Tuesday, April 1, 2008

A Call To Dawgs: Arizona State-Georgia, 9/20/08

This is your formal invitation to West Coast Dawgapalooza 2008, otherwise known as the Arizona State-Georgia game on Saturday September 20. It's only 5 1/2 months away, so start sifting through the couch cushions for that spare change. I am locked and loaded: flight, hotel, car, tickets, the whole nine, so I thought I'd share some info for anyone who still has plannin' to do.

Here's what you need to know:

Flights
Kayak.com is the best flight search engine that I am aware of. Rock it.

Orientation
Here's a Google map of the Tempe area to get you acclimated. Zoom in, zoom out, and cruise around to figure out the lay of the land in and around ASU & Tempe.

Hotels
Trip Advisor is the best hotel site going. Here is a list of the 45 hotels in Tempe ranked according to user reviews; it is a great place to start your hotel search, as you can read several traveler reviews in addition to the usual info. This is the best resource I can recommend for finding a hotel in Tempe.

Of course, you can also stay north of the river in Scottsdale, but it's definitely a higher pricepoint. Here's the trip advisor list & ranking of Scottsdale hotels.

If your into the staying with the team thing, the UGA football team is staying at the Marriott Phoenix Airport {ranked 41 of 158 hotels in Phoenix by tripadvisor}, and rooms are currently available for $139 a night.

Tickets
Thanks to the work of Paul Westerdawg, we have found out the deal with tickets from the ASU ticket office office

ASU single game tickets go on sale August 13th.

ASU season tickets are on sale now {more on why this is important in a minute}.

First off, here is the Sun Devil Stadium seating plan for reference:



- The UGA section {the tickets that UGA will be selling to it’s own fans through the UGA ticket office} for this game will be sections 231-236.

-You can buy, today, any seat in sections 212-230 for $99 for a season ticket.

Let me repeat that: for $99, you can buy, right now, an ASU 2008 season ticket for all 7 home games. Last year face value on these tickets was $42 per game. So you can buy $320 worth of face value tickets for $99.

This is amazing because:

1. You will have ticket in hand

2. If you buy in section 230, you will be adjacent to the official UGA sections, and with the number of UGA fans going out I am willing to bet that section 230 is going to be much more red and black than gold and maroon.

3. With your ticket to the other 6 games, you can either:

3a. Attempt to sell them, on your own, on Craigslist, Stubhub, Ebay etc. You could sell them for way below face and make up the approximately $50 above a single ticket face value that you paid for your ASU-UGA ticket

3b. The ASU ticket office told me that you can return any of the tickets that you don’t plan on using, and each year they donate those tickets to charity {last year it was Boys & Girls Club of Tempe/Phoenix} and will provide you with a receipt of your contribution that can be used as a tax writeoff.

4. Note also that if you want better seats and aren't as worried about proximity to the UGA section, sideline tickets in sections 201-211 with seatbacks start at $149 for a season ticket. Also, with the $99 tickets in sections 212-230, note that sections 222-226 have seatbacks although they are a little farther away from the UGA section.

I have purchased my tickets in section 230. My recommendation is to call ASU ticket office and get your tickets in section 230. The ASU ticket office is open Monday- Friday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. PST. Their phone number is 480-727-0000, and this season ticket deal can only be purchased by phone {you can't get it on line}

Think of it this way:

Why wait until August 13 to pay $45-50 for a seat which could be who knows where in the stadium when today you can buy a seat adjacent to the UGA section, for $50 more?. And with that $50 more, you are getting about $250 more worth of tickets to the other 6 games that you can either sell to get your money back {and if things work out you could end up going to ASU-UGA for free, or even getting paid to go}, or you can give back to the school, donate to charity, and get a $250 tax writeoff?

This is a no brainer.

The UGA ticket office has not announced a point total cutoff for season ticket holders to purchase the tickets that UGA has in sections 231-236, but everyone thinks that they will get more requests than the total number of tickets they have and that they point total cutoff will be significant- the buzz is that it will be at or above the point cutoff for Georgia/Florida road game against a good opponent tickets {20,000 - 30,000 points}.

