Fans paying big bucks to see OSU-Gators game

Tickets were selling for between 1,250 to about 2,500 per seat.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- Susan Jackson started scouting for tickets to the national championship game right after top-ranked Ohio State beat Michigan in November.
She kept tabs on the prices as she waited for the Buckeyes' opponent to be selected, and, finally, she purchased three club-level tickets Sunday. The price tag: 9,252, counting the broker's fee and shipping.
Jackson, a Phoenix resident, who won't have to pay for airfare or a hotel stay, isn't the only one shelling out big bucks for the big game experience.
The game in Glendale, Ariz., between Ohio State (12-0) and No. 2 Florida (12-1) is still three weeks away, but travelers who have yet to make plans likely will have to pay at least 400 just for airfare, more than double that for a ticket and they'll be lucky to find a hotel room in a nearby city -- forget about Glendale, it's pretty much booked.
Travel agents in Columbus sold most of their deals including ticket, airfare and hotel costs by last week.
In Florida, the down-to-the-wire title game selection prompted three days of nonstop calls to the AAA auto club branch in Gainesville, which didn't even have time to put together a package deal, travel manager Sue Boate said.
"Our people were taken totally by surprise, so it was a frenzy for awhile," she said.
Tickets, which cost 275 to 325 at face value, were selling through Columbus broker Main Event Ticket Service from 1,250 to about 2,500 for seats in the stadium's lower level between the 20-yard lines, said owner Ryan Forgacs.
"It's the Super Bowl of college football," he said. "We're getting a lot of calls."
Ticket prices about doubled
The ticket prices for the Jan. 8 game are about double what they were when the Buckeyes competed for the 2002 national championship, he said.
Each university was granted 16,000 tickets, divvied up among students, alumni, donors and others.
Sheryl Goldberg of suburban Westerville was one of the winners of the lottery for the Ohio State alumni association's travel package, which includes a game ticket. Goldberg, a season ticket holder and donor who established a scholarship at OSU's dental school in honor of her late husband, plans to take her brother with her to Glendale at a cost of about 2,500 each.
It will be her fifth bowl game trip with the alumni group. "The tours are always very nice and you meet really great people," she said.
Archie Griffin, a two-time Heisman Trophy winner who heads Ohio State's alumni association, said there aren't enough tickets to go around.
"But I'll bet you'll see a lot of Ohio State folks at the game who probably won't even get in the game," he said. "It'll kind of be like that Michigan atmosphere when you have the stadium full but you have another 40,000 or 50,000 people outside the stadium. I'm kind of getting that type of impression."
High prices for packages
Travel agents say the sticker shock has scared some inquiring customers.
"I would say the majority of people have been really shocked by the price because in the past the bowl packages we've done have been around 2,000 per person," said Susan Button, manager of Carlson Wagonlit Elite Travel in Columbus.
She had five packages left last week, running around 3,600 each.
Sandi Nikolaus, manager of Bexley Travel, said some Buckeyes fans booked their trips before Ohio State, which has been No. 1 all season, clinched its spot in the championship game.
Boate said she thinks the Gators' last-minute jump in the rankings might have boosted demand for tickets on the Florida end.
"I think sometimes the element of surprise makes people even more desirous to go," she said. "The buzzer-beater kind of thing."
Jackson, 42, said she has no regrets spending thousands of dollars to attend the national championship.
"It was not within my realm of comprehension that I not go to this game," she said.