Memorial Day Weekend Lacrosse Ticket Strategies

[Swampy]

This is for purely academic purposes, as I don't want to awaken the woofing gods.

The NC$$ schedule for Memorial Day Weekend at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA has:

• Friday, May 23: Division I Women's Semifinals (2 games)
• Saturday, May 24: Division I Men's Semifinals (2 games)
• Sunday, May 25: Division I Women's National Championship, Divisions II & III Men's National Championships (3 games)
• Monday, May 26: Division I Men's National Championship

Prices for tickets on individual days range from about $31.00 to $101.00, although some promotional discounts may be available.

Given this schedule and prices, what strategies do you recommend for buying tickets? (E.g., Wait until semifinalists are determined? Buy now before scalpers get them? Purchase through the school of your choice when they become available? Etc.)

[MattShaf]

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy.
Saturdays men's D1 semifinals are the most difficult tickets to get if you want a good seat and you can't purchase through one of the schools represented. Buy early and expect to pay face value. Club seating is limited.
Tickets for Sunday's games can be purchased for less than $10 a seat on any of the secondary markets.
Tickets for Monday's finals: great seats can be purchased late Sat or early Sun on the secondary market as fan bases thin out based on Saturday's outcomes. Usually at a discount from face value but numbers of tickets in great locations will be limited.

[arugula]

Circle of sports life.  The year I graduated, we lost to Hopkins on graduation day iirc.  Now our daughter is graduating, so another excellent excuse to miss the game, if it happens.  I believe our daughter's first Cornell sports events was NCAA quarters against Army?  2010?  Unless it was an earlier Red Hot Hockey.  Or the homecoming football against Fordham,  Too lazy to check,

[billhoward]

Based on previous history, the final four lacrosse weekend will not sell out.
* Gillette Stadium (Foxboro, MA, where the Patriots play football) holds 65,878 and the draw in the four post-Covid years in Hartford and Philadelphia topped out in the low 30s.
* Best attendance years ever were 2004-2011, with a high of 52,004 in Baltimore for Hopkins-Delaware and Duke-Cornell, that latter game [caution: gruesome information follows] decided by a Duke goal with 3 seconds to play.
* A New England venue draws better if there are NY/NJ/New England teams. The RPI top twelve RPI teams (4/28/25) has Princeton, Cornell, Harvard, Syracuse and Army, also BU at 15. (BU would have to beat Army in the Patriot League playoff to qualify but they took down the Cadets in OT in March, and then they'd have to make finals weekend.)
* You usually can move around if you don't like your seat, a bit more hassle trying to move from upper to lower deck (which Gillette has).
* There is a penalty buying individual Saturday and Monday tickets but the resale market is a bigger thing now and, as others have noted, tickets even with the fees, may get you seats below face value.
* One has to believe Cornell will be playing both Saturday and Monday. The Sunday games now include the D1 women as well as D2 and D3 men's finals. (And D1 women's semifinals Friday. Princeton may be there; it's ranked fourth. Cornell's loss to Yale Saturday precluded us from the ILT.)
* Semifinal attendance is lower for game 2. Many people see both, some come early for game 2, more leave after game 1.
* We don't know if the NCAA-reported attendance is butts in seats versus tickets sold and not used for all the games in the ticket package. Scalper / resellers have a good guess about attendance and they don't overbuy. This is not NCAA basketball final four.
* Me, I would wait until we know if Cornell is one of the final four. BTW if you go for the weekend, Cape Cod is an hour away if Sunday weather is good.
 