Tailgating
Note that for some unknown reasons that are alien to the average SEC fan, tailgaiting is NOT allowed in university "parking lots and structures" until 3.5 hours before kickoff, and although public consumption of beer and wine is legal, public consumption of hard liquor is not. No, I am not kidding. Don't ask, because I have no fucking idea, either. Not sure yet how to work around this yet; maybe just rock the bars and then walk to the stadium; not sure at this point but we'll figure it out. But if you are planning on setting up your tailgate early in the a.m., it looks like that isn't happening. I know: weak sauce.

Golf
Golf Arizona
Metro Phoenix Golf Guide

That's all I can think of. I am beyond geeked about this for more than just the game and the fact that several friends are flying out. I also took the week after the game off work, and I'm renting a car and leaving Phoenix on Sunday to explore Grand Canyon, Zion, and Bryce Canyon National Parks for a week, then driving to Vegas the following Sunday and flying home from there.

So there's all the information you need to make it happen. First beer is on me.

8 comments:

UGAgirl said...

I came across your site, and it is very helpful! You were right that the ASU tailgating is lacking. I have lived in Scottsdale for two and a half years after graduating from UGA in 05. I think our best bet would be to "tailgate" at a bar on Mill Ave right beside the stadium. I am working on securing a UGA exclusive area with a couple friends who are managers. I will let you know the details once it is secured. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. I am happy to assist. Can't wait for Sept. 20th!!

Kanu said...

UGAGirl-

Sweet- let me know if you get that tailgate sorted out- kanu 4 at hotmail dot com

Can't wait

Anonymous said...

A note from alumni in AZ "In preparation for the big event in September, I have secured a "home base" for us in Tempe. The owners of Bison Witches Bar (21 E. 6th St, Tempe) have graciously offered to host the
UGA fans for the weekend of GA vs ASU. They are located in downtown Tempe within 5 blocks of Sundevil Stadium.

They are going to be decked out in GA gear and will be serving fabulous food and drinks all weekend long. Please tell your friends and family to make Bison Witches the "Georgia Bar" of choice!!!

Flags, shirts and signs or any other UGA goods would be greatly appreciated...ask for John!

Thanks for your support and as always, GO DAWGS!

Kaitlin Riley"

Anonymous said...

please let me know where the party is for the GA/ASU game, GO DAWGS

mmans2@gmail.com

Anonymous said...

I checked about a week ago (It's Sunday August the 3rd as I write this)and the only season tickets available were in section 238 and were $149......

At $99 I might have purchased them but at $149 I think I'll find a ticket elsewhere or take my chances at the game.

Hey if anyone has an extra ticket at least close to the Dawg section let me know!

BoulderDawg

Anonymous said...

Got a question for you guys...I just bought tix from a guy who lives in AZ. The tickets are in section 218. He said there is usually a mix of fans in that area, but after reading this I am a little skeptical. I want to be around other DAWGS as well-think I should get the tix in Section 238 (someone mentioned thats whats left according to the ASU office) and sell mine? Thanks for the help and cant wait to see everyone 9/20!!!

Anonymous said...

I'm not sure if BoulderDawg and I talked to different offices, but I called today and was told there are season tickets available in sections 212-220. I live in Tucson and have 10-12 friends flying in from GA and the operator said there were open blocks around 220-221 to fit that many people together if they all called the same day for tickets. Not that close to the UGA section, but probably the only way at this point to fit that many Dawg fans that are traveling together. so I think it will be a decent mix of fans all throughout that section. As far as tailgating, I prefer outside with a keg, but the Bison Witches in Tucson is a pretty badass place, so we will probably end up at the one in Tempe before the game unless I stumble across somehting else... See ya in Tempe GO DAWGS! D_WAY

Anonymous said...

Let me clarify a little: I too was also told that the $99 tickets were available in those sections. However they were so far away from the Georgia section I didn't even consider them.

I'm probably going to call whenever individual game tickets come available and see what I can get. I any case at $149 or even $99 a ticket I don't think I'll have any problem getting in close to the Dawg section.

However a party of a dozen people presents a whole different set of problems. My guess is that you would have to take what you can get.

I'm pretty sure this game is going to sale out however I still don't see any proble with getting a single or a pair of tickets.

By the way I reserved a room at the Super 8 (Which is only a mile from the stadium)only two weeks ago. I was amazed they still had vacancy......I bet they don't anymore.

The heat? I'm not really worried about that. It's late September with a 5:00 PM start. It might be a little warm in the first half but comfortable later on. In any case the dry heat is one hell of a lot different.

Boulderdawg

Boulderdawg