Boston.com / Sports / Bruins

Market for tickets a hard sell

By William Kalec, Globe Correspondent, 2/4/2002

EW ORLEANS - It's 2 p.m. and Robert Buesing of Easton, Pa., was standing on the corner of Loyola and Girod shaking his head. Four men were nearby. One was using his back to shield a New Orleans police officer from peeking in on a potential transaction.

Another man offered two men dressed in Kurt Warner jerseys and strands of plastic beads seats on the 20-yard line in the Superdome's lower bowl. He was selling the tickets for face value - $400 each - but it still wasn't good enough.

Buesing noticed the fans' disinterest and smiled in disbelief as he reflected on his most memorable moment of Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa last year.

''I was down there last year with my son,'' said Buesing, a New York Giants season ticket-holder. ''The day before the game, it was absolutely ridiculous trying to find tickets. We had ours. But as we were going in, a guy offered us $2,500 apiece.

''I actually had to look at my son and say, `Son, you always wanted to go to Paris. We can leave tomorrow.' We turned it down and went into the game. Ultimately, the Giants got kicked, so I thought about that deal for a long time.''

Offers for Buesing's tickets to this year's game might not have covered a trip to Paris, Texas, let alone Europe. When the Superdome gates opened yesterday, scalpers' prices started at face value. Within two hours, some were down to $200.

''It's been a dog. There's been no demand,'' said Scott, a Patriots fan from Leominster who did not want his last name printed. ''A total dog.''

So much so that Scott was willing to sell his two nose-bleed seats for face value and use that money to buy better seats for less.

But as Louis Riggans of St. Louis found out, the price his son Bubba was offered at 1 p.m. would be tough for any scalper to beat. While walking toward the dome, someone stuck a Super Bowl ticket in Bubba's face and told him to take it.

Louis stepped in and asked, ''How much?''

''He told me it was free,'' Riggans said.

And Bubba declined the offer. To the biggest sporting event in North America. He already had a ticket.

Then Riggans kept walking toward the Superdome's southeast entrance. The line to get in backed up a city block - a major reason why scalpers started reducing their prices early. Joe Carpentier of Barrington, N.H., was only halfway through the line nearly 25 minutes after he arrived.

''Security is tight. The lines are long but it's all worth it to be here, right now,'' Carpentier said. ''I got our tickets from a friend that couldn't come down. We had to scramble to get a plane and we flew into Jackson [Miss.]. So far no one has asked to buy our seats. We aren't gonna sell them. But at concerts we've been to and at Foxborough, [being asked to sell] is common.

''Here, I don't see the interest.''

Because of heightened security, the most popular scalping corners were between four and six blocks away from the stadium. On the corner of O'Keefe and Poydras, where two people were selling tickets at 3 p.m., the Superdome's white top isn't visible, blocked by several office buildings.

Back on Loyola and Girod, three of the four scalpers remained. They were holding up the same number of fingers and showing the same number of tickets. Kickoff was approximately two hours away, prices were down, and tickets were plentiful.

Fans without seats continued to walk by. Some checked prices. Most moved on, waiting to see if prices were cheaper the next time they passed by.

''This has been surprising,'' Buesing said. ''Certainly, Sept. 11 has something to do with this but this is still the Super Bowl. It's still a life experience.''