Jayhawk fans face flight crunch

By Eric Weslander     Mar 13, 2007

Richard Gwin
Max Gould, 5, of Franklin, Tenn., pauses to look at the display backing the Jayhawks at Kinko's, 911 Mass. Gould was in town visiting his grandparents. The Jayhawks are headed to Chicago on Friday for the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

It’s not too late to get game tickets. But it may be too late to get a good flight – unless you have some time to waste in Chicago.

As of Monday, a few hundred tickets remained available through the United Center box office for the first and second rounds of the NCAA Tournament in Chicago, where Kansas University tips off play at 6:10 p.m. Friday.

There are virtually no flights available between Kansas City and Chicago for Thursday or Friday. Some Wednesday flights still were available on Monday but were starting to fill.

With two days of NCAA Tournament games sandwiching St. Patrick’s Day, Chicago will be a wild place this weekend.

“I think because it’s spring break, it’s a huge problem,” said Marcia West, a travel consultant with Carlson Wagonlit travel. “So many things are already booked.”

Some people attending the game from Lawrence are opting for the 550-mile drive.

Jim Bare, director of ticket operations for the United Center, said Monday afternoon that there were “several hundred” tickets still available for the first- and second-round games through the center’s box office. To order, fans must print out a form through the United Center’s Web site, www.unitedcenter.com, and fax it to the box office.

“Looking at how many we sold today, if that pace continues tomorrow, we would probably be out by the middle of Wednesday,” he said. “They’d be pushing their luck a little bit if they waited until Wednesday.”

Each ticket costs $225, plus an $11 service charge and $3 fee, and is good for the first- and second-round games. The limit is eight tickets per order.

Asked about the quality of the seats, Bare said, “They’re in the building.”

“They’re all upper-level. … They’re among the top rows,” he said.

Meanwhile, plenty of tickets elsewhere in the building are selling online through secondary-market Web sites, such as razorgator.com, which had one set of tickets selling for $864 apiece.

The NCAA started selling tickets for the games more than a year ago. All the 21,000 seats in the United Center initially sold for $225 apiece, but third-party sellers are now marking up their tickets based on the perceived quality of the seats.

Bare said he had no idea how many seats had been resold.

“Whatever it is, it’s higher than I want it to be,” he said. “The NCAA tries to lessen the secondary market, but obviously as you can see, there are those who are not true fans. : People that follow Kansas basketball are strong fans. I think they should have a chance to buy the tickets and see the game and not have to compete with people” who are trying to make money.

An estimated 7,408 KU alumni live in the Chicago area, including Will Cook, who bought his tickets two weeks ago through the United Center’s box office.

“Everyone’s trying really hard to get tickets now,” he said. “The buzz here is really high. I think it’s going to be crazy.”

Fans who don’t make it to the KU game will have a variety of Jayhawk-friendly bars to choose from, including Kincade’s Bar and Grill, which boasts a 200-capacity room at the back of its bar devoted entirely to showing KU games.

“We are turning the key and holding onto our britches, man, just letting everybody in,” general manager Greg Weinstein said. “I think everybody that usually comes to my place, a lot of them are going to try to go to the game. With the game being here in Chicago, we don’t know what to expect.”

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