Sport is a hugely popular past-time for Americans and moving to the US you can become a part of that. Immersing yourself in another's culture can be something that brings you joy even if it's not that dissimilar from what you are used to at home. Sport is a good example of that – as you're probably well aware of what happens at a match or game, but how can you try some of them out in the US?
Sure, a baseball game isn't exactly a cricket match, but they're virtually the same when you distill it down. One big difference between the US and my home country, Australia, was the fact that there's such a strong presence of college sport in addition to the professional sport I was used to.
This makes it exciting because you have a wider range of sports to access but how do you get some good deals?
Get access to games by following a particular team
Just like in Australia, different teams have different memberships, and if you're really eager to get into lots of games, you can follow one in particular.
Even if you don't want to become a paid member of a team, you should sign up for a team's mailing list:
The Yankees do $5 tickets for certain games and we used to go to Nets and Islanders games as they were way cheaper – they sucked at the time
Bernie W.
Because teams always want to fill games, they will often email their mailing lists with last-minute offers. They can also offer special pricing
Find available tickets for sports last minute
If you're happy finding something last minute, this is where you might snag a good deal:
We buy tickets day of on stubhub.com. This is how I buy concert tickets as well. Day of when everyone is trying to sell for cheap
Shayne E.
Get your friends together and buy a mini ticket package
One thing that I'd never thought of until one of our awesome community members suggested it is to get a group of friends together and all go in together. These packages look like a high dollar amount but when you actually add it up and split it out, it's very effective:
Get a small group of friends together who might also want to see sports and buy a mini ticket package to specific teams!
Divide up the games within your group and split the cost across those in your group…. Everyone gets a few games they want to see. Package prices are always lower than retail, and you can get better deals and unique add-ons by calling a team direct and talking to a rep (but don’t call a team for a single game ticket…. They can’t sell those as they must go through the ticket platforms).
Michelle H.
Truly awesome advice, and I think I might need to start getting something together for America Josh readers! Comment below if you'd be interested.
There are also some lesser known tools that can help you out for tickets
While we're all familiar with the big companies like Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and StubHub, it's worth knowing that there are alternatives too:
I’ve found some great deals on the Gametime app for sports, comedy shows etc. often cheaper than some of the competitor apps (stubhub, SeatGeek etc) and almost always cheaper than the dreaded Ticketmaster
Brendan M.
