowl trade right here in Mid June! If only Ticket Reserve were a two way market like Tradesports we could really start to get clever.

The Alpha Tickets blog will continue to follow the situation from here through the end of the NFL playoffs. We will continue to keep you updated on both markets and their respective pricing as well give some suggested trades that we will track and follow.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Fishing Report

2005-06-20T09:57:00.000-04:00

What can I say? It was a tough weekend on the water! We fished the Davidson River near Brevard, North Carolina and the South Mills also near Brevard. The water flows were about four times their normal level due to the rain from the tropical storm that hit the gulf coast last week. We worked our asses off out there and caught very few fish. Maybe they were freaked out about the water flows or maybe we are just bad fisherman. The Davidson River was damn sure loaded up with fish, we just could not catch them. The Davidson is a beautiful river with a lot of large wild Brown, Brook, and Rainbow Trout. In two days of fishing I caught one small Rainbow and my friends caught three to four fish each. We got a lot of exercise but caught very few fish.

I thought for a few minutes yesterday afternoon I was going to have to gas up the car and head back to North Carolina to unload our Monday playoff tickets. It looked for a minute that Campbell may fall apart and Woods may catch him, but in the end the Kiwi prevailed and there was no need to head back to North Carolina. Thank God.

We are now starting to get calls from the sellers of Brickyard 400 tickets. If you are a seller and you are reading this you may want to pay attention. This thing goes the same way every year and I see no reason it will not be the same this time around. The sellers have started calling and we are now in what I will call the "Stalemate" period. The "Stalemate" period will last for about three to four weeks. During this period I will start by offering the sellers about $15 less than face value and each week I will lower what I offer until I get to about half of face value, and during this period all of the callers will say something like, "but that's not even face value, no thanks." After about four weeks of us not buying any tickets and constantly lowering our offers the sellers will start calling at a more frantic pace and will be taking whatever we offer just to get something back for their soon to be worthless pieces of paper. Folks, we have a safe full of unused tickets for this race. There have been times when I have sent stacks of tickets to the street with the instruction to just get whatever you can for them, anything, and I get them all back unsold. It's almost as if you have to pay someone to take these things on the day of the race. If you are reading this and you have them, you may want to take the $15 under today because it is not going to get any better.

Until tomorrow - Adios.

Gone Fishin'

2005-06-16T07:31:00.000-04:00

There will be no daily blog tomorrow because to celebrate the end of a very successful run with the US Open Golf Tournament I am going fishing! Much thanks to the generosity of one Mr. Billy Norrell otherwise known as #1FB(number one fishing buddy). Billy has a speaking engagement tonight to a group at the Grove Park Inn, http://www.groveparkinn.com/ and the group is nice enough to be picking up his room for the weekend so he has invited me to share with him in fellowship and fishing. We are no strangers to the waters around Asheville for we have fished up there quite a bit. I fished up on the North Mills just last month. I am not sure which rivers or streams we will hit but on Friday and Saturday when normally I would be working I will be casting the long stick for the most beautiful fish on earth in some of the most beautiful places.

Yes we are officially finished with the US Open Golf Tournament. We still have one order to ship but all tickets to cover are purchased. Our profit margins on this event were very high, which is a nice change of pace considering what we have gone through for most of the year. My partner, Brad Mackler, was convinced after the Masters that the US Open was going to whip our asses. I tried to assuage his fears but to no avail. I am thankful to God that this one went our way and big time. The event was super hot before and after the Masters which allowed us to get much higher prices than normal but that is also what caused our fear. In the end the short sellers prevailed as the market for US Open tickets crashed.

Our next move is the Major League Baseball All Star Game. We do not have a lot of short orders for this event, only a tiny few. I am thankful that our position is small and easily coverable but it was by design. We started getting calls for the All Star game much earlier this year than normal and have felt bullish on it all the way. We made a decision to not get too short because we wanted to attend the event and have everything covered and be able to simply source tickets for those that need them. If any of you brokers that need a lot of tickets for the All Star Game are reading this take note. Please visit our site for our phone numbers, www.alphatickets.com , and get in touch with Sarah and she will put you in touch we me or Brad to help you cover your orders or handle consignments.

Until Monday - Adios!

Ainu, are you out there?

2005-06-15T10:41:00.000-04:00

I hope all of you enjoyed the "warm currents" blog as much as I did. That girl is seriously funny! Ainu you have talent! Is that your real name?

Michael Jackson walked on all charges as I expected. All of the witnesses against him were clowns. I hope Mike will follow through with his threat to move to Europe when his trial was over. I think Mike will find him self more at home in a place like France.

Orders for the PGA Championship seem to be picking up. The PGA Championship is at Baltusrol in Springfield, New Jersey. The Championship is usually not a great ticket but if you want to grind it out there is some money to be made. I suppose if Tiger can win at the Open this week maybe it will improve a bit because Tiger will be one step close to a real grand slam instead of the feaux grand slam he had a few years back.

The Detroit Pistons won last night and in a big way. I knew they would do better once they were back on their home court. Get-Ins for tomorrow nights game are going for around $120 which is much less than they were going for late last week. So much inventory on the secondary market and so little time to move it makes for a lot of downward pricing pressure.

NASCAR heads to Michigan this weekend for the Batman Begins 400. We usually get a lot of advance orders for this race and take a lot of orders the week of the event but not this year. Maybe gasoline prices are starting to make people think twice about loading up in the RV and heading for the races? Or maybe, Little E's poor performance this year has people less interested? Who knows, all we do know is that the NASCAR summer schedule is selling much weaker than in years past.

Uncle Mike came back from Bonnaroo and said he had an awesome time. He enjoyed it despite not taking a shower for five days. He said you could get a warm shower for a price of $10, but who needs one? Mike says that Panic(www.widespreadpanic.com) on Saturday night and the Drive By Truckers(www.drivebytruckers.com) were the highlights of his weekend. He also said that hippie girls have big boobies and tend to go without bras more than with them which provided him with endless entertainment. His quote for the weekend, "I am seeing to start signs." Take that for what you will.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Humor Break

2005-06-14T10:18:00.000-04:00

As you can tell, yesterday I did not have much time to write nor did I have much to write about. Today is sort of the same. It is US Open week so we are quite busy here trying to tie up loose ends and get this one done. The Monday went off almost worthless, the Tuesday is worthless, the Wednesday has come back to reality due to time decay and is $20-$25, the Thursday is worth $65 or $20 under face, the Friday is worth $80 or $5 under face, the Saturday and Sunday rounds appear to be worth around $90 or $5 over.

