Money That’s The Ticket Want Good Seats At Final Four? Get Ready To Pen $3,500 Check

Daniel Walker has friends coming to visit for the Final Four, April 1-3 at the Seattle Kingdome. He has been running a classified ad seeking tickets to the soldout event. His friends are willing to pay up to $100 each above face value for seats to the semifinal and championship games.

Good luck. Walker and others are discovering that the unofficial color of the Final Four is green.

Prime 100-level tickets for seats to all three men’s college basketball games in the Kingdome already have sold for as much as $3,500 each, and 300-level tickets are going for $200 and up, according to local and national ticket brokers.

That’s a street-value increase of 133 percent since the 1989 Final Four in Seattle and a 775 percent rise since the 1984 event in the Kingdome. By contrast, the face value of the top-priced ticket - $70 this year - has increased by 60 percent since 1984, which is not too much more than the 43.5 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index for the Seattle-Tacoma area during the same period.

As the crowning event of the college basketball season, the Final Four now ranks with the Super Bowl ($3,000 for premium 1996 tickets) and the Masters golf tournament ($2,500) as a tough buy, ticket brokers said.

“This is a very hot ticket,” said John Buller, co-chair of the Seattle Organizing Committee for the tournament. He said he’s received reports of even higher prices than $3,500 for the 100-level seats. “Last year in Charlotte (N.C), I heard $8,000 (for a ticket), but I never saw any of the money change hands.”

All the tickets available to the public have been gone since last summer, when they were distributed by a national lottery, even though the teams playing in the Final Four won’t be known until Sunday.

Each of the four schools will receive 3,500 tickets for its fans.

Aside from purchases from friends with connections, buying tickets from a reputable ticket broker is the safest approach.

Individuals have run local ads to sell tickets for several weeks. Chances are they received tickets through the lottery or had a connection with the University of Washington or the Seattle Organizing Committee.

The UW received about 3,800 tickets from the SOC for being the tournament host and offered them to Husky supporters, including basketball season ticket holders.

For those who cannot afford the going rate and want more than television coverage, tickets are available for two events involving nonFinal Four college stars. A slamdunk and 3-point contest to be televised on ESPN is scheduled for Bellevue Community College March 31. Tickets cost $10.

College all-star seniors will play at Hec Edmundson Pavilion April 2, with tickets $12 for adults and $8 for students. Admission to Fan Jam, a participatory basketball exposition running March 30-April 3 in the Washington State Trade and Convention Center, is $5.

Final Four practices in the Kingdome March 31 are free.

Applications for lottery tickets for the 1996 Final Four in East Rutherford, N.J., are due to the NCAA by April 21. Info: 1-900-646-1996.