Seattle Tickets Finder

Death Cab For Cutie is coming to home for a concert at Key Arena on December 9. I picked up one of their albums last year and think it is hunky dory (meaning I only skip past their songs when they randomly come up on my ipod about 2/3 of the time rather than all of the time.) Anyway, even though they are locals I am a little surprised to learn that their show in at the 16,000+ seat KeyArena at Seattle Center, but there it is. And the show is apparently popular enough to have attracted the interest of the ticket brokers — a few of whom are hawking excellent seats to this show. If you are having trouble finding the seat you hoped for to this show check out these resources:

We Have Seats is selling up close and personal seats at prices ranging from $75-127
StubHub has seats from $93-139

So if you love the tenor crooning of the Deathcab chaps now is you chance to get good seats to the show. Happy shopping.

Here is more info on the band from their wiki:

Origin - Bellingham, Washington, USA
Years active - 1997 - present
Genres - Indie rock, Indie pop, Alternative rock
Labels - Atlantic Records
Barsuk Records
Members:
Ben Gibbard
Chris Walla
Nicholas Harmer
Jason McGerr

Death Cab for Cutie is an American band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band takes its name from a satirical song, of the same name, performed by the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band on their 1967 album Gorilla.

Death Cab for Cutie began as a solo project of Ben Gibbard while he was the guitar player for the band Pinwheel (he has also recorded solo as All-Time Quarterback). As Death Cab for Cutie, Gibbard released a cassette, titled You Can Play These Songs with Chords; the release was surprisingly successful, and Gibbard decided to expand the band into a complete project. He recruited Christopher Walla, who also recorded “Songs with Chords”, as an electric guitarist, Nicholas Harmer on bass, and Nathan Good to play drums, a configuration that released the LP Something About Airplanes in the summer of 1998. The album got favorable reviews from the independent music scene, and in 2000, the follow-up was released: We Have the Facts and We’re Voting Yes. Nathan Good left the band at some point during the recording of We Have the Facts. His playing on “The Employment Pages” and “Company Calls Epilogue” were kept, but Gibbard played drums on all other songs. New drummer Michael Schorr would first appear on The Forbidden Love E.P., released in fall of 2000. The following year, another LP was released, entitled The Photo Album. Limited editions of this album contained three bonus tracks, which were later released separately as The Stability E.P.

…..

In November, 2004 Death Cab for Cutie signed a “long-term worldwide deal” with Atlantic Records, leaving their long-time label Barsuk Records and the rank of indie record labels. Gibbard stated on the official website that nothing would change except that “Next to the picture of Barsuk holding a 7″, there will be the letter “A” on both the spine and back of our upcoming albums.” This was a marked change from Gibbard’s earlier views on major-label relations, which he said “are set up to **** you and take all your money.”. After signing to Atlantic, the band was still nervous about corporate economics, and encouraged fans to download its songs from the Internet.”.

The first and second singles off the band’s Atlantic Record release Plans were “Soul Meets Body” and “Crooked Teeth”, respectively. The full album was released in August of 2005. Plans was somewhat well-acclaimed by critics and fans, and received a nomination for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Album of 2005.

The band released a touring DVD called Drive Well, Sleep Carefully in 2005.

A live version of the band’s song “Photobooth,” is featured in the soundtrack of the Xbox 360 racing game Project Gotham Racing 3.

In early 2006, the band announced the upcoming release of Directions, eleven short films inspired by songs from the Plans album, each directed by a different person. The videos were posted one at a time at the band’s website and the DVD went on sale April 11, 2006. The iTunes Store began selling the videos (formatted for iPod) early on March 28, 2006. Lance Bangs, P.R. Brown, Ace Norton, Jeffrey Brown, Lightborne, Autumn de Wilde, Rob Schrab, Laurent Briet and Monkmus, as well as Aaron Stewart-Ahn are among directors that have contributed to the project. An episode of MTV2’s Subterranean played these videos for the whole hour plus discussion with members of the band.

Ben Gibbard formed the side project The Postal Service, with Dntel’s Jimmy Tamborello. They released the album Give Up in 2003, with the help of Chris Walla and guest vocals from Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley and Jen Wood. The Postal Service enjoyed immense “underground” popularity and Death Cab for Cutie’s mainstream rise is often credited, to some extent, to Ben’s involvement with Tamborello. Gibbard and Tamborello have confirmed that they are working on a new Postal Service album, albeit slowly, having recorded two songs as of June 2006. They have said they will begin more serious work once Death Cab returns from their summer 2006 tour.