I can't give much today in the way of blogging so I will point you in the direction of one of the funniest blogs I have read. I was randomly searching blogs the other day and ran across this one and when I read her post, "coffee," I laughed so hard that I cried. http://kuroshio.blogspot.com/

Enjoy!

Until tomorrow - Adios

Ho-Hum

2005-06-13T09:28:00.000-04:00

Well the Pistons received another ass whipping at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs last night, 97-76. Things just don't seem to be going well for the Bad Boys of Detroit. Maybe, things will improve on Tuesday night when they are back on their home court.

The Major League Baseball All Star Game is right around the corner and coming fast on July 12th. Tickets still seem to be very scarce and prices seem to be very high. One has to make the logical conclusion that with a lot of the tickets not being out yet that once they do come out prices will have to ease up with all the extra supply. However, Detroit is a great sports town with a bit of baseball fever and we hear through the grape vine that some of the hospitality companies are saddled with a lot of orders.

Until tomorrow - Adios

MANU!

2005-06-10T09:10:00.000-04:00

Manu Ginobili had 26 points last night to lead the San Antonio Spurs to an easy victory over the Detroit Pistons 84-69. We have been receiving quite a bit of calls about NBA finals tickets but it seems the callers only want to see them in Detroit. We have not received a single call from anyone looking for tickets to games in San Antonio. As of this morning the first game in Detroit on Tuesday night is about $185 get-in and the good seats are all in the thousands with the VIP seats around $2500. Having lived in Detroit I have always been a Pistons fan so that is who I am pulling for in these NBA Finals.

We are near the end of filling all of our short orders for the Men's US Open Golf Tournament. We really only need a few more grounds tickets for the weekend and we are done! This has been one of the more interesting US Opens I have had the pleasure to work. The Wednesday ticket is still tight, but not quite as tight as earlier in the week when we were getting $95-$100 per ticket on the Putterboy tickets and $65-$70 on the grounds tickets. The Monday and Tuesday tickets are letting time eat away at any value they may have sort of like a call option just before expiration. The Thursday and Friday grounds tickets can be had around $10 under face value and the Putterboy tickets at right around face value. The Saturday and Sunday tickets are still commanding above face value on both the grounds and Putterboy tickets. We will continue to sell and take orders for this Open all the way through next weekend and will have on site delivery available. The 2006 US Open will take place 06/12/06-06/18/06 at Winged Foot Golf Club in Mamaroneck, New York. We will have pricing on our web site for the 2006 US Open on Monday 06/20/05 at www.alphatickets.com.

Howard Dean is the greatest thing that has ever happened to the Republican Party. When they elected him Chairmen of the DNC I remarked to friends that this was going to be good for us. The funny thing is, the Democrats I know somehow thought I was judging the Doctor harshly and that because he was so great at igniting the grass roots in the 2004 campaign that he was just what the Democrats needed. Howard has not disappointed this Republican. It seems every time Dr. Dean opens his mouth he utters something completely stupid and he seems to be successfully illustrating the he and his party are everything that they accuse the Republicans of being. I have long believed that the Democratic Party at its core is racist, and I know that is tough for a lot of you people to believe because the Mainstream Media has trained you to believe the opposite. President Bush has the most diverse cabinet ever of any President and has appointed African-Americans and Latinos to higher cabinet positions than any ever held by a minority and the Democrats cry "Uncle Tom." Meanwhile, John Kerry had little or no minority involvement on his campaign team and lost ground with the Black, Latino, and Jewish vote. Dr. Dean had his famous comment at a Democrat meeting earlier this year when he said the only way that the Republicans could get minorities in a room like the one he was in was to invite the hired help. Dr. Dean then follows up with his comments on the Republicans being a bunch of White Christians who never worked a day in their lives. Obviously, Dr. Dean is a bit out of touch, but what do you expect from a Northeastern Liberal who grew up in a privileged family? Dr. Dean has probably not seen too many African-Americans in his life that were not hired help. All of the Republicans I know come from more modest upbringings than Dr. Dean and Senator Kerry and all of us are working people, small business owners, etc. Yes, most of my Republican friends are White Christians but I do not think there is anything unusual about that and I recently surveyed them all as to if they would vote for Condoleeza Rice if she were to run for President and not one of them said no. Can you believe it? A bunch of White Christian Republican business owners and people who have to work for their money voting for not only the first female President but the first African-American President! I hope it happens because at that point maybe some of those Americans who are asleep at the wheel believing everything they hear on NPR will wake up and realize the blatant hypocrisy that the leader of the Democratic Party is preaching.

Until tomorrow - ADIOS!

Bonnaroo!

2005-06-08T09:30:00.000-04:00

I opened internet explorer this morning and saw the new funky google logo. What's up with that? Those crazy folks at gooogle must be high.

