See you at Qwest
by Johnny Peel (DKSB) on Mar 10, 2010 9:30 PM PST
in Seahawks Commentary
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Friday is the deadline for season ticket holders to lock down their seats for another year, and despite a 6-10 home record over the last two seasons, the Seattle Seahawks will undoubtably sell every season ticket package that is made available. I renewed my seats today, even though Mr. Allen's minions raised the price of my uncovered seats in section 325 AGAIN. Over the 13 years that I've had season tickets, a lot of things have changed for the Twelve Army... Let's take a look back:
In 1996, Ken Behring announced his intentions to move our team to Southern California, accelerating the fraying of the team's relationship with its fans. Eight years after buying the team, Behring had entirely destroyed the love affair between Seattle fans and their pro football team that grew between 1976 and the glory days of the Ground Chuck era. Home games went unseen on local television, as thousands of seats went unsold and empty (unless a popular opponent rolled into town), and us dead-ender Twelves became second-class sports citizens during the height of Mariner mania...
At the time I was in college up at Western, and Bellingham was in the blackout zone... This meant I went to games when I could, but more often I'd drive back home to the Tri-Cities to watch the games. When Alpha Nerd Paul Allen swooped in and offered to buy the team if a new stadium was built, I shamelessly used my radio show on KUGS-FM to push people into the "YES" camp on Referendum 48. After it barely passed the Seahawks announced something astounding: $10 seats. To NFL games.
Even as an impoverished college student, I could scrape together the $200 for a pair of season tickets. I got seats in the top row of the 300 section, in the south end zone opposite from the Kingdome jumbotron. That might sound pathetic, but I could stand up for the whole game without pissing anyone off, I had a little shelf behind my seat to put my coat, and I could make even MORE noise by banging on the metal panels behind me.
After I moved away to Ohio for grad school before the 1999 season, I kept my season tickets. I would go to games when I came back home to visit, and either gave the tickets to other games to my friends or sold them on eBay... Since I became a season ticket holder I've been to 16 games at the Kingdome, 4 at Husky Stadium, and 14 at Qwest Field (including 3 glorious playoff wins)... Today my seats are 290% more expensive than they were in '97, but I'll keep paying up as long as I can keep convincing myself that the second I give the seats up, the team will get back in the playoffs and I'll be stuck watching the next NFC Title Game/Romo Drops the Ball/Tru Pick 6 TO CLINCH THE WIN on TV.
Fuck. That.
Any other season ticket folks around here on FG? Share your stories in the comments, y'all.
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Back in 2002...
I went to the open house for the new Seahawk Stadium. I’d been a fan of the Seahawks since the early 80’s and thought it would be great to see the new digs up close and personal. I was amazed when I walked down the aisle in section 116 and found 2 seats together on the aisle that I could have for less than $500 each. Being from Canada and a huge Canucks fan, I know that seasons tickets for them are around $3000 each. $1000 to watch live with a buddy the NFL team I had been following through thick and thin for 20 years was a no-brainer for me. Those two seats were mine that afternoon. I can’t get to all the games anymore because of work, but when I do I love the border line up, 2+ hour drive, morning barbecue and the 3:30pm hangover that always accompanies a great afternoon of football!!! Go Seahawks!!!!
Yeah, I have a friend in Vancouver who has season tickets.
Lucky bastard!
To be fair about hockey tickets… that $3000 gets you 42 games… like football where you only get 8.
You get more games, but....
at Qwest I’m 16 rows from the field, but a GM Place the worst (which are still good) seats cost more per game than my ’Hawks seats
by SeahawkSammy on Mar 11, 2010 7:54 AM PST up reply actions
I got them to watch the 2005 postseason.
I don’t think I’ll ever get a better memory at a home game at Qwest.
"Hey, guess what? Nobody cares who would win in a crazy fantasy fist-fight between Anne Frank and Lizzie Borden." The Monarch
by crushedoptimist on Mar 10, 2010 10:47 PM PST reply actions
Word.
