We get flooded with spam-y, junky type emails all the time, but one got me particularly excited. The title simply read “$100 off baseball tickets.” Upon further examination, the email was from a real person representing a real offer. The excitement rose. I responded and, following some back and forth to settle the details of our arrangement, I had a promo code worth $100. More excitement followed.
I was expected to write up a post about my “experience with ScoreBig.” In an online ticket world where Stubhub and TicketMaster clearly reign supreme (and having never heard of ScoreBig), I became a bit worried that I might be in for quite an experience to try to take advantage of my newfound baseball ticket wealth. I was a little unsure about how ScoreBig figured into the equation with Stubhub and TicketMaster already entrenched. Were they a boutique ticket shop that offered only hipster seat selections – like those with obstructed views or in seats facing away from the field? Did ScoreBig have some caveat where your seats were free if the home team scored over 10 runs, but were greatly inflated in a 1-0 game the other way?
My concerns were subdued when I figured out what makes ScoreBig tick. They are the Priceline of event tickets. Where Priceline allows you to negotiate your airplane tickets, ScoreBig’s interface encourages visitors to “make offers” on event tickets. They have sections dedicated to baseball, football, basketball, hockey, broadway, music venues, and the fine arts of the theatre. As with Priceline Negotiator, using ScoreBig requires the user to supply their credit card information without the guarantee of $4 tickets behind home plate. I was a bit hesitant to fork over my credit card info when I had been given the promo code, but I figured in the worst case scenario, I wound up with baseball tickets.
My first instinct was to use the code to buy tickets to next week’s Nats games and write this post mostly about the game. The Nats face the Dodgers at home next week and Clayton Kershaw is due to make his return from the disabled list on Wednesday. I can’t go because my first softball game is Wednesday. So then I decided to look at the Nats schedule when Max is tentatively scheduled to visit, but a long road trip made that impossible. Finally, I decided to go full selfish and use the promo code to secure two nice tickets to see the Braves when they come to town.
ScoreBig rates seats based on a star system so that you don’t bid $50 on a ticket and wind up in the last row. I opted for the 4-star section, which is mostly behind the dugouts. I didn’t get the tickets for $50, but ScoreBig offered $53. At this point, paying $6 for a pair of nice tickets seemed perfectly reasonable. I purchased the tickets and will tentatively be sitting in section 112, row S when the Braves come to town in June.
This last bit was the one that made me least happy. ScoreBig guaranteed that I would have tickets in the 4-star section, but couldn’t immediately tell me which ones were mine. The 4-star section is pretty big and seats in row S are certainly more valuable than row SS. The excitement would be at a supremely high level right now if I had been guaranteed these row S tickets. Instead, I’m left with a pair of undetermined 4-star seats. But I’m still paying $6 to see my favorite team in action on what should be an awesome Saturday night in June.
Check out ScoreBig.com; I’m rooting for them to become the third head of the event tickets triumvirate. And come say hello if you’re planning to be at Nationals Park in June. I may or may not be in section 112, row S.
-Sean Morash