Bonnaroo(www.bonnaroo.com) starts tomorrow. My good friend and sometimes ticket hustling partner, Uncle Mike, will make the journey with his girl Angie. They will travel in Mike's old Toyota van and camp in the baking sun for three days to witness some of the best music being made on earth. Looks like the weather will be hot, muggy, with lots of thunder storms. Back when Bonnaroo started in 2002 we were one of the only brokers in the country that new what it was or that it may be a good ticket. We bought up as many of the tickets as we could get and made an enormous mark up and they sold like wild fire. In 2002 we were practically the only game in town so we set the price and got what we wanted out of them. Hell, I went out and bought two new lap tops with some of the profits from that Bonnaroo. In 2003 we bought as many as we could get and even more than in 2002, they sold like wild fire and we did quite well with them, but not as well as 2002. You might ask, now why was that? The band list was good and it was sold out so why did we get less? The answer is simple, but all of you anti-scalper/broker folks are not going to like it. The reason we did not do is well is because there was no more mystery about the event, the word was out that Bonnaroo was a ticket to buy and make fabulous profits with. Instead of 2-3 brokers making a market in Bonnaroo tickets like we had in 2002, we probably had thirty brokers making markets in Bonnaroo tickets in 2003. With all the extra brokers and all the extra inventory you had all the more competition. Now I know competition is either a word that the anti-scalper/broker people can not understand or maybe they just shy away from competition, but competition brings prices down. What I am saying is, we were not able to get as much for the tickets because there were more brokers to compete with offering lower priced tickets. As the story goes, we sold more tickets for bonnaroo in 2003 than in 2002 but we actually made less money. When the 2004 Bonnaroo was announced I decided to take a different approach. I decided that while the band list was better than ever, with the exception of my beloved Widespread Panic(www.widespreadpanic.com) not playing because they were on haitus, I thought that the shine had worn off and that people just would not be as excited about the event that year. In 2004 we bought no Bonnaroo tickets up front, instead we short sold it into oblivion and did quite well with it. The end result of 2004 was that the market tanked and we were buying the tickets at less than face value. We sold less tickets than in 2002 and 2003 but we made a greater margin. The interesting thing about 2004 was that while the market was a total bomb for the most part, it actually heated up in the last week and we saw prices go up well above face at which point we had already covered all of our orders and were going the other way. Now here we are at 2005, the fourth annual Bonnaroo Festival. This years band list is the best ever with Panic playing two nights, Trey Anastasio Band, Drive By Truckers, The Gourds, Jack Johnson, The Allman Brothers Band, The Black Crowes, Old 97's, John Prine, etc. etc.. We decided to buy no tickets up front and short sell the event again, and we sold ZERO general admission tickets and about ten VIP tickets. We did quite well with the VIP tickets, but it was a small amount. We tried to sell the general admission tickets but to this date the event is still not sold out so we had to compete against the box office. If we would have been willing to be a little more aggressive with our price we probably could have sold some and covered profitably. A nice trade would have been to undercut the box office and sell at $170, $5 below face, and then turn and cover them all on ebay this week at prices between $75-$125 making a nice profit. My wife and I used to follow the Grateful Dead around the country in our younger days, I grew up with Widespread Panic having attended an SEC school, and of course we have seen Phish and Trey Band many times also. In many ways I envy those of you who are about to embark on your long strange trip. I guess I am just too old for that shit anymore. When you have two kids and your own business it sort of gets in the way of totally cutting loose and having fun. To quote AC DC, "For Those About To Rock, We Salute You!"

Until Tomorrow - Adios

National Events Market Theory 2005

2005-06-07T09:35:00.000-04:00

This year has been very different from the past several years in terms of pricing for tickets to national events. We have been through several years in a row where almost all of the national events were average or weak tickets. They may have been weak because the economy was weak, or due to the cities the events took place in, or the fear of terrorism. This year they have all been hot.

The Super Bowl was one of the biggest Super Bowl tickets ever in the history of the Super Bowl. At the peak of the market, fans were paying as much as $3500 per ticket just to get in the door. The year before in Houston we had a wild market where on Friday the bottom was falling out and you could land get-ins for $700-$900 per ticket, but by Sunday afternoon you could fetch around $2000 per ticket on a get-in. Two years ago in San Diego tickets traded steadily around $1750 to get in all the way through. Three years ago in New Orleans, the 9/11 game as we call it, you could buy the tickets at face value $400 and less.

The Final Four in St. Louis was completely insane. Prices for distant view get-ins were $700-$800 even on the day of the game, and for the Monday game were $300-$400. Last year in San Antonio you could get face on Saturday and you were lucky to get face on Monday. Two years ago in New Orleans you were lucky to get face value on the get-ins either Saturday or Monday.

The Masters was much hotter this year than years past. The Masters badge was a steady $2500-$2750 all the way until the last week of March when we saw it completely blow up and brokers were asking as much as $7500 per badge. I believe that some badges did trade hands at $7500 and maybe more but it did cool off and ended up closer to the $3000-$3500 range over the weekend before the practice rounds. The Wednesday practice round tickets was much hotter also with prices peaking the week before the event around $450-$500 per ticket. The Monday and Tuesday tickets were about the same as ever. In 2004, Easter Sunday fell on Masters Weekend and held prices way below normal. In 2004 we were buying the badges at $1500-$1700 and selling them at $1800-$2100.

The Kentucky Derby was super hot this year. One of our Louisville contacts told us that of all the derby tickets he had witnessed that this was the biggest. Prices to get in peaked around $500, but the better seats were getting quite a bit more than usual. In 2004 it was a rainy week and tickets were easy to come by.

The US Open this year started off weak but is now finishing strong. In a week long event we see spots of weakness and strength. The Wednesday ticket is by far the tightest of all days. We have received as much as $95 per ticket for the Wednesday Putterboy ticket where in years past I am not sure we have ever received more than $45. The Wednesday grounds tickets are worth about $55 per ticket right now and they are usually a $10 ticket. The Weekend tickets are all holding up anywhere from 10%-30% higher than we have seen over the last several years and there has been no change in face value.

A lot of brokers both big and small have been getting crushed this year because of all of this price increase. Now some of you are saying, "How can this be?" A lot of people think that if prices are high the brokers must be killing it, but that is not the way it works. Yes some brokers have done quite well, but a lot of brokers have been hurt badly. This is a two-sided market just like the stock or options markets but there are actually three kinds of players in a two-sided market. You have brokers that do not take inventory, and do not short sell so they have no position or risk associated with a particular event and they simply flip tickets or "broker" them and make a small percentage each time. You have brokers that will take a short position meaning that they sell tickets they do not have for delivery later betting that prices will drop or ease and they can cover at a profit. Then there are brokers that go long buying in the tickets at good prices hoping to be able to quickly sell them to brokers or to the public for more than they paid making their profit. With all of the national events "blowing up" the short sellers have taken a beating all year.

Why is all of this happening? Of course, I do not really know, or pretend to know but as always I have an opinion. It could be the opposite of what I mentioned above, that the economy is doing well, that the election uncertainty is over and W is safely in the White House, that the fear of terrorism here on our soil is dissipating, the teams and the site locations are better, and or some of the arenas are smaller in size so there is less supply. I am quite sure that some of the reasons I just listed played some role small or large in these events, but they do not make up my theory. My theory is that because we had several years of average price to weak price events and the short sellers were doing well the number of short sellers in the market increased. With more and more short sellers entering the market each year the amount of short orders for national events has gone up big time. More short orders means more short covering. If you take a look at Barrons Business weekly in the back in the tables section you will find a table called "Short Interest." Short Interest is the number of shares currently short by speculators and traders in any particular stock at that given time. Obviously we do not have a Short Interest table for national events but the concept is the same. Short Interest is like a rubber band being stretched out that eventually has to pop. At some point the speculators have to cover and when they start covering sometimes a panic ensues and everyone starts covering as fast as possible and at whatever price. I think that some of this is what has been driving the prices in these markets, too many brokers with too many short orders that had to cover or they were through and their reputations ruined. At the Super Bowl this year there was some broker in the lobby of the Adams Mark that I had never heard of that was letting it be known that he was still short two hundred seats and was paying $3000 per for anything which is just the sort of insanity that makes the guys that have tickets say, "hmmm. I think we can get more, let's jack it up a few hundy and see if they still buy."

