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Sunday, 23 November 2008 |
By MATT NICHOLS
Staff Writer
In the fall of 2003, Tom Finkelmeier Jr. had the honor of toasting his sister and new brother-in-law at their wedding in Lima. After the toast, as those in attendance were giving applause, Finkelmeier was no where to be seen.
“Immediately after the toast, I slipped out a double door and actually ran to the bar in the Holiday Inn just in time to see Mike Nugent kick a 55-yard field goal to beat Penn State,” the Wapakoneta resident said. “The funny thing was, when I got there, most of the men from the wedding were already in there.”
Such is the life for Finkelmeier when the leaves turn and the weather turns cold.
When autumn comes around, Finkelmeier begins to breath nothing but oxygen — and Ohio State football.
The 1993 graduate of The Ohio State University said he has been to every home game since 2003, and in the past 20 years, Finkelmeier has estimated attending more than 100 games at “The Horseshoe.”
He has seen historic wins and tough-to-swallow defeats, and between it all, he has watched the steady increase in ticket prices as well.
“The face value for tickets have crept up from year to year and season to season,” Finkelmeier said. “But that’s the price of success. There were good teams during the 1990s, but nothing like what has happened under (head coach Jim)Tressel. You win a national championship and tickets are suddenly untouchable.”
Finkelmeier obtains his tickets through a number of different avenues. Being a paid member of OSU’s Alumni Association, he receives two seats for one game each year. But since his two sisters also are OSU alums, he buys their seats, too.
“It’s not a very friendly system,” Finkelmeier said. “You pay the money and they assign you one game at random.”
For the rest of the season, Finkelmeier depends on his fraternity brother, Todd Jolley, who lives in Columbus. Jolley is a paid member of the Buckeye Club, and his annual $1,500 donation gives him two reserved seats all season long.
In his 20 years of attending games, Finkelmeier said the greatest match-up was the 2006 OSU-Michigan duel when the Buckeyes came in ranked No. 1 and the Wolverines came in ranked No. 2.
“Surprisingly, I only paid $400 for that game, and I thought that was a steal,” Finkelmeier said. “I like to pretend that was the last game of the season and that Florida game never happened.”
With $400 being equated to “a steal,” Finkelmeier struggled to come up with a figure that would be his maximum price for another No. 1 vs. No. 2 featuring the Buckeyes.
“If I was a single man and my wife was not included in my finances,” I would say $1,000 easy,” Finkelmeier said. “But again, that’s me not being married.”
Finkelmeier said that may seem like a lot to most, but for someone who is as obsessed with the scarlet and gray as much as he is, it is a drop in the bucket.
“To be honest, for most people I would skip their wedding for a game,” Finkelmeier said. “Even when I was married, the first thing decided was that it was not going to be a fall wedding.”
Wapakoneta resident Bruce Roser has attended nearly every OSU home game since his freshman year at the campus in 1956 — save for the home opener two years ago.
A day Roser said he would like to forget.
“I had heart surgery two years ago in August and the doctors told me I could go to the first home game, but as it turned out, I missed it,” Roser said. “It was the first home opener that I had missed since 1956 and when I gave my tickets to my kids, I sat in my kitchen and cried. I mean, the doctors said I’d be fit to go.”
Roser, 70, said he has sat within a range of two or three sections at the Ohio Stadium since his first game 52 years ago. During that span, Roser said he has watched ticket prices steadily climb.
“When I was a student, I got a pass for all sports for $25,” Roser said, “and that got me into football games, basketball games — everything.”
Roser now receives his tickets through the organizations he is a part of within the university.
He is a lifetime member of the President’s Club, Faculty Club and is on the OSU Advocacy Board. While he said his season tickets have gone up, the real spike has been on individual tickets and stadium refreshments.
“For a bottle of water, it’s now something like four bucks, and that bothers me,” Roser said. “And I look at the seats in the section I’m sitting in going for $300 to $400, and that bothers me, too.”
When looking at current ticket prices, Roser said he would “revolt” if someone offered him a ticket at more than face value. Since he has travelled to nearly every OSU bowl game within the last 20 years, he said his wallet already gets a workout.
“I think four out of the last five years we’ve been to Arizona and we went to New Orleans last year, so it costs me quite a bit to be a fan,” Roser said. “I’m spending enough.”
Roser said he hopes his next destination is Pasadena, Calif. for the Rose Bowl.
Ohio State needs to win and have Penn State suffer an upset to Michigan State for him to think about booking a trip to the West Coast.
It is a tall order for the Spartans, but Roser said he is confident Ohio State will hold up their end of the bargain.
“Tressel isn’t one to run up the score, so we’ll probably run, run and run, but in the end we’ll win it by two touchdowns,” Roser predicted. “I’d say the score will be 24-10.”
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Last Updated ( Monday, 24 November 2008 )
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