http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/f...ws_best_giant_tix_still_available.html?page=0 The Giants used to be the toughest ticket in town. Reasonable prices, too. Clearing their waiting list would take a lifetime, or two. Season tickets were passed down from generation to generation. Think about this: In a typical year, the Giants would reach only about 100-200 deep into their waiting list, representing 200-400 tickets, the numbers fluctuating slightly depending on price increases and how the team did the previous season. For so many years, the waiting list was 20,000, which meant for those at the back of the line, the wait was at least 100 years. Imagine slowly moving up all the way to No. 1,000. And then it still would take another five years. Now, as a result of the dreaded PSLs, nearly 4,000 of the best and most expensive Giants seats are still available with 16 months remaining before the Giants and Jets open their $1.7 billion stadium. And the Giants have gone through their entire 140,000-member waiting list. The list increased by 120,000 in the seasons since 2003, when the Giants initiated the ticket exchange program that allowed fans to buy individual game tickets from season ticket holders. In order to take part in the program, fans had to add their names to the season ticket waiting list. Every Giants ticket in the 82,500-seat stadium carries a PSL charge and that has created a situation that was unthinkable in Giants Stadium: Anybody who wants a Giants season ticket can still buy one if they can come up with an extraordinary amount of money in the worst economic conditions in decades. But here's the good news: Because the Giants sold out all of their non-club seats by the end of March, the NFL confirmed to the Daily News that Giants home games in the new stadium will not be blacked out. Blackout rules pertain to just the non-premium seats and the Giants have sold all of those. The nearly 4,000 tickets that remain are part of the 9,300 club seats. More than half of the 200-plus suites have been sold. But even if the Giants don't sell another club seat or suite, the home games will not be blacked out. The Jets have been working on a different timetable and are not as far along as the Giants, but Matt Higgins, the executive VP of business operations, said the Jets are very confident they will also sell out and avoid blackouts. Giants co-owner John Mara said he's not worried that the bad economy makes for bad timing and will lead to empty seats on opening day in 2010. As of last week, about 500 of the 2,000 Coach's Club seats were not sold. The Coach's Club area is located right behind the Giants' bench and will be visible on television whenever the cameras shoot the sidelines. Surely, the Giants are aware of what's been on at Yankee Stadium with empty seats behind home plate. (continues)
People sometimes talk about the Giants waiting list being 10x longer than the Jets, it seems that this is just due to a recent change allowing tickets to be sold to people on the waiting list. So they are really only around 2x as popular and half as cool.