The follow on of this theory is that because so many brokers have lost so much money this year on national events a lot of them will go out of business, or quit taking short orders, or at the least continue to take short order but price themselves out of the market leaving only the big guys willing to take a shot on the orders at reasonable prices. Less short orders, less short interest, less panic buying .

Think about it.

Until tomorrow - Adios

Gin, Horses, and Biffle

2005-06-06T08:59:00.000-04:00

The official start of summer is still a few weeks away but it is starting to get hot here in Georgia. This weekend I made my annual shift in cocktail of choice from brown liquor to white liquor. Every year around this time I shift from my beloved Manhattan's to more summer oriented libations favoring gin but I will also consider vodka in a pinch. I am a big fan of Bombay Sapphire Gin with Soda, Tonic, Bitter Lemon, or Martini style. The gin and bitter lemon has to one of the most refreshing summer cocktails one could prepare. I find that in America there is a lot of disdain for gin, and I am not sure why. A lot of people seem to think that gin is revolting and only for hardcore alcoholics, but gin is made of all sorts of botanicals like grains of paradise and juniper berries and is known to be good for your skin. Go out and get your self a bottle of Bombay Sapphire(http://www.bombaysapphire.com) and some Bitter Lemon and check it out.

The Belmont Stakes is this weekend and, with no chance for a triple crown, tickets are very weak. In Horse Racing, the Kentucky Derby is always a good ticket, and then two weeks later you have the Preakness Stakes which is usually not a good ticket, and if the same horse wins both races the Belmont can be good. We did very well last year with the Belmont after Smarty Jones won both the Derby and the Preakness, but this year with Giacomo winning the derby and Afleet Alex winning the Preakness, Belmont tickets are cheap. I still have a few of the best seats in the house at www.alphatickets.com.

NASCAR goes to the Poconos this weekend for the Pocono 500 and you find those at www.nascartix.com. Greg Biffle is having a great season with yesterdays victory at Dover and he is now only 46 points off of Nextel Cup leader Jimmy Johnson. Greg Biffle is Alpha Tickets favorite driver and we are all pulling for him here.

Until tomorrow - Adios

Wednesday Gets Tight

2005-06-03T07:40:00.000-04:00

A falling market for US Open tickets is the only thing this Open has in common with Open's of years past. This year prices have fallen from higher highs and settled at higher lows and there are some interesting areas of tightness. Usually obtaining the Monday-Wednesday practice rounds is a walk in the park. This year the Monday is worth about what is always worth which is $5-$10, if you can get it. However, the Tuesday remains stable around $25 when the market for Tuesdays is usually around $10 and the Wednesday ticket is very tight. We looked around yesterday and were startled to see how few Wednesday tickets remained available on the open market. With the Wednesday supply vanishing fast I don't have to tell you what prices have done. Yes Virginia, they have gone UP! We are still able to pick them up on eBay in the $25-$35 range, but on the broker secondary market one could fetch upwards of $50 for the grounds tickets and as high as $80 for the Putterboy ticket. The Thursday ticket appears to be getting weaker with brokers selling the grounds for about $5 over face and the Putterboys around $5 below face. The Friday ticket is just slightly stronger than the Thursday, and the weekend tickets are holding up well commanding solid over face payment. Why Wednesday this year? Who knows what drives all the action is this business? All I know is that we took an unusually larger number of retail orders for Wednesday than we did any other day, and some of the other brokers I speak with say the same. You can check our current prices at http://www.alphatickets.com/.

What is going on with NASCAR this summer? We are finding the going unusually slow. We are doing more advertising than ever and our prices seem to be competitive but the buyers are just not showing. The Sharpie 500 is good but not selling quite as fast as in years past, the Brickyard is about the same as ever and the rest of the summer schedule is very quiet. We are seeing almost no interest in either Michigan Race, Chicagoland, Poconos, Loudon, Daytona, etc. We have a site totally devoted to NASCAR tickets, you can check it out at http://www.nascartix.com/.

I read today that an Italian official says that Italy should have a referendum on dropping the Euro currency and going back to the Lira. France rejected the new constitution last week and the Dutch overwhelmingly rejected it this week. What is going on in Europe? The Euro continues to get pounded against the dollar which is the reverse last fall's trend. At last check the Almighty Dollar is up 10% against the Euro for the year, and 5.7% against the Pound Sterling. Getting long the dollar this year is proving to be a better bet than the stock markets which are slightly off this year but have been rallying as of late. The big winners of the year are the gutsy speculators in the Oil market; those who have been long Oil Futures this year have already racked up gains of around 25% in the NYMEX Crude contracts. There is a lot of talk by the skeptics that America can not sustain our growth and way of life because we are living on borrowed money, and time, thanks to our frothy bubble in the Real Estate market which of course is doomed to pop as did the NASDAQ bubble in March of 2000. The question I ask is if the money is to leave here, it must go somewhere, so where will it go? Many of our skeptics believe China is the destination because the growth rates there are unbelievable, and then there are those that believe the stability of Europe will be the home for all of the fleeing money. My theory on this is that as long as China is a semi-communist authoritarian regime with one of the most corrupt and fixed stock markets in the world big money will only allocate small amounts because while the rewards are high the risks are even higher. As far our friends in Europe, what can I say? The whole program seems to be falling apart. Then there is the question of who really wants to invest money in a place where the people do not want to work more than 35 hours per week, need 6 weeks or more of vacation per year, they have double digit unemployment with millions on the dole, most of the Euro states have flat or negative growth rates and negative population growth rates, seemed to have never had or at least lost any ideal of capitalism and the desire to make money, socialism and anti-americanism are the powers that be, and they seem to love tyrants like Iran that continue to lie to them? At the risk of sounding smug or pompous America is still the place and will continue to be the place. People from all over the world still want to come here everyday to escape the hopelessness of their home countries and come to the only place in the world where you can still make riches out of rags. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave. Americans are enthusiastic about work and making money and we laugh at those who only want to work 35 hours per week and have to have their six weeks of vacations. So here are your investment choices; (1) Land of the Free, Home of the Brave, (2) Bunch of Pussies, or (3) with a bunch of corrupt, communist bastards, that have proven through the long course of history they can not be trusted and will try to screw you at every turn? I am going to stick with choice number one for now, and then down the road there is always Costa Rica if things get bad here!

