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The San Francisco 49ers and Seattle Seahawks will square off this Sunday in the NFC Championship Game at CenturyLink Field. Saturday afternoon, following their win over the New Orleans Saints, the Seahawks announced limited tickets would be going on sale Monday morning. The problem was that to purchase tickets, individuals would need to have a credit card billing address in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, Hawaii, British Columbia or Alberta. This led to much consternation.
I think a few things need to be cleared up. First, the Denver Broncos have actually engaged a similar policy for their tickets. In order to purchase Broncos-Patriots tickets on Ticketmaster when they go on sale on Tuesday, you will need a billing address in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota or Western Kansas. It's kind of a weak policy, but this is not new to the world of ticketing.
The second thing, which is probably more important for 49ers fans looking to go up to Seattle, is that there are still options for buying tickets. While the Seahawks are blocking California (and other states) residents from purchasing tickets on Ticketmaster, you can still purchase tickets through NFL Ticket Exchange, Stubhub, TiqIQ and other such sites. The cheapest ticket I've found is $380, but hopefully some decent deals will slip through.
In reality, this whole Seahawks ticket thing is a bit of a non-story. I think they could have sold out just fine and had plenty of Seahawks fans without this though, so this just brings a little extra attention to the situation. Some 49ers fans will get up there, it will be really loud, I think we can move on.
