Got enough questions since last night that we might as well do a Championship round of Ticket Watch, and also update the Frozen Four search.

Getting There

Bunch of crazy people I know are on their way to San Antonio right now, some of them even with tickets. The good news it’s not that hard to find them—the bad news is good luck getting there, or finding a place to stay! A hacker fare to Houston will run you $850 right now. Hotels in town are going at $500/night.

Getting Seats

Getting in the door isn’t a big deal. The online seats are going for $90 or less (after fees) with little fluctuation, and I expect they’ll keep dropping slowly until gametime is close and whatever Kansas fans still haven’t dumped theirs try to cut their loss (maybe guard the three point line next time!).

The best bet if you’re flying solo is finding a Michigan fan in your online community who bought what they could expecting friends to finagle their way down there—and not all friends came through. I counted three facebook friends looking for someone to take a fourth off their hands or something, not to mention two friends who tried to get me to ignore my doctors and my wife and my bank account and get the hell down to Texas RIGHT NOW (okay, yes, I thought about it). Someone posted one recently in the thread for the last Ticket Watch.

The ticket dump after last night’s late game came and went about face value or a little under it, and that’s held through today. There are enough on the market that I don’t think we’ll hit super-scarcity, and the electronic option means trading can go right up to near gametime. So if you’re trying to save some money, make sure you’re good on the process, find a spot with WiFi, and make your move late.

Again, I’ve gotten word from locals that you should stay away from scalpers in town. That’s a good general rule, but certain markets have more fake ticket problems than others and this is apparently a problem in SA.

[After THE JUMP: The Crisler Watch Party. How to move up. Frozen Four]

Getting Better Seats

Ralph from TicketIQ emailed me and said the get-in price of $84 is pretty much in line with previous years at this juncture. The more interesting thing is there are still a lot of good seats further down for what I’d be quite happy to pay. The 200s level going for $140-$150 and the 100s level still going as low as $157.

Craigslist has the odd deal pop up, though again the warning there is you have to use that awful Flashseats app that the pro teams are pushing. Last night some decent lower bowls were going for $400 each in a group of four. I found a single seat for $300 out the door in Row GG.

Knowing Your Row

[Bryan Fuller]

Again, they start with Rows 1-4 then it goes to letters. So Row “Z” is Row 30, Row “AA” is 31 and that goes up to QQ (46). If you go up from the vomitorium you’re back into numbered rows, which start at 20. So if you see a Row 35 you’re really more like Row 62. Also the slope is pretty low, the floor is raised, and that seat is still pretty good.

Getting Yellower Seats

The Michigan section in the lower bowl is 113-118—the southeast corner of the building/same spot as last game. Those reporting from last night said Michigan fans filled in pretty strong around the whole building but especially adjacent to these sections so don’t feel like you have to get into a core arrondisement to be with other Michigan fans. They gave each Final Four team a block for the whole weekend, so the seats opposite the Michigan corner were the Loyola fans, etc. NOTE: not all the ticket sites orient the stadium the same way so don’t ken this as “upper-right.”

Frozen Four

The official ticket exchange (remember to mark these up 40% with fees) are still about where we left them:

Minnesota-Duluth is going to fill that place, and if they beat Ohio State you might have a hard time getting into the championship. Notre Dame and Michigan fans travel pretty well but in hockey plinko the fact that it’s a virtual home game seems to be making people think M-D fans will swamp Minneapolis. Figure right now the markup for an All-Session pass over a get-me-in-the-building ticket for the Frozen Four round is $50—50 percent chance you use it, 25% chance you sell it at a slight markup to a Duluth fan, and 25% chance you have to sell it for less to an Ohio State or Notre Dame fan.

The Crisler Party

Last time they opened up Crisler to the public to watch the game and it was packed (I scored a press box spot). This year they offered it only to season ticket holders and students. They also explained why:

This year is materially different, however. We hosted a gymnastics meet Saturday at Crisler and have to keep that equipment on the floor since we are hosting the Big Ten Championships this week. As a result our available seating has been reduced and, with safety in mind, we made the difficult decision to limit our initial outreach to students and season ticket holders, who are most often at Crisler in support of our team.

Thing is, a lot of those season ticket holders and not a few of those students are in Texas, and it’s not like they all came when the team was actually playing in the building. But you have to get ahold of them and get them to transfer the tix:

The event is limited to current Michigan students and men's basketball season ticket holders.

The doors at Crisler Center will open at 8 p.m. for the national title game slated to begin at 9:19 p.m.

Admission is free for all students with a valid M-Card. Season ticket holders may claim four tickets per account. Seating will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Due to facility needs, the reserved Maize Rage student seating area will be relocated to sections 130 and 134.

This means season ticket holders have to print out those tickets in advance, or transfer them to someone who can. Non-students should use the northeast and southwest entrances of Crisler.

A couple of people have offered me extras if you don’t have your own connection so let me know in the comments if you want one of them—I’ll pick based on MGoPoints so that can be worth something.