It has rained all week long here and rain is in the works for the weekend and beyond. This is bad for my fishing schedule. No one likes to fish in the rain, but some of us will do it. However, it is good to keep the snakes away and it is also good for our North Georgia trout streams which thrive on cool wet conditions in the summer. My spider bite is healing nicely and the swelling is all gone but my foot remains very red. We do not know what kind of spider got me but whatever it was it was nasty.

Until tomorrow – Adios!

Awright, Awright

2005-06-02T12:46:00.000-04:00

Well the bite was not that of a brown recluse, but definitely some sort of venomous little spider. The Doc gave me some steroids and although my foot is still very red the swelling has gone down big time.

The Spoon concert was awesome. Britt Daniel is a genius. If you get a chance to see them in your home town don't miss it. Visit the web site to get details on their tour at www.spoontheband.com and go out and buy the new cd, you won't be sorry.

Coldplay tickets go on sale this weekend through ticketmaster and word on the street is this show is going to be very hot. I hear that if you can get your hands on the Pit seats at the amphitheatre shows you should do very well. The Rolling Stones continue to dissapoint, and the brokers have to be taking a beating on this one. It seems that the face value of the Stones tickets are just too high at $400 each for main floor seating.

Until Tomorrow - Adios

The Point Of Recognition

2005-06-01T09:55:00.000-04:00

I am going to have to keep things short on this cool rainy alpharetta day. As most of you have probably figured out, I like to spend a fair amount of time in the woods on streams and ponds fishing for various species of game fish. There are some risks involved with this process and one of them is venemous bites from spiders and snakes. I have already been nailed by spiders a couple of times this spring but they were minor wounds. Sunday morning I felt a sting on my ankle and since that time my bite has progressively worsened. My ankle is all swollen up, red and purplish, and I have some limited mobility. I have set an appointment with my Dr. this morning to get this checked out and make sure it's not a brown recluse bite . Considering you pretty much have to point a gun at me to get me to a Dr.'s office you know that I am concerned. I also have the Spoon show tonight and I do not want to have that screwed up due to a lousy spider bite. My assistant Sarah has informed me that I should panic if they mention the word CroFab. I will let you know what happens, and I will hopefully fill you in on the results of the Spoon show in tomorrow's blog.

While we did raise prices on US Open on Friday and did not touch them yesterday we have lowered our offers and people seem to be readily accepting them now. This is a bit of change because for the last few weeks we have mostly been stealing our tickets at prices much lower than our offer price from certain online venues, while all of the sellers calling have been scoffing at our offer price. Well I guess now we have reached what my former boss, Robert Prechter of Elliott Wave International(www.elliottwave.com), would call "The Point of Recognition." The Point of Recognition in Elliott Wave terminology is the point at which the majority of participants in the market have recognized what the trend is. The Point of Recognition occurs in wave three of the five wave Elliott cycle. The third wave is always the longest and strongest of the five waves with either the most intense selling or buying depending on which way the market is moving. What we are seeing now is a market where we were making much higher offers to the sellers and they were laughing at us for a period of several weeks and now we are making much lower offers and they are taking them. Maybe, the sellers have tired of trying to unload on eBay at unrealistic prices and have tired of calling ticket brokers and receiving what they thought were low ball offers and now are ready to accept any offer? If we are at the point of recognition then this market definitely has room to move to the downside.

I am a huge music fan and my friends will tell you that I like all kinds of music; bluegrass, classic country, rock, blues, alternative country, alternative rock, jazz, latin, asian, etc. etc.. However, there are types of music I do not like such as most Rap or Hip Hop, Dance Music, or certain Rock music that I deem to be just to heavy to be art. There is a band out there called System of A Down(www.systemofadown.com) that has a new record out. I have never been a fan of their music and it is definitely not the type of music I would listen too. However, I saw them on Saturday Night Live recently and they played a song from their new record entitled BYOB(bring your own bomb). While this song is certainly anti-war and anti-bush, which I disagree with, I tend to look past artists political leanings because if I did not there would be no music to listen to. Anyway, this song BYOB is one of the most unique and disturbing songs I have ever heard and I like it. I remember seeing it through to the end on SNL and standing up and remarking about how disturbing it was but that for some reason I liked it. Since that time I have heard it on internet radio several times and I continue to like it. This band is doing something that most bands can not, which is to create a sound all their own, this my friends is the mark of true artistry. Most bands simply copy the sound of someone before them, and there is nothing wrong with that, but these guys have created something all their own like Rage Against The Machine or The Red Hot Chili Peppers. While System is not my normal cup of tea I must give them credit as being great musicians because they have disturb me and I seem to love it.

Until Tomorrow - Adios

Market Manipulation by The Euro-Weenies? Non.

2005-05-31T09:31:00.000-04:00

Good morning to you! I hope that you all had a great Memorial Day weekend and that everyone thanked a veteran for their service. I did not serve, but I hold those that do and that have in the highest regard. Their sacrifice of their time, and willingness to put themselves in harms way in places far away is the ultimate sacrifice one can make. To all of you that are currently serving, thanks!