KeyArena at Seattle Center is located north of downtown Seattle at the Seattle Center. It is the home to the Seattle Sonics and also hosts other large concerts or events. It holds 16,000+ people so it only sells out for really big concerts. Therefore the first place you should search for tickets is at the box office or TickeMaster (since they often have the cheapest tickets). If they don’t have the seats you were hoping for here are links to my favorite aftermarket ticket sources. These guys seem to be the most reliable vendors of aftermarket tickets and usually have great seats available to any event no matter how popular:

We Have Seats — I like them because they have the lowest markup on seats usually
StubHub is a great place to shop as well and they often have seats no one else can get. Plus they let you sell tickets on their system.
TicketsNow is always a good place to check before buying too and they have a solid booking technology.

Here is some published info on Key Arena:

Facility statistics
Location - 305 Harrison Street
Seattle, Washington 98109
Opened - 1962 (renovated 1994)
Owner - City of Seattle
Operator - City of Seattle
Construction cost - $74.5 million (1994 renovation)

Seating capacity
Basketball: 17,072
Hockey: 15,177
Concert: 16,641
Boxing: 17,459

Opened in 1962 as the Seattle Center Coliseum, the rebuild began on June 16, 1994 before the building reopened on October 26, 1995. During the rebuild, the building’s original roofline was used as a guide and some of the original concrete for the main supports still exists but most everything about the arena was brand new. The court which was originally at street level is now 35 feet below to allow more seating. After the rebuild, the Coliseum was renamed KeyArena, as Key Bank purchased the naming rights. The first regular season game that the Seattle SuperSonics played in KeyArena at Seattle Center took place on November 4, 1995, against the Los Angeles Lakers.

The American Motorcyclist Association Supercross traveling circus (or whatever you call this big honkin’ road show) is invading Qwest Field in April of 2007. Tickets are sure to sell out but never fear — we’ll help you get your hands on some anyway. A scan of my favorite ticket brokers reveals the following:

We Have Seats is currently unloading excellent tickets at prices ranging from $60-217
StubHub has tickets ranging from $69-158
TicketsNow has seats ranging from $80-600 (not sure about that high end…)

Anyway, I’ve never been to one of these events but the supercross marketing machine assures me it is wonderful (take that for what it’s worth…) It looks like the supercross marketers wrote their wiki too because it sounds like the greatest thing ever based on that page:

Supercross is an exciting, highly-competitive, dangerous and extremly demanding cycle racing sport, during which athletes in the truest sense of the word race specialized high performance off-road motorcycles on man made dirt tracks consisting of steep jumps and obstacles. Supercross races are held almost exclusively within professional baseball and football stadiums.

Supercross was derived from the sport of Motocross. While Motocross and Supercross are similar in many respects, there are significant differences as well. For example, the Supercross races themselves are heavily advertised, slickly-produced, and televised motorsports event spectaculars produced within major cities. Motocross events are more grassroots contests, that often are held on small tracks or in rural areas. Motocross “motos” go untelevised and unnoticed by all except a following of devoted fans, who would probobly attend a Supercross event also if be it near or in town. Attendance of spectators in a colosseum during a Supercross contest is much greater and more focused, than at the outdoors Motorcross paved track or ranging overland course. Typically, a Supercross event consists of a set number of qualifying races, heat races, and semi-finals, leading up to the finals race for each contest cycle catagory that is called the “Main Event”. The race lengths can range from as few as 6 laps in some qualifying Supercross eliminations to 20 laps for the highlighted Main Event. Because Supercross events are held in the arena of major stadiums the track sizes tends to be smaller, than the traditional outdoors Motocross program field of competition. Also, Supercross jumps and obstacles tend to be more uniform and precise on their short track. Because Supercross courses of competition are not as long the race duration tends to be shorter as well and more intense, than for the less profiled outdoors Motocross moto events. Supercross races usually last no longer than 22 minutes, while outdoor races can run in excess of 40 minutes per Motocross moto. The Supercross event winner is the rider who qualifies through preliminary races, and finishes first in the Main Event Final. In American Motocross, a winner ordinarily is chosen by combining his or her best scores from two motos. Therefor, a Supercross Champion ordinarily is thought to have superior technical skills for racing on a very tight track under controlled and quickly varying conditions, while a Motocross Champion is lauded for having the strength, endurance and courage to race at high speeds under extreme conditions of heat and physical exertion on a rough track. A moto race is a sort of countryfied and usually off-road motorcycle contest, while a Supercross Main Event Final often takes on the look and feel of a Roman Gladiator spectacle.

