Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Crossroads Classic: Tales of Eight Fans

These stories are good for some reasons, bad for others...They are funny for some reasons, sad for others. I'll let you deduce the way you think about them.

What I can tell you is they're all true...and they're a quick read.
Trustworthy?

Scenario 1:
Two IU fans headed to downtown Indy, from outside the state, to see their Hoosiers lose to play Butler, but didn't have any tickets.  They sought out some good seats from scalpers as there were scalped tickets available.

They found two tickets down low for $400 each, and took the crook fine gentleman up on his offer.

They were surprised when they got to the ticket scanner and found out that they had bought counterfeit tickets and were denied entry.

They drowned their sorrows, both from the loss of the game and the loss of $800, in red wine and steaks at Shula's Steakhouse in the Westin.

Scenario 2:
Two IU fans headed to downtown Indy, from Carmel, to see their Hoosiers lose to play Butler, but didn't have any tickets.  They sought out some scalped tickets as there were a ton of vendors out and around Bankers Life Arena.  The cheapest tickets they found were $150 each.

They decided to watch the game a few blocks away in the comfort of Harry & Izzy's while eating delicious steaks, shrimp cocktail and on draught beer.

They didn't need to go through the hassle of leaving the arena to reverse their jackets or take off their Hoosier sweatshirts to reveal their UND t-shirts beneath.
Two down low

Scenario 3:
Two Purdue alums met in downtown Indy.  One coming from just outside of Indy via car, the other from the Southwest via plane.

They enjoyed a meal at Harry & Izzy's before the game while watching crappy bowl games and the first half of the IU loss to Butler.

They headed a few blocks East to the arena, didn't have to fight the crowd (as there were 12 minutes left in the first game of the double-header), used their tickets that had been purchased through Purdue...and enjoyed watching IU lose to Butler before being disappointed in the double-digit loss by their Boilers to Mike Brey's maroon mock turtleneck.

Scenario 4:
Two Purdue fans, one an alum (Dad), a second a current student (son), went to downtown Indy to take in the Crossroads Classic.  Like a few of the fans above, they found scalped tickets were simply too expensive to swallow as bandwagon IU fans die hard IU fans had driven the price through the roof.

Instead of calling it a day and heading to a nearby bar or restaurant, they broke the law used good ole-fashioned American ingenuity.  They hid in the crowd...got past the security...got past the ticket-takers...and enjoyed both games in the double header from the lower arena while paying $0 for their seats.

With their savings, they drank countless $45 beers from vendors within the arena...and probably ended up behind on the deal.


I'll let you guess which pair of fans included yours truly.

7 comments:

J Money said...

Scenario 3 sounds like a true love story if I've ever heard one.

boilerdowd said...

There was canoodling...

Plang said...

When isn't there canoodling when BDowd is involved???

boilerdowd said...

That's a good point...I'm handsy.

PUhopeless said...

oooh, crap... is this the ticket trivia question? I guess #.... drat, can I phone a friend???

boilerdowd said...

Time's up, Hopeless...thanks for playing. You have no lifelines available.

zlionsfan said...

Hey now, one of those bandwagon fans provided me with quite a stack of beer money once ... although it was a disappointment in the end, and I was a damn fool.

I had Final Four tickets in '91 - two of the cheaper ones ($60 each IIRC). IU was a #2 seed, so expectations were high, and I had a friend who was working at the state house at the time, so she was my contact. After IU whipped Florida State in the second round, she had someone offer $1K apiece for the tickets.

Naturally, I was a fool and waited. After all, how much would they be worth with IU playing? Then stupid Kansas ruined the whole thing ... I ended up getting $400 for the pair, still a nice profit (even after giving 10% to my helpful friend), but still ... my final semester at Purdue included quite a bit of beer thanks to that anonymous IU fan (who bought tickets even though the Hoosiers weren't playing).