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[b]Semifinals and Final -- NCAA lax 1971-Present
Year Semis   Final Host         Participants[/b]
2024 32,269 31,479 Philadelphia Denver, Maryland, Notre Dame, Virginia
2023 32,107 30,462 Philadelphia Duke, Penn St. Notre Dame, Virginia
2022 22,668 22,184 Hartford, CT Cornell, Princeton, Maryland, Princeton
2021 13,707 14,816 Hartford, CT Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia
2019 32,612 31,528 Philadelphia Duke, Penn St., Virginia, Yale
2018 30,616 29,455 Foxborough  Albany (NY), Duke, Maryland, Yale
2017 30,530 28,971 Foxborough  Maryland, Ohio St. Towson, Denver
2016 33,137 26,749 Philadelphia Brown, Loyola Maryland, Maryland, North Carolina
2015 29,123 24,215 Philadelphia Denver, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Notre Dame
2014 30,428 25,587 Baltimore    Duke, Maryland, Notre Dame, Denver
2013 28,444 28,224 Philadelphia Duke, Syracuse, Cornell, Denver
2012 31,774 30,816 Foxborough  Loyola Maryland, Maryland, Duke, Notre Dame
2011 45,039 35,661 Baltimore   Virginia, Maryland, Denver, Duke
2010 44,389 37,126 Baltimore   Duke, Notre Dame, Virginia, Cornell
2009 36,594 41,935 Foxborough  Syracuse, Cornell, Duke, Virginia
2008 48,224 48,970 Foxborough  Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Virginia, Duke
2007 52,004 48,443 Baltimore   Johns Hopkins, Duke, Delaware, Cornell
2006 49,562 47,062 Philadelphia Virginia, Massachusetts, Syracuse, Maryland
2005 45,275 44,920 Philadelphia Johns Hopkins, Duke, Virginia, Maryland
2004 46,923 43,898 Baltimore   Syracuse, Navy, Johns Hopkins, Princeton
2003 37,823 37,944 Baltimore   Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, Syracuse
2002 23,123 19,706 Rutgers     Syracuse, Princeton, Virginia, Johns Hopkins
2001 21,103 21,286 Rutgers     Princeton, Syracuse, Towson, Notre Dame
2000 24,105 22,880 Maryland    Syracuse, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, Virginia
1999 27,586 24,135 Maryland    Virginia, Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown
1998 21,194 17,225 Rutgers     Princeton, Maryland, Syracuse, Loyola Maryland
1997 30,580 25,317 Maryland    Princeton, Maryland, Duke, Syracuse
1996 26,066 22,102 Maryland    Princeton, Virginia, Syracuse, Johns Hopkins
1995 30,392 26,229 Maryland    Syracuse, Maryland, Virginia, Johns Hopkins
1994 21,523 22,559 Maryland    Princeton, Virginia, Brown, Syracuse
1993 21,129 19,965 Maryland    Syracuse, North Carolina, Princeton, Johns Hopkins
1992 15,523 13,650 Penn        Princeton, Syracuse, North Carolina, Johns Hopkins
1991 14,544 8,293 Syracuse     North Carolina, Towson, Syracuse, Maryland
1990 15,154 19,070 Rutgers     Syracuse, Loyola Maryland, North Carolina, Yale
1989 20,263 23,893 Maryland    Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Maryland, North Carolina
1988 11,843 20,148 Syracuse    Syracuse, Cornell, Penn, Virginia
1987 12,933 17,077 Rutgers     Johns Hopkins, Cornell, Maryland, Syracuse
1986 8,549   9,765 Delaware    North Carolina, Virginia, Johns Hopkins, Syracuse
                               Semifinals were the weekend before
1985 —      14,455 Brown       Johns Hopkins, Syracuse
1984 —      17,253 Delaware    Johns Hopkins, Syracuse
1983 —      15,672 Rutgers     Syracuse, Johns Hopkins
1982 —      10,283 Virginia    North Carolina, Johns Hopkins
1981 —      13,943 Princeton   North Carolina, Johns Hopkins
1980 —       7,557 Cornell     Johns Hopkins, Virginia
1979 —      16,166 Maryland    Johns Hopkins, Maryland
1978 —      13,527 Rutgers     Johns Hopkins, Cornell
1977 —      10,080 Virginia    Cornell, Johns Hopkins
1976 —       7,504             Brown Cornell, Maryland
1975 —      10,875             Johns Hopkins Maryland, Navy
1974 —       7,728 Rutgers     Johns Hopkins, Maryland
1973 —       5,965 Penn        Maryland, Johns Hopkins
1972 —       7,001 Maryland    Virginia, Johns Hopkins
1971 —       5,458 Hofstra     Cornell, Maryland
Source: http://fs.ncaa.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Docs/stats/m_lacrosse_RB/Attendance.pdf
I don't know if those are tickets scanned at entry or tickets sold and people didn't attend.

[MattShaf]

NCAA All Session passes are no longer available.
NCAA offering flash sale (25%). I purchased 4 Lower level seat mid-field for $70 each including fees for the Saturday games.
Sunday games are free entry (except club level).

[LGR14]

Personally would wait to find out where the Cornell section is and buy as close to that as possible.  For Monday, that's usually revealed on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

[billhoward]

The NCAA probably has who-sits-where figured out a week in advance, they know which four teams play the following Saturday, say A vs D in Game 1, then B vs C in Game 2... then on Monday it's either A vs. C or A vs. D, else B vs. C or B vs. D. You think about if fans want to be closer in Q2 and Q4 to the zone they attack (I think that's what more prefer, and for TV's sake it's nicer-easier to pan upward from the goal scorer to celebrating fans) or defend, and they think a bit about if there any huge animosities between any two of the four teams. Maybe they think about who'll have the larger contingent on Monday and prefer to see them on the side opposite the stands.

[LGR14]

The NCAA probably has who-sits-where figured out a week in advance, they know which four teams play the following Saturday, say A vs D in Game 1, then B vs C in Game 2... then on Monday it's either A vs. C or A vs. D, else B vs. C or B vs. D. You think about if fans want to be closer in Q2 and Q4 to the zone they attack (I think that's what more prefer, and for TV's sake it's nicer-easier to pan upward from the goal scorer to celebrating fans) or defend, and they think a bit about if there any huge animosities between any two of the four teams. Maybe they think about who'll have the larger contingent on Monday and prefer to see them on the side opposite the stands.

Not necessarily.  They align the section with the team.  So Cornell fans sit behind the Cornell bench.  If Cornell is the top seed, we know they'll be on the home side.  But if they're not the top seed, we may not know until Saturday night (assuming they get to Memorial Day).

