JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

I’ve been thinking lately about ticket prices to entertainment and sporting events.

For a lot of events, prices have skyrocketed. For example, this week two friends offered us two orchestra seats to Jesus Christ Superstar at Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

The face value was a not-unreasonable $88.50 each. But our friends are “Broadway in Kansas City” season ticket holders, and they got a discount for individual events.

I wanted to join Brooks and Patty at the show, and when I called to find out what a single orchestra seat would be, the answer was $135.

I passed and ended up going to the Kauffman Center about 40 minutes before the 7:30 p.m. show Wednesday and was able to get a ticket free from three KCK women who had an extra because the fourth person in their group had taken ill. Once in the theater, I finagled my way down to the orchestra level, next to Brooks and Patty, by simply telling the ushers my situation and being patient. (Because I couldn’t be seated until after the first song, I even got to see the dancers gather and warm up outside the door where I was waiting.)

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What really got me thinking about ticket prices was when I was checking into a club-level ticket for last year’s regular-season KC Chiefs’ finale. To my surprise, I discovered that club-level seats were going for several hundred dollars each. I ended up passing and did not attend the game.

As for Royals’ tickets, last year I paid $75 a seat for four lower-level seats at Kauffman Stadium for a late-season game. I had not attended a game the previous year, and that $75 price tag jolted me. This year, it appears, Royals’ ticket prices might be a little lower. Owner John Sherman, who paid $1 billion for the team a few years ago, needs to put more butts in the seats.

Now, consider tickets for the Men’s NCAA finals Monday night at Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, when KU will meet North Carolina.

When I checked earlier tonight, you could buy tickets for $110 at the very top of the Superdome…which I doubt I could climb up to and where even binoculars wouldn’t help much.

And if you want to be up close and alongside the court, it would cost you anywhere from $1,750 to $4,000.

The Women’s Finals, which I’ve been to several times, used to be a great deal: you could buy tickets for about $50 to $60, as I recall. When I went by myself several years ago, in Denver and Cleveland, I nabbed tickets on the curb for considerably less.

This year, few tickets remain for tomorrow’ night’s championship game between UConn and South Carolina. The only options I saw were $387.50 or $430 for lower-level tickets angled behind one of the baskets.

But if you can resist going to the championship game and want to see some good teams well into the tournament, the best deal is the regionals, which were played last weekend. I went to the semifinals in Wichita, and for $35 ($25 for the ticket and $10 in fees) I got to see two great games: Louisville-Tennessee and South Dakota-Michigan.

I believe the main reason Final Four tickets are so much more expensive than the regionals is that the NCAA has jurisdiction over the Final Four, where the individual venues set prices and sell tickets for the regionals.

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Finally, let’s look at my favorite sporting event, the Kentucky Derby.

I’ve been to many Derbies, often buying tickets outside the track on Derby Day. One of my best curb-buying performances came several years ago, when we needed five tickets — for me, Brooks, Patty, Charlie and a friend of Charlie’s.

I went out to the track early and was able to buy five tickets — various seats in the same general area from three different people — for a total of $1,350. If I would have bargained smarter, I probably could have cut $200 from that, but I was eager to finish up and paid too much for the fifth ticket.

More recently, Patty and I bought a couple of tickets on the first turn, in Section 110 (see chart below), for about $100 each.

On the lower level, when you are sitting past the finish line, you only see the horses come by you once — when they’re entering the first turn. The rest of the race you watch on a huge screen in the infield. Similar tickets to those I bought for about $100 several years ago are going this year for $946 on the resale market, over which Ticketmaster has complete control.

If you want to sit in Section 117, just before the finish line (you still can’t see much because of the pancake perspective), a ticket will cost you $1,850.

Last year, I dickered online with a guy before the Derby, offering him several hundred dollars each for two seats in one of those lower-level sections near the finish line. Ultimately, we couldn’t agree, and we ended up going to the home of a Louisville couple, watching on TV and betting online.

This year, we’re not even going to Louisville for Derby Week. The lodging prices are way too high — several hundred dollars a night for mandatory, three-night packages — and I have no intention of paying a couple of grand for two bad seats on the first turn.

…Sadly, I think there are no more live-and-in-person Kentucky Derbies in my future. Gratefully, I attended many over the years — well over 20, I think — and have good memories.

As for the bigger picture, when I look into the sporting- and entertainment-event crystal ball, I see more women’s regional tournaments and a lot of finagling on last-minute deals to arts events. The first dates circled on my calendar are May 13, 14 and 15, when Oklahoma! will be playing at Starlight.

If you see a guy outside holding this sign, you will be looking at me.

I used that sign successfully for at least two Derbies, and people would always ask me, “Who goes if you only get one ticket?”

My gentlemanly answer was always, “Patty.”

But it never came to that: I always got two, maybe not right together but close enough that we ended up sitting together.

Rule of thumb from a veteran ticket hawk: It’s always a lot easier and cheaper to get two singles than two together.