As most of you are probably aware, the NCAA decided that it would be a great idea to play the 2010 Frozen Four inside of an NFL stadium and selected Detroit's Ford Field.The stadium holds 65,000 for football games, and held 80,000 when expanded for the 2009 NCAA Basketball tournament. The arena was expected to hold upwards of 70,000 fans for the Frozen Four.
With only 22,000 ticket packages accounted for in October, the NCAA made the decision to reconfigure the original placement of the rink. First plans were to place the rink in the middle of the field similar to what was done at the Culvers Camp Randall Hockey Classic. The new plan, as you can see in the picture attached, has the field now perpendicular with the regular football layout.
The new layout is expected to hold about 36,000 spectators, no word on how many tickets have been sold at this point. Risers with seating will be place on both sides of the rink. This design is even different than the layout that Wisconsin played at during the Lambeau Field game. At the Lambeau game, organizers also shrunk the playing area, but they ran the rink parallel with the football field.
In my opinion this design makes the most sense if you're not going to sell out the 70,000 seats. ALL of the seats are now much closer to the playing surface which should make the sight lines average as opposed to awful. This in turn should also make for a better atmosphere for the players on the ice and that's what really matters.
As you could have probably guessed, there are still fantastic seats available. Just to see what was available, I put in for two tickets and got tickets on the field risers in row 27 right on the blueline. I'm not sure it gets much better than that if you are going. I checked out all available price points and there are seats available in every price level except for lower bowl seats that are not on the field.
Price Points:
$189.00-Field Level Risers
$119.00-Club Level
$79.00-Upper Level
$40.00-Upper Level, wrong side of the 50 yard line
Looking at the locations, I was curious to see where the $40.00 tickets were going to be. To be honest with you, I think you would be closer to the action watching the game from Cheli's Chili bar in downtown Detroit. It's a crime that the NCAA is making $40.00 off people for those seats.
Posts
