Relax, rodeo fans: You can still lasso tickets for sold-out event

Spencer Patterson

Friday, Dec. 4, 1998 | 12:08 p.m.

So you wanted to go to the Nationals Finals Rodeo but you heard tickets were impossible to come by?

Not so, provided you're willing to empty your billfold or roll the dice and head to the Thomas & Mack Center without a ticket in hand.

The 10-day event, sold out for months, gets under way at 6:45 tonight with the first of 10 go-rounds. Considered the Super Bowl of rodeo, the NFR has earned a reputation for being the nation's "toughest tickets."

According to Steve Fleming, Director of Communications for the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association, a published report recently ranked the NFR among the five most difficult sporting events for which to buy a ticket.

"It's typically sold out eight or 10 months in advance," Fleming said. "If you know you love rodeo, you know your top guys are always going to be in it. With events like the Super Bowl, you might only go if your favorite team is playing."

Another reason tickets are tough to find is the NFR's policy of allowing fans to renew their seats annually if they opt for the full 10-day package.

According to event ticket manager Ralph Bosher, about 10,200 of the Thomas & Mack's 17,500 seats were renewed this year. Add to that the seats reserved for the cowboys' families and friends and the tickets given to local casinos, and there aren't many left.

Although face value for most of the event's tickets range from $26.50 to $40.50, patrons aren't likely to find anyone in town selling them for that price.

That's where ticket agencies such as Vegas Tickets & Entertainment come in. Those companies, both in town and on the Internet, are offering single-night tickets from $85 to $300.

"We're a service for people who don't mind spending a little extra money," Sean Griffith, a manager for the agency, said.

Griffith said many of the seats his company sells are close to the action and, in some cases, were never available to the general public at face value.

Although scalping is prohibited in Clark County, laws prohibit only the sale of tickets above face value within 1,000 yards of the event arena or the sale of tickets without a license, Bosher said.

Because ticket agencies such as Griffith's have business licenses, they aren't violating local scalping laws. Also, many agencies offer their tickets for face value and then add high service charges or include them in expensive packages.

"The prices are so doggone high," a local resident seeking NFR tickets, who declined to give her name, said. She took ads out in local newspapers to get tickets and has been quoted prices ranging from $150 to $1,800 per seat.

"I can't pay that because I'm buying for my family."

If those prices are out of your range, take heart. Keep in mind that there are about 400 no-shows each night and the Thomas & Mack releases roughly that many "seat availability" tickets for each night's go-round.

Those ticket holders can take any empty seats on the balcony level but must vacate the seats if their rightful owners arrive. If that happens, "the seat availability" ticket holders have 30 minutes to find other empty seats or the arena will give them a full refund on their way out.

Bosher also said the Thomas & Mack allows patrons to sell extra tickets outside the arena, provided they are asking face value. UNLV campus police will patrol the parking lots for scalpers.