On the Memorial Day holiday I took my two sons to Chuckie Cheese and they had a great time. When we were leaving I noticed a bumper sticker in the parking lot that I found disturbing. The bumper sticker read, "Don't Pray In My School, And I Won't Think In Your Church." So many things disturb me about this I don't know where to start. One of the things that really gets me is the word "my" to describe the school. Based on the socio-economics of people who drive a car like this one, and would waste their time putting this bumper sticker on the car I would have to conclude that their children attend a public school. The definition of public means that something is accessible or shared by the whole community. So I guess the next question begging to be asked is what community does this person live in? They may live in Alpharetta where the Chuckie Cheese was located, or they could live anywhere in the North Atlanta suburbs, or maybe even in Atlanta because the car had a Georgia tag. Let's assume that they live in Alpharetta. I am going to go out on a limb and guess that the majority of the people living in Alpharetta would call themselves Christians of some sort which means that they believe in Christ, that he was the son of God, and that he died on a cross to forgive us all of our sins. I believe without a doubt to assume that the majority of people in Alpharetta are Christians is a very safe assumption. I also believe that most of the Christians in Alpharetta that have children in schools were exposed to praying in school just like I was, which was always before sporting events, and in some schools I attended we prayed every morning before school started. So now the question becomes whose community is it? What I am getting at here is that with most of the children in public schools in Alpharetta being Christians and coming from Christian homes isn't it more their community than the few that for some unknown reason find themselves offended by prayer? Our country was founded on freedom of religion, not freedom from religion. The only way this person can justify saying "my" school is if they are home schooling or sending their child to some sort of atheist academy. This is just another example of a small minority trying to vocally establish their rights through authoritarian means showing a lack of respect and regard for democracy and the majority. Then there is the, "I won't think in your church" part of the sticker. This line is to remind you that this person is an intellectual and that if you believe in God and attend church you must be a stupid simpleton. This strategy is one of the liberal establishment’s favorites, if you can not beat them on issues or argue with them and win then simply call them stupid and remind them of your intellectual prowess. I have found through a lot of first hand experience that the people who pursue this strategy are usually the dumbest of the lot. I have liberal friends that I can have friendly discourse and exciting debate with and then there are the ones that I crush unmercifully and in the end all the can do is say, "yeah, but your a racist, homophobic, dumb-ass, and your from the south so you must be real dumb, and because your only 37 you just don't know any better." Why is it my liberal friends that can hold their own with me never resort to name calling? Why is it my liberal friends that can hold their own also would never have a bumper sticker on their car insinuating that people of faith are dumb? To the person with the sticker on their car, I look forward to seeing you in church and I hope that you do think while you are there because maybe just then you will get it. You are probably young, there is still time for you to change. I did.

We raised prices for the US Open Golf tournament on Friday for the first time in weeks. There was definitely some buying going on last week by the brokers. Maybe they were just covering orders for early delivery and they needed to get them out before the long holiday weekend? All I know is that market definitely tightened up last week, where it goes from I here I do not know. My guess is that the tightening was only temporary and we will see prices begin to ease again this week.

I have been emailing with some of my correspondents from overseas and the picture they paint for our business over there is bleak. There were some big football matches last week and all of the tickets were "named" meaning they had your name on them. The ticket takers at the gate were randomly checking people's id's to make sure the ID matched the name on the ticket. The Ryder Cup, the World Cup, and the Winter Olympics in Torino are all planning on doing random checks at the gates to make sure passport ID's match with the ID's associated with the tickets. What is going on over in Europe? The United Kingdom is really the only country in Europe that has ever embraced free markets and capitalism and even in the UK the socialists make up a much larger portion of their society than here in the USA. I think the problem is that the Europeans simply just do not get it. I can't even figure out what they are thinking here? I have been told that it is for security reasons, but it when you read the European press it seems as though they are out to end the ticket touts business for good. Can they end the touts for good? I think not, but can they further restrict the marketplace and drive prices even higher for those who could not get a ticket but still want to go? Definitely! Maybe there is something more diabolical at work here? Maybe, the corporations and VIP's who get most of the tickets have colluded with FIFA, UEFA, the Olympics and others to place these restrictions so that when it comes time for them to sell their inventory to the touts they can get more? This could be a form a market manipulation like we have never seen. Could the Euro-weenies be that smart or that greedy? I don't think they have it in them.

Until Tomorrow - Adios!

The Poor Bastards Of The Other Side

2005-05-27T09:32:00.000-04:00

Top of the morning to you regular folks, and to all you poor bastards that live or work on the "other side." For those of you who do not live in the Atlanta Metropolitan area, the "other side," is what us folks on the West Side of GA-400 call the East Side of GA-400. Our side is much less developed, more farmy, less traffic, and just a generally better way of life. The poor souls on the "other side," are all stuck in some awful traffic jam right now lisenting to talk radio while I bang away on the keyboard enjoying my coffee and bagel from the Corner Deli. Lin James in our office is an "other sider," and while Sarah Pharr resides on this side she seems to be very sympathetic to the plight of the "other siders," sort of like she is sympathetic to the plight of animals like foxes, horses, and dogs once used in fox hunts in her native England. I sometimes wonder if the people on the "other side" feel like caged animals over there in there super sized subdivisions with their thousands of people just trying to get out each morning to Starbucks and their office. Poor Pathetic Bastards.

The US Open Golf tournament continues to weaken although we have seen buying pick up in the last twenty four hours. Maybe we have seen the bottom and things are about to turn? In my opinion the answer to that question would be a negative. There are just too many damn tickets out there and it appears all the brokers are loaded up and looking to sell. Early interest in this years Open was higher than in years past and we sold a lot of it before and during the Masters. My business partner was convinced this event was going to blow sky high like all the other national events this year, but to give credit where credit is due it was Sarah Pharr in our office who made the call about four weeks ago that this thing was going to be a bomb. Sarah handles most of the incoming calls into the office and she said that the call volume of US Open Sellers was just too high for prices not to plummet.

We have seen early interest already in Masters 2006 and in our opinion this should be another good Masters. We have had a lot of our 2005 customers already buy in for the 2006 event. Please check our pricing at http://www.alphatickets.com/golf/masters-golf-tickets.htm.

The 2009 Super Bowl was awarded this week to Tampa. It really is too bad for us because Atlanta was in the running and it would be nice to not have to travel to the Super Bowl for a change. As far as the 2006 Super Bowl goes, our position is that it is a crap shoot. Yes it's in Detroit, and yes many people will not want to travel to Detroit because of the weather and just because it's Detroit. On the other hand, there are far fewer seats in Ford Field than in the last several venues, and if Philadelphia is in the Super Bowl again, fugetaboutit(donnie brasco). If Philadelphia or the New York Jets get in the game prices will go through the roof, or as our good friend L.A. the venerable ticket hustler would say, "this muthafucka fittin' to be blown up." Conversely, our view is if our Atlanta Falcons obtain entry into the elegant edifice of Ford Field it will be a huge bomb and prices will dive. Who knows, just be careful out there. Check our current pricing for the Super Bowl at http://www.alphatickets.com/football-tickets/NFL/super_bowl_tickets_2006.htm.

