Sunday, March 21, 1999
UK fans score basketball tickets
Cost, location secondary to thrill
BY KEVIN ALDRIDGE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ST. LOUIS, MO. — When the view from the concession-stand television is better than your seat in the Trans World Dome, enjoying the game can prove to be a little difficult.
But for some Kentucky Wildcats enthusiasts, who were roosting in the cheap seats during Friday night's Midwest Regional Semifinal game against the Miami
RedHawks, having bad seats was better than having no seats at all.
“We were in the building, that was all that mattered to us,” said Joe Willis, 27, of Lexington.
He made the 300-mile trek to St. Louis on Thursday with two friends and no tickets.
“We knew we'd be able to get tickets when we got down here,” he said. “We took a chance, yeah, but you've got to support your team.”
Outside the Trans World Dome on Friday night, street hustlers were scalping courtside tickets for as much as $750. Kentucky fans Debbie Sutherland, Mary Ellen Graves and Brenda Storall also came to the game without tickets, but lucked out by getting good seats at a decent price.
“We paid less than $125 for our tickets, which were about 10 rows back,” said Ms. Sutherland, who has traveled with Kentucky throughout the tournament. “We never come to games with tickets, and we've never had any trouble getting in.”
Lou Jennings and Charles Riggs of Lexington didn't fare so well, however. They shelled out $100 each to sit in the nosebleed section.
“We were sitting three rows from the top,” said Mr. Riggs, who was in section 427 row RR. “But we were going to get in and see that game no matter what.”
“I would've sat on the roof and looked through a skylight to see the 'Cats play,” said Mr. Jennings.
The blue-and-white mob of Kentucky fans accounted for a large majority of the 42,440 spectators who crammed the Trans World Dome on Friday, making it difficult to tell whether you were in St. Louis or Lexington, Ky. The at tendance was a record for an NCAA Regional contest.
Mr. Riggs said he expects a second wave of UK fans to arrive in town today for the game against the Midwest No. 1 seed Michigan State Spartans.
“They're packing up the caravans right now as we speak,” he said. “You're going to see a whole second wave of Kentucky fans on Sunday. Our people travel young, old, big, tall, whatever.”
With disgruntled
RedHawks and Oklahoma Sooner fans checking out of hotels in droves on Saturday, there should be more than enough empty seats for Wildcats fans hoping to cheer their team on to the Final Four.
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