The Final Four Experience

By Seth Herrold
R-T Sports Editor
The Final Four is officially set. Butler, Connecticut, Kentucky and Virginia Commonwealth have made it to the mecca of college basketball, maybe even the mecca of college sports all together.
While the student athletes of the last four remaining teams are on the verge of the experience of a lifetime, the fans that will be there to see the event live are in for quite an experience of their own.

In the world of sports there are certain events that stand above the rest: the Super Bowl, the World Series, the Daytona 500, the Kentucky Derby and, of course, the Final Four. Unlike a lot of sports, the Final Four outweighs its professional counterpart, the NBA Finals, in the minds of most sports fans. The NCAA Final Four is widely acknowledged as the premier basketball championship in the world and being able to say you were there to see it unfold in person is somewhat of a bragging right among sports fans.
Glenn and Tyra Thorne of Trenton are two individuals who can brag that they have been to the Final Four – not once, but three times. The Thornes attended the Final Four in 1993 and 2003 in New Orleans, LA and in 2010 in Indianapolis, IN.
Getting tickets to the Final Four isn’t easy, as one might guess, which would explain why the Thornes have only been to two other Final Fours since their first trip in 1993. Glenn and Tyra go through an application process every year, excluding this season when the couple decided not to apply.
“When I originally started filling out applications for tickets, you just requested the application form and they sent it to you,” Tyra said. “Then you sent in your check. This is the only time I really gamble and get my money back, with the exception of handling fees. If you don’t win, you get your money back.”
Since the days of applying by mail and sending in checks, the technology age has boomed and now the application process is done online with credit card numbers, rather than checks in the mail. Applying and actually having your name selected out of the many, many applicants are two different things.
“Normally there are just about 10,000 tickets that go out to the general public,” Tyra said. “Unless it’s a really big stadium, you don’t stand a real great chance.”
The experience of getting to see the Final Four in person comes with a price, too, and it isn’t cheap. The Thornes spent $360 each on their 2010 Final Four ticket packages, which included tickets to the semifinals and finals in Indianapolis. If your name isn’t selected during the application process, the price gets even steeper.
Although this year’s Final Four is sold out, as it is every year, you can still come across tickets on ticketing websites such as Stubhub.com. Currently the cheapest ticket offered for the Final Four on Stubhub is $150, plus a $17 handling fee and a $30 service fee per order. It all totals up to around $350 for two tickets. But you better be bringing your oxygen tank and binoculars. The seats are in section 640, located right up against the rafters of Reliant Stadium in Houston, TX.
The other end is steeper than the climb to section 640. One ticket at center court in the ninth row off of the floor is going for $8,690. If that doesn’t speak to the magnitude of the Final Four, what does?
The first time the Thornes were selected for Final Four tickets was in 1993. No one they knew had ever gone to the NCAA final before.
“I’ve never talked to anybody in Trenton that ever got Final Four tickets,” Tyra said. “It was just like winning the lottery, basically, the first time we went.”
The Thornes hadn’t seen a lot of college basketball live before their trip to New Orleans in 1993. Glenn had attended several Drake University games, but had never seen the game at the Division I level. Three Final Fours later, they have had a lot of experiences.
“There is such a festive, party mood at the Final Four,” Glenn said. “The best crowd I have seen there was the Syracuse group in 2003. They were in large groups and if we would have put on orange sweatshirts, we would have fit right in. They invited us to their post-game parties and everything.”
That Syracuse group followed a team that would win it all that season as Carmelo Anthony, Gerry McNamara and Hakeem Warrick led the Orange to the national title. The Thornes have seen several great teams in their trips to the Final Four. The 2003 Syracuse squad, the 2010 Duke Blue Devils and the North Carolina and Michigan teams in 1993.
“The first Final Four we went to had the ‘Fab Five’ from Michigan playing,” Glenn said. “I had them in my bracket and was leading my bracket pool and then Chris Webber calls timeout and blows my chances. We have seen three championship teams and I still think Michigan was the best team we saw and they didn’t even win it. Duke last year was probably about as good as any of them, though.”
The Thornes always try to pick up a team at the Final Four to give them a rooting interest, like Syracuse in 2003, Michigan in 1993 and the hometown favorite Butler Bulldogs in 2010. When Butler crashed the party in their home state of Indiana last year, it made for a very exciting atmosphere.
“It was just alive with noise and excitement,” Tyra said. “It was great.”
“You always cheer for the underdog,” Glenn chimed in. “If you weren’t rooting for Butler in Indianapolis you were in the minority.”
Despite the atmosphere with Butler in the Final Four in Indianapolis in 2010, the Thornes enjoyed the trips to New Orleans even more.
“(In) New Orleans you have Bourbon Street and the trolleys and everything is right there downtown and centrally located,” Glenn said. “Even the Super Dome is within walking distance without any problems. Indianapolis is more spread out and you don’t want to drive at these events. It’s a madhouse.”
The Thornes didn’t apply for tickets this season, but they haven’t closed the door completely on heading back to another Final Four someday.
“I didn’t apply this year,” Tyra said. “I kind of hated it, but we decided last year that was possibly our last Final Four. Houston this year would have been a lot of fun, if we could have gotten tickets.”
Oh by the way, the site for the 2012 Final Four….New Orleans.