I attended my second Northwestern game of the season on Thursday night and saw a career high by Northwestern guard Craig Moore who scored 28 points and tied a school record by making seven 3-pointers. The arena was practically sold out – a rarity for a Northwestern game.

I arrived at the game an HOUR early. I normally do not get to the stadium that early, but I psyched myself out on the demand for tickets.

Here were the steps in understanding the market for tickets:
1) I logged onto craigslist on Wednesday night and noticed that most tickets were priced at $30-50 ($20 is face value), but that was mainly for lower rows.
2) Next, I logged onto www.nusports.com to see if tickets were still available. They were, but only the last rows in the stadium were still available.
3) On Thursday afternoon I called the Northwestern ticket office and they said tickets would be on sale at the Box Office at 6:30 pm (8:00 pm start time)

So I arrived at Welsh-Ryan Arena around 7 pm. I went to the Box Office and they had a stack of tickets available for $20. Instead of paying face, I went outside to see if the brokers were selling for less. I saw “Broker Ben” who sells tickets outside of Murphy’s Bleachers at Cubs games and I see him all the time at Northwestern games. I asked him if he had a $10 ticket and he did. I was amazed he was planning to sell tickets in sub zero degree temperatures.

In the end, I should have arrived at the game on time rather than early but at least I got free parking :-).