Pacific Coast Lax Shootout Ticket Prices are Reasonable if You are Clinically Insane

A press release was issued today announcing that Notre Dame and Denver -- two teams expected to start the season in the top 10 of the two major polls -- will meet at Orange Coast College on March 8, 2013. The Irish and Pioneers will headline an event called the Pacific Coast Lax Shootout, a doubleheader that will also feature Loyola-Marymount and University of California-Santa Barbara (two MCLA Division I programs).

This, on its face, sounds like an awesome opportunity for Left Coast lacrosse fans to see some high-profile NCAA lacrosse right in the meat of the 2014 season. Upon closer inspection, though, the people that are organizing this thing may be out of their minds: Reserved section tickets cost $35 and non-reserved section tickets cost $25. Seriously. For one Division I game and one MCLA game, the organizers of this event have set a ticket price point that is:

• Greater than the cost of NCAA Tournament quarterfinals tickets at Hofstra ($22). Even the NCAA -- which is in the trade or business of being a dump truck full of money that exploits labor -- kept its face out of acid compared to those running this California event. And the NCAA is giving you four NCAA Tournament teams that are likely considered top 15 teams in 2014 with the possibility of advancing to Championship Weekend raising the stakes of the games.
• Greater or in the vicinity of what all-session Championship Weekend tickets cost. On a per game basis, the Pacific Coast Lax Shootout costs $17.50/$12.50 per game (but, again, one of those games is an MCLA game); lower endzone Championship Weekend tickets -- which gives you five games featuring NCAA varsity programs, three of those games being Division I contests -- are $15.80 per game and lower sideline tickets are $21.80 per game. And everyone complains that Championship Weekend tickets cost too much.
• Greater than or in the vicinity of Virginia and North Carolina season tickets (Virginia's season tickets start at $30 for adults and North Carolina's season tickets cost $21.00 (that's $5.71 per game)). This is making blood leak out of my ears.

I can't reconcile how these ticket prices were determined. Now, there are discounts -- they aren't all that substantial -- if you come with a small militia to the games, but to charge these prices for one Division I game and one MCLA game is ridiculous. California lacrosse fans are getting bamboozled here. There's better value in going to see: (1) Whittier play up the road, or (2) the freaking MCLA national championships in Irvine and Orange in May.

It's this kind of stuff that makes me want to throw things at lacrosse sometimes.