ATLANTA – Midway up section 315 in the Georgia Dome Saturday, about 400 feet away from the court, D.J. Kerns and Kenny Stickler could only laugh.
The Ohio State players warming up on the opposite end of the dome were unrecognizable specks, the score on the giant JumboTron suspended over the floor was a blur and the binocular rental booth on the concourse had a longer line than any of the surrounding concession stands.
The two friends drove nine hours from Columbus and paid $620 to an online broker for their seats?
“This is horrible,” said Kerns, the 19-year-old, his bare chest painted scarlet. “It’s a joke. This isn’t a basketball court.”
A few sections over, Cary McDavid couldn’t have been any cheerier.
“Hey, it’s just great to be in the building,” said McDavid, 45, a Buckeye fan from Colorado Springs. “People say, why don’t you just watch it on TV, but just yelling ‘O-H’ and having someone yell ‘I-O’ back is something special. And when you get up here, you see everything, right?”
Welcome to “distant-view” seating at the Final Four, a block of about 8,000 upper-deck seats across 18 sections, all of which sit more than a football field away from the court.
With an estimated 100,000 visitors flooding Atlanta for the nation’s second biggest sporting event and only about 54,000 “basketball” seats available at the Georgia Dome, these outlying areas are in high demand. Although some simply enjoy taking in the atmosphere of this grandiose event, others feel that selling these tickets is going too far to make money.
Amazing Tickets, an online ticket broker in Cleveland, would not offer distant-view seats.
“I can’t sell a client that type of seat,” owner Mark Klang said. “The seats are just so bad.”
Dream Seats Inc. in Grandview Heights offered Buckeye fans such tickets, but buyers were warned.
“We push people not to take those and either spend a little more money or don’t go,” said Jamie Kaufman, president of Dream Seats. “You need a telescope, not binoculars from up there. It’s like sitting behind the stage at a concert. You can’t see what’s going on. You can’t see when a basket is scored. You just hear the crowd.”
For many OSU fans, however, the distant-view seating represents the only option to see their team.
L.J. Wright, Director of the Division I Men’s Basketball championship, tells critics of the remote seats to actually give them a look. For all he claims to have seen up in the distant-view sections – some as far as 415 feet away from the action – is a blissful collection of basketball enthusiasts.
“Every year I go visit the fans in the distant-view seats just to get a feel for what they think of the experience. They are always upbeat and positive,” Wright said. “They truly enjoy the taking in the Final Four experience and simply being a part of it. There would be a lot of disappointed fans if we eliminated those distant-view seats.”
Disappointment may be coming soon. Beginning in 2009 at Detroit’s Ford Field, the court will be set in the center of the dome floor in an effort to maximize seating capacity. Distant-view seating at the Final Four will be no more.
Sitting in the second to last row of section 312, Marvin and Kathy Snyder of Columbus gazed in disbelief at the far-off court.
“This is absolutely ridiculous,” Marvin said. “We’re really disappointed. I mean this is a joke.”
Kathy found one bright spot: The couple’s seats overlooked the media work and buffet area occupying the unused half of the stadium.
“Hey, at least we have good seats to watch people eat,” Kathy said. “And we can kind of see the score, so we’ll know who wins.”
David Briggs can be reached at [email protected].
