Playoff ticket frenzy for Dallas Cowboys fans

Talk about a turnaround.

Early in the Dallas Cowboys’ season, in games against the 49ers, Saints and Texans at AT&T Stadium, the cheering from opposing fans was deafening. So much, in fact, that after beating the Texans in overtime, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo said it felt like they were playing on the road.

The theory is that many Cowboys fans, frustrated by years of mediocrity, had sold their tickets to enemy fans through online resale sites.

Now, riding a 12-4 record and NFC East championship, the Cowboys’ first playoff appearance in five years is suddenly the hottest ticket in town.

Tickets to Sunday afternoon’s game against the Detroit Loins went on sale at noon Monday, and in a little more than an hour the cheapest seats — $35 standing room-only Party Passes — were all gobbled up.

At 4:30 p.m. Monday, tickets at the Cowboys website started at $165 per ticket.

Meanwhile, some of the more expensive seats in the house quickly popped up for sale on secondary ticket sites.

One of those sites, StubHub, featured hundreds of Cowboys-Lions tickets. The most expensive was a Hall of Fame suite listing for $26,710. Also, a Ring of Honor suite was advertised for $16,246.

StubHub did have plenty of standing room-only seats listed for $60 to $70. But some sellers were way more ambitious.

One seller offered two nosebleed seats in section 404 for $9,812. Of course, it’s important to remember that StubHub is a marketplace and, just because someone asks for a price doesn’t mean he or she will get it. Maybe that seller figures, if he can’t find a buyer willing to pay ridiculously for seats in the fourth deck, he’ll just go to the game himself.

And there were some apparent deals to be had, too. One seller offered three seats in the lower deck at the 50-yard line for only $1,586.

Others visited AT&T Stadium in person to try their luck at the ticket windows. A line at least 150 people deep snaked around the stadium’s exterior from noon until just after 1 p.m., when a ticket office employee was met with a chorus of groans after announcing the cheapest tickets were sold out.

A handful of patrons had camped out at the stadium overnight, braving near-freezing temperatures. Things warmed up nicely Monday afternoon, though, with sunny skies and a temperature in the mid-50s.

Jerry Rosema of Arlington was among those who waited in line, only to learn as he got closer to the window he couldn’t buy the ticket he wanted.

Rosema and his wife already had tickets to Sunday’s game, but Rosema was seeking a third ticket for his good friend.

“My wife and I got tickets on Ticketmaster — I guess we got lucky — but we didn’t get one for my buddy,” Rosema said. “He’s out of luck.”

About 95 percent of Cowboys season ticket holders exercised an option to buy playoff tickets, club spokesman Rich Dalrymple said.

“That’s an extremely high number,” he said.

Season ticket holders were sent offers as early as August to buy their playoff tickets in advance, and many made payments on those tickets throughout the season as the team marched closer toward its goal of getting into the tournament.

About 5,000 playoff tickets were made available to the public, starting about noon Monday, with prices ranging from $92 to $530, Dalrymple said.

“For all practical purposes,” he said, “we’re going to be sold out by the end of [Monday].”

Below, Clarence Hill Jr. and Charean Williams preview Sunday’s playoff matchup:

This story was originally published December 29, 2014 at 5:01 PM with the headline "Playoff ticket frenzy for Dallas Cowboys fans."