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While growing consistantly since the 70’s, in the early part of the 21st Century Supercross’ popularity really took off. In the United States, Supercross races today are the second most popular form of motorsport (behind NASCAR racing). The American Motorcyclist Association awards three Supercross Championship Champs each year. They are Supercross Champion which until 2006 was referred to as 250 class, Supercross Lites East (which was the 125 East) Champion, and Supercross Lites West Champion. World Supercross Champions are named by other racing organizations around the world. Supercross racing classifications were governed by the displacement of the motorcycle’s engine until 2006. In the past, Championships have been awarded in 125cc (also known as “MX2″), 250cc (”MX1″), and 500cc displacement levels (also known as “MX3″). The 250cc Champion has always been generally considered to be the most prestigious.

I dunno how much of that to believe but selling out Qwest field must mean it is cool enough to attract a lot of fans. Good luck on you hunt!

Supercross World Championship Winners By Year
Year - Supercross Class (formerly 250cc)
2006 - James Stewart Jr.
2005 - Ricky Carmichael
2004 - Heath Voss
2003 - Chad Reed

Here is some info about Seattle’s Qwest Field:

Qwest Field is a football stadium in Seattle, Washington. It serves as the home field for the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and men’s and women’s Seattle Sounders soccer teams. The stadium opened in July 2002 and was built on the site of the Kingdome, the previous stadium for the Seahawks, Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners, and several other Seattle sports teams. On March 26, 2000, to make way for the construction of the stadium, the Kingdome fell in the world’s largest implosion of a single concrete structure.

I’ve actually never been there, but I here it is a pretty sweet stadium. If you are looking for primo tickets to an upcoming game or event at Qwest Field here are the best places I have found to look:

StubHub always seems to have great sats to the biggest events. They have an excellent and reliable booking engine and they even let you sell your extra tickets with them.
We Have Seats seems to have the cheapest prices out of the top aftermarket ticket sources so they are always a good place to shop.
TicketsNow is a reliable place to shop as well with a solid reputation and usually a large selection.

Here is some more trivia from the Qwest field Wiki:

Location 800 Occidental Avenue S.
Seattle, Washington 98134-1200
Broke ground April 2000
Opened 2002
Owner Washington State Public Stadium Authority
Operator First & Goal Inc.
Surface FieldTurf
Construction cost $300 million
Architect Ellerbe Becket & First and Goal, Inc

The stadium was originally named Seahawks Stadium and affectionately called “The Hawk”, or the “Hawks Nest”. The name Qwest Field was announced on June 2, 2004, after Qwest bought the naming rights, $75 million, for 15 years. Although some people began using the new name immediately, the official approval wasn’t given until twenty-two days later (June 24) by the Washington State Public Stadium Authority. Seahawks owner Paul Allen funded about 30% of the stadium’s cost out of his pocket, the remainder being paid by a funding package of user fees, sports lottery revenue, and taxes on related industries.

Allen was intimately involved in the stadium design. He rejected plans for a retractable roof, and directed the architects to minimize the stadium footprint as much as possible to bring fans closer to the action. Also, he had the architects design the structure of the stadium, especially the roof, to direct as much crowd noise as possible on the field. In addition, the north end zone seating, called the “Hawks Nest”, was specifically designed for rowdy fans; the seating consists of metal bleachers which reflect sound, and fans often stomp to create even more. Qwest Field has since earned a reputation as arguably the loudest stadium in the NFL. During the 2005 season, more penalties for false starts were called against visiting teams in Qwest Field than in any other NFL stadium. At one point during the 2006 season, the New York Giants complained that Qwest Field was artifically piping in noise in order to distract visiting quarterbacks from running a count.

Just because the Sonics sorta sucked in 2005/06 doesn’t mean they will suck again in 2006/07. And even if they do it’s still the NBA baby — what’s not to love? So where should you look for tickets? Well the box office is a good place to start. But if the box office doesn’t have the seats you really want you should try my favorite aftermarket ticket brokers. These guys often have access to the best seats in the house and they want to sell them to you. Here are the best places to shop for Seattle Supersonics tickets:

StubHub - They always have seats. They let you sell extra tickets with their system as well.
We Have Seats - These guys usually come in with the lowest prices
TicketsNow - Always a good place to shop and they often have an excellent invetory of seats.

