One of our favorite annual traditions is the yearly announcement that single-game tickets are on sale for Vikings’ home games, along with that one precious caveat: if you want to buy tickets for the Packers game, you also have to buy a ticket for another less savory game — the exhibition opener against the Seahawks on Aug. 8 in this season’s case. Sure, you can have that attractive woman’s number; but first, you are going to hear the life story of her annoying friend — all while buying them both drinks! While single-game tickets range from $30 to $135, according to the press release we just received, the two-for-one package to see the Packers and Seahawks runs from $96 to $176. Placing a premium on the Packers game — and in the process perhaps shutting out our eastern neighbors who have no interest in ponying up the extra bucks for a preseason game involving two teams they don’t care about — is nothing new. A dig through our archives suggests it started in 2003, when several Packers fans were outraged about the new practice. A day after the news story came out, then-columnist Dan Barreiro weighed in — yes, it has been a while — with this:

On the front page of Wednesday’s Star Tribune, a transplanted Packers fan expressed his outrage. So why were Vikings fans laughing at this whole episode? Don’t they get it? The Vikings are sticking it to them as much as to Packers fans, which is why the Purple faithful should be just as annoyed by this not unprecedented, but repugnant, tactic.

True enough, but still: at least a Vikings fan might have some use for a ticket to the Seahawks game; what’s a Cheesehead going to do? Heckle Mike Holmgren for four quarters? Maybe Barreiro didn’t realize (because, as he humorously notes, he’s not one of us) that when choosing between our own happiness or a rival’s despair, Minnesotans will often choose the latter. Because, like Seth Rogen doing the dice move on the dance floor in “Knocked Up,” sometimes that’s all we’ve got.

In any event, tickets go on sale IN PERSON at the Dome at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, July 9; an hour later they go on sale through Ticketmaster. Either way, if you want to see the Packers, you’d best be prepared to dig.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.