The Nosebleeds Are Good Enough for Me
This week Kyle and I saw “War Horse” at our local theater, which was the kick-off show for the Broadway musicals series to which we have season tickets. We LOVE our local theater. This is only its fourth year in existence so it feels super-new and the staff are really nice and it’s in a slightly-more-upscale area of downtown so there are restaurants and pleasant areas to walk nearby.
our section and view of the stage
Best of all, it’s fairly inexpensive! We are paying less than $30 per ticket per show and we enjoy it so much. The first season the theater was open we bought tickets to a single show in the upper balcony to determine if those seats gave us a good enough view to commit to season tickets. We were really impressed – we were able to see and hear very well. So all our season tickets since then have been for the upper balcony, and we cut our price even further by buying tickets for the “Super Saver” discount weekday evening.
During War Horse’s intermission we walked over to chat with some friends we spotted in the next section over. They stated that they didn’t care for their current seats and much preferred when they had had tickets on the orchestra level. Their evening really seemed to have been marred by what they considered unacceptable tickets.
I don’t know about you, but I find the nosebleeds satisfactory basically all the time. I’m willing to pay for admission to certain events event, but my assessment is that the price bump to have closer seats is not worth the marginal increase in enjoyment of the experience. I’ll pay to get in the door but that’s where it stops – at least at our current income! I mean, hey, we’re already being fancy by even going to the theater – I think that’s pretty good! Then again, I haven’t exactly been spoiled by seeing lots of performances or events close up.
When there is open seating though, I’m willing to put in a bit of extra time to get closer and have a better view (and not stand behind tall people). I guess this is just another example of me being more conservative with my money than my time!
Can you enjoy a performance or sporting event from the nosebleeds? What section do you prefer?
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I prefer the free/cheap section. I say free because I learned back in HS that you can sometimes get free or cheap tickets just by walking around the theater before showtime. I did this once and ended up scoring a couple floor level tickets 15 or so rows from the front for free, the guy who gave them up just didn’t want us to resell them. Everyone around was wearing evening gowns and tuxes and we were in shorts and tshirts.
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That’s a sweet deal! I’ve heard students can sometimes fill in empty seats at performances by waiting somewhere but I’ve never tried it. I do prefer to just have tickets through so I know I’ll get to attend.
I bought student tickets to the LA Opera in college, and got some really fantastic seats… best was in the second or third row. They had two programs– one was season tickets (my regular seats were generally in the back on the ground floor) and one was walk-up an hour before show-time.
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Sounds like an awesome deal!
I am not a fan of the nose bleeds for sporting events. Baseball maybe just because the stadium is not as big as most. For football I try and get middle seats. Not low enough that the prices are crazy high but night so high that the players look like little ants. I might as well be watching it at home on TV.
Haha yes there is a point where your view is way better on TV, but you can’t replicate the atmosphere and that your individual cheers are totally making a difference!
I love the atmosphere of the game and for that reason I don’t mind being in the cheap seats. So long as the stadium is full and the crowd is roaring I’m happy. Of course I would be more happy with full corporate service and seats closer to the action, but that’s not the point.
One of the great things about living here in London is the amount of free events. Whether it be cultural or sporting there is always a free ticket going. They’re the ones I love the best.
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I definitely don’t seek out free events as much as I should, especially because there are plenty available at our university. We don’t even go to our school’s football games! I love the atmosphere in our basketball stadium though. I wasn’t a spectator sports fan until I got to grad school. 🙂
I am a huge fan of the nosebleed section. People give me a hard time because I buy season tickets in the nosebleed section to my college’s football games. Our team isn’t great so the nosebleeds is always empty, which means more room for me to enjoy the game. I also don’t have someone hitting me in the back with their knees.
At professional games, I will buy nosebleeds and then move closer after the first half of the game or look for empty seats. By the second half, there is good chance the seat will be empty for the remainder of the game.
I’m never brave enough to move to closer seats, though I’ve observed lots of people trying it (and occasionally getting rejected).
We hardly go to any shows. If we were willing to spend more, then we would go for the front, however, to us it doesn’t really matter. Go for cheap!
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I’ve only had nice tickets when someone else was paying or subsidizing – just for me we go for the cheap seats.
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