Best time and place to buy ECAC tourny tix

[REDhead]

I called the box office at Olympic Stadium last week & had a long chat with a woman who has been selling tix to the ECAC tourney for 5 years. She said the games are never sold out, and it is easy to get tickets in your section even the day of the game if you want. The rink has 7700 seats. Tix have been on sale since 11/01 and center ice is sold out.
Sections for colleges are NOT assigned until they know who will be in the tourney (altho she said the CU section is likely to be the same as in years past). You can buy tickets now but they cannot guarantee that you will be seated in the CU section. Or you can wait and an allotment of tickets will be sent down to CU ticket office & you can buy them here, distribution & dates of sale is up to the local office (and yes, I did call them too & they don't know much about nothin'). After ticket sales end here the remaining allotment will be sent up to Lake Placid for sale there.
It seems clear that the best course of events if you want tickets in the CU section is to wait until the section is sold locally. The "other" seats for the tourney are pretty much sold out, the ones that are "left" are the college sections as yet unassigned. Also it seems not much worry even if you go the last minute...
As far as places to stay, I've been looking around on the internet for several weeks and my last look on 2/9 showed only 1 or 2 places in Lake Placid with any rooms left. Most places are sold out for that weekend...also the rates in Lake Placid are boosted for ECAC weekend, sometimes doubled, which makes it pretty expensive. I found a room in a national chain (Comfort Inn) in Saranac Lake for $85. There are a couple B&Bs for about the same price but an hour away.

Good luck!
LGR!!!!

[DeltaOne81]

Ok, so I've been looking around, and I sorta have to disagree about places beings sold out. A lot of the places that let you check availabilility/reserve online are sold out, but there also seem to be a bunch of places available if you're willing to call. Check out lakeplacid.com and click on "Where to Stay" at the top, then do a search. I've found at least a dozen places with rooms at a variety of prices, most actually in town, none further than Saranac Lake (half an hour away).

[Greg Berge]

There are a lot of flea bag hotels around Lake Placid -- I'm sure you'll be able to find *someplace*.  I have stayed in really, really bad places (no heat in March in the Adirondacks... yum), but it's a roof and a bed to pass out on.

[Jim Hyla]

Grady just said 1/4 tics to season tic holders till 2/25 then gen public.

[marty\'74]

And if you're over 21 a place next to a north country watering hole is OK, too.:-P

[Melissa \'01]

OK. For people claiming that they have bought LP tickets with ther season tix, what is the deal? Do you pay and then if we get to LP the tix office gives you tix in the cornell section or are they non school seating? If this is the case, we can still do this?? For out of towners, does this mean that they mail the LP tix to you?? Just curious. Cause we've been putting off getting tix until we knew where the Cornell contingent will be ( assuming we even make it there)

[Anne 85]

I think there's some confusion here.  Some people seem to be talking about tickets for the ECAC Tournament at Lake Placid, while others are discussing tickets for the ECAC Q-finals.  

Cornell season ticket holders were allowed to pre-order tickets for any Q-final games at Lynah.  The tickets were $1.00 off the regular price and could be returned if Cornell did not host the Q-finals.

A block of Lake Placid tickets is being reserved for each team that wins in the Q-final round.  Therefore, if the Big Red wins its Q-final series, the Corenll ticket office will have tickets to sell.  

You can get LP tickets from the LP box office at any time -- but the tickets may not be in the cornell section.

Hope this helps.

[Melissa \'01]

Thanks, Anne. That was what I was thinking. Thought that selling LP tix already was a little weird, early and presumptuous. Tho hopefully we'll be dealing with the how and when to buy LP tix in a few weeks!!!:-)