Anyone who would like to have our blog emailed to them directly each day upon publication can now do so. All you need to do is email me at blog@alphatickets.com , and we will set you up to receive the blog by email on a daily basis.

Until Next Time - Adios!

I'm Not Too Pissed, Today.

2005-05-26T08:24:00.000-04:00

I am not nearly as full of piss and vinegar as I was yesterday morning. Maybe it was the Wild Turkey 101 Manhattan I poured myself last night at 9:30. They tend to be mellowing. I generally allow myself two, but last night I limited myself to one.

The weather is nice here in the North Atlanta suburbs. It's not quite summer, and with our late onset of spring it's more like the middle of spring. We are experiencing nice cool mornings, good warmth during the days, and nice breezy evenings. As you fellow anglers know, this means that the bass bite is on. Business is sort of slow because of the lack of interest in the U.S. Open and we are just beyond the end of the major national event season so I have been hitting the old bass pond a lot lately. The bass pond is full of fish and at times they are hitting just about anything you will throw out there. My good and helpful friend, Joel Pharr, was kind enough to give me a Heddon Zara Spook topwater lure and if you get out there right around sundown you can just tear them up with it. James Heddon was a Michigan Beekeeper and the creator of the first artificial fishing lure. Why is it that all things great in fresh water fishing have some connection to Michigan? Go on out to your local Bass Pro or hit the web site http://www.basspro.com/servlet/catalog.OnlineShopping and pick yourself up one of these great lures.

Now that we are approaching the warmer days of summer it may be just about time to start thinking, talking, and pricing the fall football schedule. Here at Alpha Tickets we start to get buyers for the fall slate of college and pro football usually sometime in June. The Atlanta Falcons have what looks like a great home schedule with a home opener on a Monday night against the Philadelphia Eagles, another Monday night game against the New York Jets, and a home game against the Patriots. The Falcons tickets were hot last year and should be even hotter this season. We have already priced pre-sales for the three games mentioned above and you can find live inventory on our web site at http://www.alphatickets.com/. I still think that Michael Vick and the Falcons could find themselves basking in the warmth and sunlight of Detroit come February. I really have not spent enough time trying to figure out who is going to be the team to beat here in the old Southeastern conference. I hope that it is my Alma Mata, Auburn University, but after sending as many to the pros as we did in this years draft I feel we may be slightly challenged in some areas but only time will tell. My good friend and college football expert John Poggendorf, of Prescott, Arizona, thinks that the Volunteers of Tennessee will be the team to beat and he fully expects his beloved Trojans of Southern California to face off against the Vols in the Rose Bowl for all the marbles next January. As far as the tickets go you can almost never go wrong stocking Tennessee tickets, Auburn as a good home schedule with their arch nemesis the University of Alabama visiting in November and Georgia Tech as their home opener, and the excitement level for Georgia should be high but maybe not as high as last year when they were convinced they would wear the national championship crown at the end of the season.

The NASCAR summer schedule appears to be a bit weak in our opinion. The races in Charlotte last weekend and this weekend have not been a great ticket. We are seeing softer sales with Michigan, the Poconos, and Loudon. The Bristol night race is about the same as it ever is, and the Brickyard actually is selling a little better than normal. If you need Sharpie 500 tickets or any of the other races on the NASCAR schedule please visit our web site at http://www.alphatickets.com/.

I am off to the bank to pick up cashiers checks for Bonnaroo VIP tickets. The annual hippie fest in Manchester, Tennessee is fast approaching. The band list this year is stronger than ever, if I did not have to spend three days in a tent in the middle of a field in hot ass Tennessee with a bunch of stinky, liberal, hippies I would go. The General Admission tickets are not sold out yet, and may not sell out. However, there does seem to be a market for the VIP tickets which always sell out. I have been paying $625 each for the tickets which is a bit more than in years past but we have been able to turn them for $745-$795 per ticket.

Until Tomorrow - Adios.

The Future of The Event Ticket Secondary Market - Freedom or Tyranny?

2005-05-25T09:09:00.000-04:00

While I sit at my desk buying and selling tickets to major sporting events the world over I often muse about the future of our business. President Bush in his inaugural address earlier this year pointed out that the last four decades have been defined, "by the swiftest advance of freedom ever seen." In Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, and Afghanistan Freedom is on the march and as Condoleeza Rice pointed out yesterday it is only a matter of time before it is on the march in Iran also. In the more civilized west, freedom moves on as the Socialist Democrat party in Germany was just handed a crushing defeat last weekend in their most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia, the people of France may be about to hand Jacques Chirac a humiliating defeat by rejecting the European Union's constitution by popular vote, and President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and Prime Minister Howard were all re-elected.

How does this relate to tickets and why is this confusing me and making me sit and wonder inconclusively?

In the United States of America, from a free market and legal viewpoint, it seems that freedom is also on the march in the ticket business. The Empire State of New York long one of the most brutal on ticket brokers is reviewing their position and considering regulating the business. The city of Seattle has come around and decided to create a bullpen for ticket sellers where they can buy and sell tickets legally keeping the sellers from having to do it in the shadows and protecting the buyers because they will know where to find their seller for recourse if the tickets are bad. The city of Pittsburgh has also decided to create a bullpen for ticket sellers at Pirates and Steelers games. Many more progressive states started licensing brokers’ years ago giving the states the ability to regulate, take in sales tax revenue and allowing for more consumer protection.

The trend here clearly seems to be towards more freedom, more consumer protection, and more sales tax revenues for the states, and lower prices. Lower prices? Yes, that is what I said. Does it not make sense that the more people are encouraged to take up the activity of ticket brokering, the more ticket brokers there will be, and with more ticket brokers there will be more competition and therefore lower prices? Last year the PGA decided to test my theory and forced eBay to not allow ticket brokers to sell Ryder Cup tickets on their web site. The PGA was successful in forcing eBay to not allow sales of Ryder Cup tickets for a period of several months while the tickets had not yet been printed because as they pointed out to eBay anyone selling them at that time was in violation of the eBay fraud policy, stating that tickets must be delivered within thirty days of the auction end. eBay had become the market for event tickets and there was a pretty brisk market for the Ryder Cup tickets until this happened and at that moment the market for Ryder Cup tickets on eBay evaporated. The result of this was a lack of supply, and brokers from coast to coast reacted by raising prices by 30-40% across the board. Prices for Ryder Cup tickets remained stable at much higher prices for months, and then when the tickets were finally printed and eBay no longer had to succumb to the tyranny of the PGA the market for Ryder Cup tickets on eBay was back and the result was that prices started a slow and steady decline all the way to the week of the event when a lot of the tickets were going for face value and below.

