Fan Shoots And Scores Outside Dome

An hour and 15 minutes before the UCLA-Oklahoma State tipoff, Greg Means of Washington, D.C., had a slam dunk.

Holding up two fingers on a street corner a couple of blocks north of the Kingdome, Means scored a pair of tickets to the first game of the Final Four weekend for $30 each - $5 less than face value.

“I’m a Final Four groupie,” he said.

A political consultant and Arkansas native, Means refused to pay prices ranging from $200 for 300-level “nosebleed” seats to $1,000 for the second level before getting an offer he didn’t refuse.

No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s Day joke.

“Our wives decided they didn’t want to come this evening,” the seller said. “That was 2 hours ago.”

Like others dealing tickets outside the stadium on a pleasant, sunny afternoon, the seller would not identify himself - perhaps because of the city’s unusually restrictive ban on ticket scalping.

Besides barring ticket sales for more than face value anywhere in town, an ordinance prohibits the resale of tickets at any price within four to five blocks around the Kingdome within 2 hours of the start of an event.

Violators risked a $300 fine and 90 days in jail.

There was no immediate word on arrests. Uniformed officers assigned to traffic and crowd control said the scalping ordinance was being enforced by plainclothes officers.

None was in evidence 45 minutes before game time at Second Avenue South and Jackson Street when a pair of Vail, Colo., men sold two tickets for 300-level seats at $175 each after finding no takers at $200.

“I’m just trying to make my plane money out here,” the seller said.

The buyer, identifying himself only as a manager in the recording industry from Chestnut, Pa., said it was his fourth Final Four.

“Price doesn’t matter. That’s not what it’s about. It’s the game, man,” he said.

Mike Corcell of Boston said he made enough deals to see the game for free, buying one $35 ticket for $200, selling it for $350 and then buying another for $150 in a 1-hour period.

Kevin Frankel of Los Angeles and 10 friends fanned out among the arriving fans, but found tougher going than in previous Final Fours.

“You find people selling really crummy seats at really high prices,” Frankel said. “New Orleans is a much better town for this. They’re more into buying and selling.

“Here they’re more like on a jihad. They actually take it seriously.”

Going the distance

The Final Four is such a gala event that hardly anything seems too extreme to experience it in person.

Whether it be a 40-hour car ride from the dusty roads of Oklahoma or a red-eye flight that doesn’t end in Seattle, fans are willing to do whatever it takes.

These are the fans who already have tickets. There were many others who converged on the Kingdome from all corners of the country Saturday morning in hopes of convincing someone to sell them a ticket.

With all the hoopla surrounding the game, the festival atmosphere began early. Thousands of fans crowded the streets in front of the Kingdome ticket offices early in the morning.

Various stories about what was required to reach the Kingdome were free flowing. Perhaps the best came from University of Arkansas students James Graves, Ray Dunwoodie, David Dubriske, Mike Kersting and Barry Nolan.

“We had to camp out on a 20-degree night for our tickets,” Graves said about the easiest part of their week.

Once they secured tickets, getting to Seattle proved to be even tougher. Every flight from Little Rock, Ark., to Seattle was full so they had to fly into Spokane. They left Friday afternoon, arrived in Spokane late Friday night and drove to Seattle. They finally reached the end of Interstate 90 at 4 a.m. Saturday with enough time to grab a nap before waiting in line to pick up their tickets.

It cost the five $400 apiece. Other Arkansas students were paying as much as $1,300 for their trips.

Arkansas wasn’t the only place where it was tough

to find a flight to Seattle. The Morton family from Tulsa, Okla., took two days to reach the Emerald City. Their group of six, which purchased tickets through Oklahoma State, had to fly into Portland and drive north from there.

They brought perhaps the youngest fan to the game. Stuart Austin Morton was born just before the tournament started March 16.

Assistant’s father hospitalized

The father of UCLA assistant coach Lorenzo Romar became ill during the Bruins’ semifinal victory and had to be hospitalized.

Davis Romar, 61, was undergoing tests at Harborview Hospital, where his son accompanied him. His condition was not immediately available.

“He was overcome and became very nauseated,” said John Dolak, UCLA assistant sports information director.

Big Country’s farewell

Bryant “Big Country” Reeves of Oklahoma State played 39 1/2 minutes in his college finale. His 25 points gave him a total of 2,367 in his four seasons in Stillwater, Okla., including 221 (an 18.4 scoring average) in a dozen NCAA tournament games. He’s Oklahoma State’s all-time leading tournament scorer.

By scoring 25, the biggest thing to come out of Gans, Okla., had his fourth-highest scoring output in a tournament game.

Big fans

Two prominent UCLA basketball fans were in the Kingdome - Bruins football coach Terry Donahue and actor Jack Nicholson.

Donahue’s devotion to the Bruins, in fact, may have involved the ultimate act for a college football coach. He moved back the start of UCLA’s spring football practice from Monday to Tuesday.