The Big 12 basketball tournament is down to the final four tonight with everyone (well, maybe not everyone but the vast majority of those inside Sprint Center) hoping/expecting a third meeting between Kansas and Kansas State for the title on Saturday night. Here are some of my thoughts after spending Thursday watching Big 12 hoops at Sprint Center and patrolling The Power & Light District.
- Kansas State is back
Gavin
Those dudes are called “scalpers,” Greg. I suppose back in your day, which I am guessing has the words “Victorian Era” somewhere in the calendar, they were called “ticket touts.” They acquire tickets to events, many of them sports-related, and they attempt to sell those tickets for a profit. Some of these businesses are shady at best and flat-out illegal at worst.
The men you saw were probably wearing the “need tickets” signs because they wanted to acquire more tickets for a relatively low price. They also had a lot of other tickets to sell. If they are able to purchase a ticket from a fan whose team lost in an early round of the tournament, they might be able to sell that ticket for more money than they paid for it. This is what I meant earlier when I referred to a “profit.”
As I said, many of these operations are at least shady and often illegal, so taxation is typically not a recurrent theme when these individual sales take place. However, a tax was paid when the ticket was initially sold so bitching about a lack of taxation when the tickets are resold is really kind of misplaced. Do you ever pay sales tax at a garage sale? If you had an extra ticket and sold it to your friend, would you make him pay sales tax? Would you in turn pay that tax to the appropriate governmental agency?
And, yes, Iknow you know this. It’s called “sarcasm.” if you’re up for it, Monday we can cover “irony.”
___
GH: I knew I paid Chaucer too much to get into that jousting match between Sir William and Count Adhemar!
bschloz
Great atmosphere!
K-State is fo real….they can really handle the ball—lotta panache. K-State’s fans are a blast..they are on their feet for everything, very refreshing!..tonight will be rocking…wish I could be there!
KCMO…30 minutes to get inside arena? Really…. $300 million investment but we can’t figure out how to get people inside?
___
GH: The wait to get into Sprint Center is insane! No matter what the event there is always an ocean of patrons awaiting entry that floods all the way to Grand.
dp
Good coverage GH. I’ll take those ticket scalpers a bit further…I saw between 1-5 of these guys on every corner from my office (10th and Main area) to P and L walking down for the night session. We ended up at Willie’s and there were about a half dozen outside there. It’s amazing watching prices drop as the game nears. 30 mins before tip prices where I was standing were dropping to almost face. I’d love to know where all the tickets come from originally and what happens to all the extras. No way every scalper sold out session IV.
Pretty sure the city makes the scalpers get a license, so they get a little of the action….
dp
Oh, yeah, and PS getting in to the sprint center is a joke. 2 entrances? The people scanning/taking tickets are slow and lazy. The guys working the metal detector wands were working their asses off and the two people taking tickets could figure out if they were supposed to scan my ticket, tear my ticket or both. That’s my only bitch about the Sprint Center, everything else is world class.
Stevo
What the hell does ticketsforless.com do? Stubhub? They’re all ticket scalpers! Why are you getting angry over some dudes on the hustle. The problem is big ass ticket brokers who buy up a ton of tickets and drive up the price of the tickets artificially. I hate ticket brokers and honestly don’t know when they became legal.
Tim
@ Gavin….DUH! You obviously don’t know how to read between the lines.
Independence Ave employee
Gavin you owe me $12.69 in taxes.
craig glazer
Greg, you tease us with the Texas angle, hot cheerleaders….wheres the photo…butt clinging chaps…give it up bro…
___
GH: The B12 doesn’t allowed non-credentialed attendees to bring in professional cameras (and lens) to the tournament. My Canon didn’t make it past the screeners.
craig glazer
Greg as it stands now and this is from a guy who felt the Chiefs were overall one of the two worst teams in the league since 03..and they were…THIS SEASONS pre-moves, have been an A- so far, I look for KC to maybe, just maybe compete for post season…need a big time vet reicever(Brandon Marshall) and two O-lineman, one more defensive lineman….a linebacker or two and big time safety…alot…our defense still stinks, offense is much better. We’ll see.
___
GH: I know how down you’ve been on the Chiefs, Craig. I too think they have made nice moves to improve the team and be fiscally responsible to their owner. If Pioli could pull an “A” draft next month, we might have something to really get excited about come next fall. SD is due for a fall back, Denver ain’t anything special and the Raiders still haven’t knocked off Al Davis — which means they are still going nowhere.
craig glazer
PS, TIP FROM INSIDE, CHIEFS PLAN TO TRADE OR DUMP DERRECK JOHNSON…HE’S LIKELY GONE…
jojo
duh ….everyone knew derrick john son is gone..
its been noted before…
but guesss who’s also being traded…stay tuned…its a shocker but the chiefs are now
going to make a move before the draft that has
everyones jaw dropping……they think they have
a star in the rough and they want hm to start
so look for va major defensive trade coming up…
and look for an offensive lineman to get
traded soon.
Cliffy
Nice atmosphere at P&L for the tourney in KC, no doubt, but nothing in connection with it can be classified as “world class.” It’s a nice arena. That’s about as far as I am willing to go describing it.
In agreement on the wait to get in and the observations about the dumb asses taking tickets were spot on.
One last thing … they need to sell beer at the games.
rick
Ahhh…Craig if I recall right you were wrong about the Chiefs being one of the two worse teams and I won that bet. Just want to make sure you don’t revise that history. Next thing you know you’ll be telling people you are a spy working for the FBI or something.
Funky
I am pretty convinced that Hearne makes up his own comments.
Jayhawk Fan
I freekin love Bobby Knight. Someone refered to is as the “crazy man” thing. I love it. Who else says “I always hated that chant” … I am laughing my balls off. It is honesty, he is different, he is great even if he is hatin on my chant/song. It is awesome.
I hear some folks hate bagpipes too.
I love bagpipes playing, the Jaynhawk chanting, and the smell of napalm in morning …… sounds like ….. smells like …..
V I C T O R Y
perplexed by KK
King Kietzman, with no one holding him accountable, does this kind of unprofessional crap all the time. Even when Danny calls him out on his sensless statements, King Kietzman steps on him and simply gets louder — as if that makes him right. You can hear the frustration in Danny’s voice all the time, and King Kietzman simply doesn’t care. Chad “Booger” needs to hold this clown accountable as a journalist. And don’t let the goofball Fescoe pull the wool over your ears, talk show hosts ARE broadcast journalists — not because they claim to be, but because that’s what listeners trust them to be.
I think Todd Lebow is the only guy who understand the responsibility of talk radio. Wish that he would take over KC sports talk radio drive time.
JF …Bear? wtf??
“We went to the championship and went nose-to-nose with the bear,” Kansas State coach Frank Martin said. “We were right there and just couldn’t finish it off.”
uuhhhhhh,LMAO ….
uhhh… Franky baby,
It was NOT a bear.
IT WAS A BIG KS JAYHAWK!!!
as in
THE MIGHTY KANSAS JAYHAWK MENS BASKETBALL TEAM FKN-A MAN …..FFFFFFKN-AAAAAA!!!
LETS DANCE !!!!
Rock Chalk Jayhawk Go KU
Good luck in the NCAA tourney KU.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jkrAxXM0tQ0
Rainbow Man
Bobby Knight is a GREAT color guy and he has improved. He has been awesome during this tournament. What? Petition to get rid of him? Just like KK to call the winningest coach in Divison I history unqualified to do color commentary on a college basketball game.
craig glazer
JOJO where are you?