by Scott Benson
scott@patriotsdaily.com
You know the story of The Pink Hats, those alleged nouveau Red Sox Nationites who seem far more interested in the happening than they are the ballgame. Their arrival seemed to align with the arrival of those ubiquitous fashion caps by those sons of bitches at New Era Caps. You know, I can handle the brand name stuff, but you have to acknowledge the knock-off effect. You have to know when $4 versions of these things start showing up next to the Fritos at Shaws, there’s going to be some unfortunate applications of this particular fashion trend.
What’s this got to do with the Patriots? I forgot.
No, I didn’t. I keep hearing from e-mailers and site commenters that the ticket sites are suddenly overrun with Patriots tickets. People – primarily season ticket holders, I presume – are evidently bailing hard on 2008 ever since Bernard Pollard crawled into Brady.
Do we have The Pink Seats now?
Did the best coach this franchise has ever had – or is ever likely to have – and the rest of his staff also go down for the season on Sunday? Did Randy Moss and Vince Wilfork? Did Wes Welker, Logan Mankins, Adalius Thomas, Laurence Maroney, Ty Warren, and Richard Seymour? Vrabel, Bruschi, Harrison? Light, Koppen, Mayo, Meriweather? Of course not. So for all they’ve done over the last eight years, these guys haven’t earned even one week of your patience, then?
Yes, I should acknowledge that these tickets just happened to get hiked through the roof this past off-season, and in this day and age, people have every right to make whatever choice they need to get the most out of their money. It’s discretionary income, after all.
I’d embrace that idea a lot tighter if I wasn’t so sure that these scene-makers in perpetual search of a red carpet would be crawling, just like Pollard did, to reclaim those tickets if they look up one day soon to find the 2008 Patriots still in it.
Patriots Daily 
Let ’em go. The bandwagon has been getting a bit too crowded lately. Now we’ll know who’s just there for Brady, and who actually supports the team. Incidentally, as a female, I am continually insulted by people who assume I am only a fan of the Patriots because Tom Brady is “cute.” I was a fan before Brady, and I’m a fan now. And finally, there is no place for pink in football. Those pink glittery football jerseys are a fricking abomination. I know of no team in the NFL whose team colors include pink.
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Besides the Dolphins, of course.
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they’ll be back – when the playoff invoices come in
Scott, what is with the Pats obsession with punters, they just signed another guy to the practice squad, it seems like every week some punter is being released or signed. This time it’s Tom Malone a few days ago it was Reggie Hodges
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Weird. I have had season tickets for 13 years and that story, if true, is a sad one.
I have noticed over the past few years that many of the regulars in our section sell/give away their seats on a regular basis. Part of it, I think, is that many of them have gotten older and a bit jaded by the winning. The crowds have not been as passionate during that period when compared to the past. For years, we would always see the same set of faces in our section each week. That started to fade with the move to the new stadium and seems to be just getting worse.
Anyway, it wouldnt surprise me if the increasing cost of the tickets and the ridiculous parking fees are making it more attractive for people to cash in by selling a few tickets each year.
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Are you sure about this punter thing, Nopointe? Those sound like made-up names.
It’s only a guess, but I’d say it means Chris Hanson should keep choppin’ wood. Heads up, gang!
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“what is with the Pats obsession with punters?”
It’s Belichick’s never-ending quest to find the next hybrid punter/backup QB. Let it go, Bill! Like true love, Tom Tupa was a once-in-a-lifetime thing!
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The on field performance has never been an issue – but our home stadium is one of the most fan unfriendly venues in the NFL.
The traffic access nightmare that is 495/Route 1, the ten pounds of shit in a five pound bag that is Patriots Place, the ass-reaming of $40 per car at the parking lots, the Gestapo mindset of the police/security personnel, the slow-motion clusterfuck that is the entrance gates. I haven’t even gotten inside the stadium yet! There awaits a chronic lack of restroom space (again!) and the acoustic dead zone in the pink (red) luxury seats. A glaring lack of replays or other football scores shown.
Our 1.3 billion dollar franchise is committed to shaking you down and making you miserable while doing it. It’s sad but true.
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I get your point, Sean. But that would have been the case before Brady went down. That doesn’t really explain the alleged rush to dump this week.
Why all the Pink Seats, Dale?