Happy hunting. Here is some more info on your Sonics from their wiki:

Conference - Western Conference
Division - Northwest Division
Founded - 1967
Arena – KeyArena
City – Seattle, Washington
Team Colors – Green and Gold
Head Coach – Bob Hill
Championships –1 (1979)
Conference Titles –3 (1978, 1979, 1996)
Division Titles - 6 (1979, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2005)

Home arenas

KeyArena (formerly Seattle Center Coliseum) 1967–1978, 1985–1994, 1995–Present
Kingdome 1978–1985
Tacoma Dome 1994–1995 (During KeyArena Remodel)

Ownership change and Team Future

Following disagreements between the Basketball Club of Seattle and the city of Seattle concerning the need to renovate the KeyArena, the Sonics and Seattle Storm were sold to an Oklahoma City group led by Clay Bennett on July 18, 2006 for US$350 million. The sale was approved by the NBA owners on October 24 of that year. The new ownership has said that upholding the Sonics’ lease with KeyArena through 2009–10 is “a priority” and that “with the right dynamics on the court, the right business model and a financially committed ownership group that recognizes and respect Seattle, we can succeed here for decades to come.” However, there is speculation that their intention is to move the team to Oklahoma City once the Hornets return to New Orleans, Louisiana. To combat any concerns that Seattle fans were not interested in keeping the teams in the area fans of the teams formed Save Our Sonics and Storm to show support and urge the regions leaders and the NBA to keep the teams in Seattle.

Ok, so the Mariners ain’t that good lately. That doesn’t mean the games aren’t fun to go to anyway. So where should you look for tickets? Well the box office is a good place to start. BUt if the box office doesn’t have the top-notch seats you really want you should try my favorite aftermarket ticket brokers. These guys often have access to the best seats in the house and they want to sell them to you. Here are the best places to shop for Seattle Mariners tickets:

StubHub - They always have seats. They let you sell extra tickets with their system as well.
We Have Seats - These guys usually come in with the lowest prices
TicketsNow - Always a good place to shop and they often have an excellent invetory of seats.

Happy hunting. Here is some more info on your Mariners from their wiki:

Quick facts

Founded: 1977 (American League expansion)
Uniform colors: Navy blue, “Northwest Green” (teal), and metallic silver (Previously royal blue and gold, 1977-1992)
Logo design: A baseball over a nautical compass rose. (Previously a trident-shaped “M”, 1977-80; a trident-shaped “M” within a star, 1981-86; and a drop-shadowed “S”, 1987-92.)
Mascot: Mariner Moose, 1990-present.
Current ownership: Nintendo of America (majority shareholder; represented by Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln, reporting to former Nintendo chairman and former majority shareholder Hiroshi Yamauchi)
Spring Training Facility: Peoria Sports Complex, Peoria, AZ
Playoff appearances (4): 1995, 1997, 2000, 2001
Local television: Fox Sports Net Northwest, KSTW
TV Fact: During the team’s early years, the Mariners only appeared on NBC’s “Saturday Game of the Week” twice: in 1979 (at Boston) and 1981 (at Detroit). NBC did not ever broadcast a Saturday afternoon game from the Kingdome.

2004-Present: Suddenly Rebuilding

With the exception of the 1998 and 1999 seasons, the Mariners had been annual challengers for the AL West title from 1995 through 2003. The 2004 season, however, saw the fall of the Mariners from contention. With a rapidly aging roster, the Mariners went into the All-Star Break with a 9-game losing streak, and a 32-54 season record (.372) 17 games behind the first-place Texas Rangers. After the All-Star break, unable to ignore the dreadful state of their team, the Mariners gave the team a complete overhaul, moving aging and struggling players away from center stage (most notably trading Freddy Garcia to the Chicago White Sox for Miguel Olivo, Jeremy Reed, and Mike Morse, and releasing Gold Glover John Olerud) and inserting over a dozen minor league call-ups into the 25-man roster. The season’s end was enlivened by Ichiro breaking George Sisler’s single season record of 257 hits (finishing with 262) and by events honoring the retirement of Mariner icon Edgar Martinez. Just days after the end of the season, the Mariners fired manager Bob Melvin. On October 20, 2004, the Mariners announced the signing Mike Hargrove, the man who had led the Cleveland Indians past the Mariners in the 1995 ALCS, as their new manager. In the offseason, the Mariners and Bavasi surprised fans and the local press by signing two premier free agents, third baseman Adrian Beltre and first baseman Richie Sexson, ending accusations from some fans that the organization was only willing to make piecemeal signings and trades.