I grew up in Richland, then moved to Kennewick at age 16… Still love the Tri-City Americans :)
"I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie, there is no system, the universe is indifferent." -Don Draper
by Johnny Peel (DKSB) on Mar 11, 2010 8:51 AM PST up reply actions
My dad got endzone seats in 1976
I took them over in 86 but gave them up in 1990. Got back on board just in time in 2004.
yea dude
I'm marrying a woman that not only thinks it's OK to buy season tickets
she actually WANTS to buy season tickets. And she doesn’t even like sports.
How awesome is that?
I’m hoping for my first set of season tickets come 2011.
6/14/40. Sweet.
We just can't afford them
those damn kids…
Give me an offensive line or give me death!
by Generzal Zod on Mar 11, 2010 10:32 AM PST up reply actions
Started last year
Leave Vancouver, WA at 8 am on gameday. Parked near Qwest by about 10:30. Kill a six pack of the microbrew de jour in the parking lot before the game. Stop for dinner on the drive home. Back by 8:30 or 9 pm. Full day, but I love it.
I take Amtrak from Portland
We leave early grab a big breakfast, take flasks or a six pack and party with the other hooligans on their way up to the game. They don’t tend to say anything if you aren’t loud. We usually grab dinner after the game, sober up on the way home.
No traffic and it costs the same as driving and parking.
Give me an offensive line or give me death!
by Generzal Zod on Mar 11, 2010 10:06 AM PST up reply actions
I have four tickets
We take Amtrak occasionally, but the price for driving four people is definately less than four Amtrak tickets (~$100 each). Plus, if overtime ever happened you’re pretty much screwed.
by ColumbiaRob on Mar 11, 2010 11:31 AM PST up reply actions
My family had 4 season tickets from 1976-1989
Gave them up after I moved away for college. I remember my grandfather complaining when they raised ticket prices to $25 each, and these were 100 level, home side at the 15 yard line 20 rows up. Ah, the Dome. We had a lot of fun there.
Can people advertise that they have tickets for sale on Fan Posts?
I think a ticket selling option would be a great addition.
Give me an offensive line or give me death!
Fan shots are fine.
If there is much interest, maybe I will create an official fanpost and keep it up all season.
You should
I’ve had a few people try to screw me selling tickets on Craigslist.
Give me an offensive line or give me death!
by Generzal Zod on Mar 11, 2010 5:38 PM PST up reply actions
That would be awesome.
I don’t like Ebay and StubHub can be expensive.
It's Great to be a Florida Gator!
"I never met a llama I didn't like." - TJ Duckett
by Wayward Llama on Mar 12, 2010 4:17 AM PST up reply actions
My dad bought his first season tickets when Holmgren got hired.
He had to give them up after 2008 because he wasn’t making enough money. His car was repoed, was past due on water and electrical, etc. before he gave up his tickets. I went to most of the home games with him.
Before that, we would go to a couple Seahawks games a year in the kingdome. There were always more opposing team’s fans than Seahawks fan, and always more Raider’s fans than Seahawks fans (whether we were playing them or not.)
IThat’s the kind of Seahawks fans we are. _
That's my timeframe too.
Sat through some real football weather at Husky Stadium for two years and then got great cheap seats at Qwest (though there’s not many bad seats). Had to give them up last year – I miss watching warmups and seeing the whole field (secondary especially). There’s so much you can’t see on TV, though the radio/TV commentary is nice (can’t hear headphones in the stadium – too loud).
2005 was the best sports experience of my life. Just amazing to be a part of the best Seahawks year ever. With Holmgren and my tickets gone, I definitely feel more removed from the team.
It's definately different now.
My dad and I went to the 2005 NFC Championchip game, and the atmosphere walking through downtown after the game was like nothing I’d ever experienced. EVERYONE was a Seahawks fan.
Hopefully things will get back at least to respectable. There’s still nothing like a Seahawks game.
I still have confetti from that game.