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It does bear noting that regardless of the team’s outlook, the days of seeing the same people at every home game are gone. Given that many tickets have more than doubled in cost since the old stadium was put to rest and parking remains as absurd as it ever was, it is simply not economically feasible for many season ticket holders to hold on to their tickets. It is in excess of $250 for two decent seats and a parking spot, not to mention the $7.50 draft beers we are entitled to once we enter the building.
While I think the flood of tickets becoming available is due in part to bandwagon fans, there are also many legit season ticket holding fans that may have initially decided to hold on to a couple more tickets than they could reasonably afford due to the potential for another historic season. Now that expectations have been scaled back, season ticket holders that may have decided to go to five or six games may be thinking that three or four is more reasonable for their budget. Just a thought.
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Sean- should have read your response before posting mine.
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Dan, I think he wants to have a 2 punter formation, then the punt return team won’t know which one will kick.
Teams have tried this with QBs but never with punters
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I think you’re on to something, Nopointe.
Perhaps in the tradition of keeping Testaverde’s TD streak alive and in bringing back the drop kick, maybe Belichick wants to be the first team ever to punt off a lateral.
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With the negative media in this town I actually find it hard to believe there’s a large scale sell-off. I’ve always been able to find tickets from sellers (even last year). I think the press is trying to keep the soap opera running and holy Nostradamus, this is another sign THIS TEAM IS DOOMED if season ticket holders are abandoning Belichick.
Face it, the media would prefer having a mediocre but quotable coach/organization. They just lost Brady so they have, in essence, thrown up their hands and handed all relevant coverage to Reiss. Welcome back to your sophomore year in high school.
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It can’t get any worse. I’m a 15 year season ticket holder and it has got to the point where the Pats don’t have any home field advantage (except weather). The place is a morgue. People sit on their hands on big plays and then reluctantly stand up on 3rd downs. Last week, countless people streamed out of the stadium after the FG put the Pats up 7. Instead of helping the defense win a game, everyone wanted to beat the traffic. I long for the days of Foxboro Stadium and that, in itself, is pretty sad.
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I think the ticket increase has huge role in people selling off their tickets. I saw a bunch of tickets for sale on Ticketmaster the week before the 1st game. There were 400 tickets available on Patriots Ticketexchange. I have never seen that many tickets for sale on there.
Add the $40 to park, $7.50 for beers and $4.00 for a bottled water. It can be a pretty expensive day.
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Scott,
Perhaps a 4th Wall event should be put together. Been a while.
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I don’t know Mark, if Brady’s not going to be there……..
Yes, it may be time for a reunion of the crew from that Jets game not so long ago.
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They take $40 on parking? 😮 😮 😮
Wow and I think 10 € (15 $) is daylight robbery.
No wonder people are selling their tickets instead of being scalped.
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I was lucky enough to attend the Week 17 game in NY last year along with the two home playoff games. Normally I only make it to about 1 game a year. It’s putting a dent in my wallet but I’m scooping up these tickets no one wants. I was at the game last week and was just able to get a couple seats to the MNF game against Denver.
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There were posters saying Sunday morning that, there were plenty of tickets available before the KC game too. They were actually being sold for less than face value. On top of that there are still tickets available for this season (not through secondary markets).
I would love to see how many season ticket holders, gave their thickets up this year. I finally said enough is enough. I have two little ones in sports and school and a third not too far behind. The $5,000 I would have spent on just tickets can be put to better use. I had a ton of fun over the last 16 years, and met a ton of great people (Pats, Mark, King). That being said, my tickets in 1992 were $34, the $117 a game for tickets outside the 30 yard lines broke me.
In 92, there might have been two women at the stadium and no corporate events. There was just a bunch of guys having a good time. Remember Bob Kraft driving around the stadium in the golf cart shaking hands. That would never happen today. Remember the first Monday night football game since 81? The Good Year blimp didn’t even show up, they rented a plane to circle the stadium. Recent times, I can tell you how many times I’ve tail gated next to corporate types there for more business and not pleasure. With a winning organization things change. The changes aren’t always for the better. For me, I would rather the pink hats, band wagon fans and the rest of the nation hating us. It just means that our team made it.
Embrace them while they’re here (haha). Since when they leave, it could mean the end of something special.
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I know a lot of people treat NFL tix as an investment, you buy some season tix, pick 1-2 maybe 3 games you want to go to, and then scalp the rest to pay for the whole season and maybe some profit, all the while hoping for appreciation on your seat license (if applicable). It’s no different than people going to whatever ticket ‘broker’ in Harvard Square to pay 4 figures to get in the front third of the floor to see Springsteen.
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