Despite several personnel changes and free-agent signings after the 2004 season, the team stayed at the bottom of the divisional standings throughout the 2005 season and finished in last place- though they improved their record by six games compared to the previous year. The brightest spot of the season was the emergence of the vaunted 19-year-old Venezuelan pitching prospect Felix Hernandez (regarded by many as baseball’s best overall best pitching prospect), who became the youngest major leaguer to debut since Jose Rijo entered the league with the New York Yankees in 1984. Unfortunately, stars Ichiro and Beltre did not reach the high levels of offensive production from 2004, and 2B Bret Boone was released before the All-Star break. Sexson, however, exceeded expectations with 39 home runs and 121 RBI. Along with Hernandez, some promising rookie middle infielders became part of the Mariners’ long term plans: Cuban defector, shortstop and defensive wizard Yuniesky Betancourt and Venezuelan second baseman and former top prospect Jose Lopez became the next season’s starters. However, the Mariners’ rotation beyond Hernandez and the aging Jamie Moyer was poor, and the Mariners suffered the embarassment of having the most suspendees under MLB’s new drug testing policy, notably pitcher Ryan Franklin and IF/OF Mike Morse. During the 2005-06 off-season, Ichiro spoke out and criticized the team’s attitude, pointing out its lack of leadership and manager Hargrove’s failure to harness players.

The Mariners began the 2005-2006 off-season by signing Japan’s top catcher, Kenji Johjima, to a 3-year deal and left-handed starter Jarrod Washburn (formerly of division rival Los Angeles) to a 4-year deal. Designated hitter Carl Everett and outfielder Matt Lawton also joined the team, although neither would finish the season with any team in Major League Baseball. The Mariners entered the All-Star Break 2.5 games out of first place in the AL West with a 43-46 record. Despite remaining in contention within the AL West through July, a disasterous 0-11 road trip in mid-August signaled the symbolic end of the Mariners season, leaving them firmly in last place. Pitcher Jamie Moyer was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies for a pair of A-level prospects, and weeks later bench coach Ron Hassey and administrative coach Dan Rohn — whom many viewed as a prime candidate to replace Mike Hargrove — were removed from their positions with the team. At season’s end, the Mariners had narrowly avoided losing 90 games for the third consecutive year. While the team enters the 2006-2007 off-season with some young talent in key positions, many questions remain as to the consistency of their offense and, more importantly, the strength of their starting pitching staff.

For longtime fans of the Seahawks it has been a couple of good years. They made it to the Super Bowl in January of 2006 (and had the refs not been idiots it might have been a close game…) and again in 2007 the team rockin’ and rollin’. of course that means tickets can be hard to come by. If you are in need of tickets I think the three bast places to search (after the team box office) are We Have Seats, TicketsNow, and StubHub. In my experience these three represent the best prices and availibility on aftermarket tickets on the Web — most other sources usually are just reselling the stuff for these guys. Good luck!

Here a bit of Seahawk trivia for you to chew on as well…

The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle, Washington. They are currently members of the Western Division of the National Football Conference (NFC) in the National Football League (NFL). The team, along with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, joined the NFL in 1976 as expansion teams.

Seattle is currently the only team in the NFL that has played in both the AFC (American Football Conference) and NFC Championship Games. The Seahawks have one Super Bowl appearance, losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Super Bowl XL.

* The Seahawks conduct summer training camp at Eastern Washington University in Cheney, just southwest of Spokane. During the Seahawks’ first ten seasons (1976-1985), summer training camps were held in Cheney. When the team’s present headquarters in Kirkland were completed in 1986, the Seahawks held camp at home for the next eleven seasons (1986-1996), staying in the dormitories of the adjacent Northwest College. Under Dennis Erickson the team returned to the hotter and more isolated Cheney in 1997, where they will hold training camp through 2007. The Seahawks are scheduled to move their summer training camp back to suburban Seattle in 2008, when their new Renton complex is completed.
* As a tribute to the raucus fans that made the Kingdome the loudest stadium in the NFL the Seahawks retired the number 12 on December 15, 1984. Since then #12 Jerseys have been sold by the team and worn by Seahawk fans, often with the name “Fan” on the back. The Seahawks also have a ceremony before each home game where a flag bearing the #12 is raised by a prominent individual. In the 2005 season the fans were again making a difference in games and were recognized with the presentation of a special game ball for their efforts in a game against the New York Giants, a game in which the Giants committed 11 false start penalties due in large part to the crowd noise.[7]
* The team was in a legal limbo for a while between the 2005 and 2006 season with Texas A&M University over the use of the phrase “12th Man”. Both parties settled out of court with Seattle agreeing to acknowledge ownership rights to the 12th Man slogan to A&M. In return the Seahawks are able to use the phrase as originally planned. [5]
* While Blitz has been the Seahawks’ official mascot since 1998, Taima the augur hawk debuted in September of 2006. Taima leads the team out of the tunnel before the game and circles the stadium before returning to his handler, Dave Knutson.