The football game is sold out

One of the top news items today had to do with ticket scalping, that time-honored process of buying low and selling high.

The University of Hawaii’s football Warriors play Boise State at The Aloha Stadium Friday night in what is billed as the most important game in Hawaii history.

The stadium is sold out and ticket scalpers are selling their tickets for hundreds of dollars more than the ticket cost. I won’t buy one.

Tens of thousands of Hawaii residents won’t go to the stadium but we’ll watch the game anyway. For free, thanks to ESPN recognizing that someone still watches live football at midnight on the East coast, even if the teams are Hawaii and Boise State.

I’ve always had some difficulty figuring out the value of watching a college or professional football game.

First, you can’t see squat way up in the stands. The players look like high school kids running around and falling down. Second, it rains. It usually doesn’t rain much, but it rains. Always. Just enough to make everyone a little miserable.

Well, those who are miserable are the ones who don’t drink, and $8.00 for a paper cup full of warm beer only adds to the misery. Maybe I should just pay the piper and be a little less miserable during a near-drunken stupor like too many other fans in the stadium.

Did I mention the noise?

At home, with air conditioning, surround sound, a wide screen TV, an even wider sofa, and a nearby refrigerator and microwave for cooling and warming affordable snacks, football watching reaches a zenith, a near utopian experience. Instant replay brings close and arguable plays to the screen in slow motion and from twenty seven eleven angles.

What’s not to like?

Fortunately, the Warriors-Boise State game is sold out, which means it’s also on ESPN, which means we won’t be among the fortunate few who paid $250 for a ticket to sit in the wind and rain with 50,000 other fans there to witness football history.

History is at home.