This is how it worked in 2022 at least.  Cornell fans were moved around from Friday to Sunday.

[CU77]

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2022 22,668 22,184 Hartford, CT Cornell, Princeton, Maryland, Princeton

Source: http://fs.ncaa.org.s3.amazonaws.com/Docs/stats/m_lacrosse_RB/Attendance.pdf

Calling all Rutgers fans ... ::rolleyes::

[djk26]

The NCAA probably has who-sits-where figured out a week in advance, they know which four teams play the following Saturday, say A vs D in Game 1, then B vs C in Game 2... then on Monday it's either A vs. C or A vs. D, else B vs. C or B vs. D. You think about if fans want to be closer in Q2 and Q4 to the zone they attack (I think that's what more prefer, and for TV's sake it's nicer-easier to pan upward from the goal scorer to celebrating fans) or defend, and they think a bit about if there any huge animosities between any two of the four teams. Maybe they think about who'll have the larger contingent on Monday and prefer to see them on the side opposite the stands.

Are you kidding?  I think they have it all figured out now--isn't the tournament fixed?  ::uptosomething::  (I mean the impish grin as a sarcasm indicator.)

[abmarks]

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Year Semis   Final Host         Participants[/b]
2018 30,616 29,455 Foxborough  Albany (NY), Duke, Maryland, Yale
2017 30,530 28,971 Foxborough  Maryland, Ohio St. Towson, Denver
2012 31,774 30,816 Foxborough  Loyola Maryland, Maryland, Duke, Notre Dame
2009 36,594 41,935 Foxborough  Syracuse, Cornell, Duke, Virginia
2008 48,224 48,970 Foxborough  Syracuse, Johns Hopkins, Virginia, Duke


Foxborough stats are interesting.   Syracuse effect in 2008 and 2009?

[Swampy]

About how many tickets are allocated to each school?

Do the schools, Cornell in particular, sell to alumni?

[billhoward]

Advance-sale tickets appear to hosted by third-party sites and there are surcharges. That are not disclosed upfront. One can still buy at the gate.

It's not worth asking about ticket allocation ratios/numbers for the schools. I'm not sure the NCAA would do other than spit back a gentle murmur of an answer that says nothing and implies, up yours, busybody.

Do not worry about ticket availability for the ILT / Schoellkopf. Nice touch: students at the four schools get in free, ditto kids through age 2, but no seniors discount that I saw.

Maybe worry in the quarterfinals if we play at Hofstra Saturday 5/17. That is 11,000 or so and could sell well. If we play at Navy - Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Sunday 5/18 in Annapolis, capacity 34,000, seating is not an issue. I like to think that if we are the 1-seed we go to Long Island because it's closer and if Maryland is the 1-seed they go to Annapolis. If Princeton is the 1-seed they could go either location (2 hours to LI, 3 to Annapolis).

For the NCAA finals, history shows the final does not sell out. Gillette Stadium (Foxboro / Patriots) holds 68,000, 15K more capacity than the best turnout ever in lacrosse's 50-plus years of NCAAs.

For the ILT, there is a third party. Link to 2025 ILT at Cornell: https://app.fanbaseclub.com/Fan/Tickets/SelectType?fixtureId=11274

For the NCAA finals, it's Ticketmaster. I did not see clarity on whether the NCAA also uses TM for the first rounds of 16 and 8.

For games that will not sell out, you can always walk up to the on-location ticket window.

[Swampy]

Advance-sale tickets appear to hosted by third-party sites and there are surcharges. That are not disclosed upfront. One can still buy at the gate.

It's not worth asking about ticket allocation ratios/numbers for the schools. I'm not sure the NCAA would do other than spit back a gentle murmur of an answer that says nothing and implies, up yours, busybody.

Do not worry about ticket availability for the ILT / Schoellkopf. Nice touch: students at the four schools get in free, ditto kids through age 2, but no seniors discount that I saw.

Maybe worry in the quarterfinals if we play at Hofstra Saturday 5/17. That is 11,000 or so and could sell well. If we play at Navy - Marine Corps Memorial Stadium Sunday 5/18 in Annapolis, capacity 34,000, seating is not an issue. I like to think that if we are the 1-seed we go to Long Island because it's closer and if Maryland is the 1-seed they go to Annapolis. If Princeton is the 1-seed they could go either location (2 hours to LI, 3 to Annapolis).

For the NCAA finals, history shows the final does not sell out. Gillette Stadium (Foxboro / Patriots) holds 68,000, 15K more capacity than the best turnout ever in lacrosse's 50-plus years of NCAAs.

For the ILT, there is a third party. Link to 2025 ILT at Cornell: https://app.fanbaseclub.com/Fan/Tickets/SelectType?fixtureId=11274

For the NCAA finals, it's Ticketmaster. I did not see clarity on whether the NCAA also uses TM for the first rounds of 16 and 8.

For games that will not sell out, you can always walk up to the on-location ticket window.

Great info! Thanks very much. :-)

[upprdeck]

sure you can get in a see the game?

How many people enjoy watching LAX from the nose bleeds though?