Bruce Springsteen has shown his own form of Tyranny lately by severely restricting the purchase of up close seats at his recent tour. If you buy any of the seats up front you can only pick the tickets up at will call, you have to show photo ID and the credit card you used to make the purchase, then they give you a wristband to wear and walk you to your seats. Sarah Pharr from our office is the biggest Bruce Springsteen fan on the planet so she purchased a seat on the third row for the show in Fairfax, VA. She reported to me that Bruce went as far as to have a list of rules handed to all of the people as they entered the show. When Bruce put out his CD, "The Rising," I was touched by all of the stories about his inspiration for the music and all of the connections to the 9/11 tragedy. I bought the cd, I loved the cd, I went to see him on his tour and thought it was great and I had a lot of respect for the guy. I started worrying about Bruce when he got involved with the Vote for Change tour last year as he was becoming increasingly more vocal against the President and was showing his support for John Kerry. This was my first clue that Bruce had become just another entertainer who had made all of his money and really did not want me to make any money and therefore had decided to join the forces against freedom. Now that he has decided he is so powerful that he can restrict who sees his concerts, when you go to the bathroom, how much you have to drink at his show, and what sort of responses to his songs are appropriate I have lost all respect for him and his form of tyranny.

The FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), http://www.fifa.com/, has decided to crack down on hooliganism at the World Cup in 2006 and also to permanently end the black market for tickets to their event. Now the fact that Europeans are against a free market ideal like ticket scalping is not all that surprising but it is how they are going to do it which I find sinister. The World Cup is putting an RFID Chip from Philips in each of their tickets at a cost of ten eurocents per ticket. These RFID chips will have the passport number of the person who purchased the tickets embedded in them and they will randomly be checking passports at the gates to match them against your ticket. If your passport does not match the one embedded in the ticket you will be refused entrance. The FIFA says that they will allow you to transfer the ownership or change the passport number associated with the ticket but only through their office. In reality I think this is crazy and there is no way they will be checking passports at the gates, nor do I think the FIFA is going to like having to deal with piles of transfer requests, but if you are going to short sell these tickets these are risks you need to consider. The PGA Europe sent out Ryder Cup 2006 applications this week and they ask for a passport number on the application. Could it be the PGA will try this also? I hear that the Winter Olympics in 2006, also in Europe, will possibly use the RFID technology as well. Europeans have never really appreciated freedom because they have never really had it in an American sense of the word, so I guess it is not all that surprising that they would reject the freedom of being able to buy and sell tickets at prices above or below face value.

It seems to me that while Freedom is on the march all across the globe, and the fighters for freedom are winning most of the battles, there are still a small elite few who are fighting harder than ever to crush freedom wherever it may be. President Bush noted in his inaugural that, "it's an odd time," to be betting against freedoms advance. Let's hope that he is right and that those who are against us will fail miserably in their quest to defeat us.

Until tomorrow - Adios!

Alpha Tickets Daily Ticket Blog 05/24/05

2005-05-24T09:45:00.000-04:00

Good Day from Alpha Tickets! We are starting a daily blog of what is going on the ticket industry, the economy, world politics, music, arts, and entertainment. We will discuss what's hot and what's not in the crazy world of trading event tickets. We will bring you interesting theories, juicy rumors, general gossip, buying and shorting ideas, and a general commentary of what the hell is going on in the world and how it may affect you and your business.

First I think it is important to tell you a little bit about Alpha Tickets and who we are. Alpha Tickets is a Georgia licensed Ticket Broker specializing in tickets for NASCAR and National Events. Alpha Tickets was started in the fall of 2001 by Allen Raines and his wife Marnie Raines. Since our inception we have grown by leaps and bounds and have an additional partner Bradford Mackler and three valuable employees; Sarah Pharr, Lin James, and Gary Beal. We have three web sites; http://www.alphatickets.com/, http://www.nascartix.com/, and www.eventhomerentals.com.

The U.S. Open Golf Tournament is our main event right now. We are busy in the process of filling orders, taking inventory and flipping it out. If you are going to take a shot on this one don't fight the trend and price your inventory to move it quick because this thing is falling like a ball of lead. We advertise nationally and right now our inbound call volume shows sellers over buyers by more than 10:1. We are offering less than face value on all US Open tickets and are buying them from those who have accepted the fact that they will not get more than face value unless they find a nice drunk at the 19th Hole. We have bought the full weeks of grounds for as little as $275, and the full weeks of Putterboys for as little as $495. While those prices are extreme they do represent the current low.

The Major League Baseball All Star game is coming up in July in the beautiful and tranquil setting of Detroit. Early indication is this thing appears to be the opposite of the Open and is Hot, Hot, Hot. We hear through the rumor mill that a lot of the hospitality companies are sitting on a lot of orders. Just like when you have a tremendous amount of short interest in a stock at some point these guys are going to have to cover and that is when it could get really ugly for those who still need tickets. Alpha Tickets will be in Detroit for the Major League Baseball All Star game so if you need any help filling orders or selling your unsold tickets please call our office at 800-990-0259.

While Alpha Tickets is in Michigan we will have to take in some of the fine fishing the state has to offer. We hope to get a date with our favorite fly fishing guides at http://www.graydrake.com/ . We hear that the Summer Steelhead should be running up the Muskegon River right after the All Star game is over. The folks at Gray Drake do a fabulous job and feed you very yummy meals. We fished with them on our trip to the Ryder Cup last year and targeted King Salmon and had such a great time we will go back again and again!

Our music recommendation for the day is the new Spoon CD, Gimme Fiction. Spoon is from Austin, Texas and you can check them out at http://www.spoontheband.com/. There is not a disappointing Spoon CD in the catalog but this new release in my opinion is their best effort to date. If you like alternative rock with a bit of an edge take a listen. Spoon will be playing at the http://www.varietyplayhouse.com/ in Atlanta on June 1st and while it is not a ticket to buy for speculation it will be a show to see.

Until next time - Adios!