Stand in Line, That’s the Ticket

Anyone who wants to buy a Rose Bowl ticket at face value ought to hustle over to TicketMaster this morning. Roughly 1,000 will go on sale at 8.

“After those are gone, there won’t be many left in the primary market,” said Mitch Dorger, chief executive officer of the Tournament of Roses. “Obviously, it’s a very hot ticket.”

Capacity for the BCS national championship game between Miami and Nebraska on Jan. 3 will be about 90,000, and nearly all the tickets, at $150 each, have been allocated.

Each team sold its allotment of 20,694 even before the final BCS rankings made their participation official. Another large chunk--about 20,800--went to Tournament of Roses members, Rose Parade float sponsors and the City of Pasadena.

The members must live or work within 15 miles of Pasadena City Hall

“The Tournament of Roses is a volunteer nonprofit organization,” Dorger said. “These are the folks who put on the parade and support the teams when they come to town. They volunteer an average of 800 hours a year.”

Although the game has no conference affiliation for the first time in more than 50 years, each Pacific 10 team received about 1,500 tickets and each Big Ten team got about 550.

“If Nebraska wanted more tickets, they would approach those schools,” Dorger said.

It’s no surprise that football-crazed Cornhusker fans made short work of their ticket allotment and are looking for more. The Nebraska athletic Web site said, “While the complete ticket allotment is sold out, a limited number of tickets are available to Hurricane Club donors who have until Wednesday to submit orders.”

Miami, despite a reputation of not traveling well, sold its allotment quickly. Athletic Director Paul Dee said this will be the largest contingent of Hurricane followers ever to attend an event on the road.

Rank-and-file fans will be left to scour the Internet or contact ticket brokers. And be prepared to pay top dollar.

“There is a secondary market for tickets,” Dorger said. “We don’t have anything to do with that market, but every year brokers get tickets from various sources.”