The Red Sox spring training ticket fiasco

Two of my oldest and best friends are coming to Fort Myers in March, to attend, for the first time, some Red Sox spring training games. Being a resident of Fort Myers and experienced at getting spring training tickets, I volunteered to get some for all three of us. Two games at JetBlue Park – the home field for the Red Sox in Florida – and one at CenturyLink Park, the Twins home field. Easy-peasy.

So, at 9:30 am on Saturday Dec 1 I was on my laptop, logged into the mlb.com site, ready to jump the moment the tickets went on sale at 10 am. I had my tickets selected – box seats for both games, one on the first base side and one on the third base side.

When the clock struck 10 I pounced. And was immediately disappointed. No box seats were available! Where did they go? After several tries in different seating sections I opted for he “best seats available”… and was offered seats high in the grandstand. Where the heck were the good seats?

Increasingly desperate, I accepted the “best seats” and went to check out. Bad turned to worse as the website refused to accept my credit card payment. The message was “address must match credit card.” I tried two different cards and triple-checked the address each time. Rejected each time. I was cursing a blue streak.

It was now 10:30 am and I had been completely thwarted in my attempts to secure spring training tickes. I texted my buddy Mike in MA and told him I was having trouble online. I asked him to try the website while I headed over to JetBlue to stand in line.

When I got to JetBlue I was initially relieved. Only one person at each ticket window and a small group milling around a bit further away. I picked a window… and was immediately confronted by a Red Sox staffer who asked me what the heck I was doing. Dumb question. “Buying tickets.” “Well, then, get in line.” He pointed into the distance. I turned the corner and saw that the “small group milling around” was actually the head of a very long line snaking under the stadium. Probably about 300 people in line.

I waited. Not very patiently. I struck up conversations with the people near me and they, too, had stories of difficulties buying tickets online.

I got to the ticket window at 12:50 pm. Just about 2 hours in line. While waiting Mike had been able to secure tickets for the 3/19 game but had struck out on 3/16, He tried several alternate sites – e.g., StubHub – but was appalled at the prices being charged. He had a line on some $80 tickets by the time I reached the window but I told him to hold off until I saw what was available at the box office. I ended up getting some decent grandstand tickets for 3/17 for $35 each. Success.

Got the tickets, but felt like I had been run over by a steamroller. It really shouldn’t be this difficult.