Rant & Roll by Cory Blackwood

Line tickets have been in the news lately, and we can thank the Rams for that gem of unfairness. It isn't the Rams fault, so before you blow up my car, don't think I am bashing our new local heroes.

For those that live in a cave (you probably wouldn't read this anyway, but what the hey), line tickets have been what the Rams organization has been using to sell limited play-off tickets. Basically, the organizers had 1,000 tickets to sell, and more than 3,000 people standing in line. A first-come, first-served basis would be way too simple and fair, so the Rams have been giving people in line lottery numbers, and pulling numbers out of a hat. The person that draws the lowest number becomes the first to be able to purchase a ticket. Lucky for them.

My main gripe with this system is that it in no way rewards the hard-core fans. Those that get in line at 6 the previous evening and those that arrive at 9:15 that morning, not 15 minutes before the drawing, have the same chance of buying a ticket. This, I guess, is fair, but only to the lazy.

This is not a new practice. I have had to deal with the line-ticket system while trying to get good seats to a number of concerts. The first Nine Inch Nails concert I attended was in 1994, and tickets were sold on a first-come, first-serve basis. National food stores was probably not too happy about this, because a line of people in all-black clothes can be intimidating to soccer moms buying groceries. At any rate, I quickly learned to show up early for tickets sold in this manner. I showed up over two hours before tickets went on sale, and I still barely ended up on the main floor of The Fox. There were people that had been waiting for six hours to buy tickets.

That Nine Inch Nails show at the Fox was a sight to see. Tickets sold out in two hours flat, and only the serious fans had any tickets due to the regular system of selling seats. After that, many stores decided they were not fond of music fans waiting outside their stores for hours on end, so line tickets began to be used.

There are ways around the line-ticket system; people can cheat. I have cheated (I won't tell you how, that'd get rid of my very small edge), and I don't even begin to feel guilty about that. Now the Rams have decided to use the line-ticket system. Why?

It makes St. Louis look like a real football town when you have 1,000 people camping outside the TWA Dome. It doesn't hurt anything, and if anything, it brings a few more people into our ailing downtown regions. The biggest fans are not getting the tickets. For the Rams/Buccaneers game, the person with the winning number was in the back third of the line, which means that becomes the beginning of the line, and the front two-thirds get to move to the back. Kind of a slap in the face to those that have been waiting for more than 12 hours.

For the sake of The Rams, and for the sake of their fans, let the crazy people that are willing to nearly freeze to death waiting have their tickets. It is only fair. Unless, of course, you are lazy.