I just remember having to sit down because I was getting dizzy from lack of air/too much yelling. And that was after the game was over. Not a drop of alcohol that day either – I didn’t want to accidentally miss a moment while getting or drinking a beer.
I had season tickets for both years in Husky Stadium
Then sold everything I own except what I could fit into a backpack and went travelling through SE Asia. Never did come back and buy tickets again. Gone to about 6 games since then. At least I’ve gotten to go go the Redskin playoff games.
In some ways I miss going to the game, now and then, it’s been over 2 years, but honestly, I enjoy watching from home much, much more. For one, I must have gotten old because the half-dozen times I’ve gone to Qwest, I scream so loud that I actually end up losing most of my eyesight by the 4th quarter, and I get this very hot, super-painful sensation at the base of my skull for each scream.
But also, it’s much cheaper, it’s much more comfortable, the food and beer is much better, it’s a lot easier to see a lot of the action on TV — even though I have no idea what is going on in the secondary — and because I record the games, I skip commercials, I can pause at my convenience, I can watch replays over and over, the relays I choose, I can watch whenever, and while I respect and venerate the fan kinship and fan experience of going to the game, TV is a football fan’s best friend, at least the kind of fan that I am.
My Dad had season tickets the Seahawks' first year.
Our seats were 100 level, 40-50 yard line one row from the back. We could see the T.V. monitors and our heads were covered. Tom Catlin’s wife sat almost directly behind us. She was quite the talker, I remember. We held the tickets for the life of the Kingdome.
That said, I was fortunate to see many, many games at the old Kingdome. I saw three games at UW: Miami, San Diego, and the Raiders game that SA broke the single-game rushing record. Tim Brown and Jerry Rice played for the Raiders at that time, so it was fun watching those two during warm-ups before the game. After moving out of the greater Seattle area in 2004, I’ve only been up to one game after seeing a few at the new digs prior to that. I remember seeing Cleveland, Carolina, and Arizona in particular. Qwest is amazing.
got canucks and Hawks season tickets too
I think there is more value in the Hawks. Any one single hockey game just doesn’t have the feel of the importance of a single football game. a hckey game is 1 of 82 or 41 home games, a football game is one of 16 or 8 home games. you can lose a regular season nhl game and not feel bad about it.
a singe nfl game in and of itself is an intense event. the value in the hockey tickets really don’t come until the playoffs when the NHL becomes as good as anything in sports. i tend to really only get pumped about a regular season nucks game if it is vs calgary, chicago, toronto, montreal, washington or pittsburgh. i can get up for any hawks game though.
i live in downtown vancouver so it is easy for me to make it to weeknight games too.
I feel like such an ass asking this.
But is your left arm missing in this picture? In the picture on your website, you have a left arm, but, here, I’m having trouble finding it.
I thought the same thing when I first saw the photo.
Then I looked closer and he’s making a number one signal with his hand.
Holy crap
I totally thought he was missing an arm in that picture too. But you’re right, it’s a number one sign.
Now with more lemon bars!
Wow, thank you.
I asked my wife earlier and she said she could see it, but couldn’t explain it to me. Until you said it was a number 1 sign, I couldn’t see it at all. That was going to bother me for a long time.
No, I'm not missing an arm
I never noticed that could be one way of looking at that pic before, but yeah… It really looks like I don’t have a left arm. Shouldn’t have worn those gloves to the Colts game in 05, huh?
"I hate to break it to you, but there is no big lie, there is no system, the universe is indifferent." -Don Draper
by Johnny Peel (DKSB) on Mar 12, 2010 1:20 PM PST up reply actions
love my tickets
My buddy and I were just out of high school in the summer of 2003 and working for this guy installing cubicles and office furniture. The work sucked but we got overtime every week. We had just received our checks for working a 90 hour week and were sitting down at Ivars on the Waterfront. With 1000 dollars taunting us we decided to get season tickets, called up and they had 2 in the Hawk’s Nest. 7 years later and I’ve only missed two games, both regular season. It’s been such an amazing ride.
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