http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls0...ory?id=2250282
LOS ANGELES -- There are about 88,000 tickets "available" for the 2006 Rose Bowl game, but you'd be hard-pressed to find one.
Rose Bowl Tickets
• 92,000 Rose Bowl seats
• 4,100 seats off-limits because of obstructed views, disabled seating, media work space
• 88,000 total tickets
• 22,000 tickets to USC
• 22,000 tickets to Texas
• 6,200 tickets to sponsors, media, game officials, others
• 6,000 to the Pacific-10 Conference (USC)
• 1,000 to the Big Ten Conference, the traditional Pac-10 Rose Bowl rival
• 5,000 to Tournament of Roses ticket partners, The Ticket Reserve and PrimeSport
• 1,000 to a conference pre-sale to fans last October
• 1,000 available on Ticketmaster
• 500 to Pasadena residents
• 23,300 held by the Tournament of Roses and its 935 members
The contest between top-ranked University of Southern California and No. 2 Texas is more than just a bowl game -- college football's national championship is at stake and the local Trojans are an early 6.5-point favorite.
With half the total tickets designated for the two schools and thousands of others committed to sports conferences, sponsors and media, among others, thousands of fans are competing for a handful of seats available online and from various brokers.
The result? Demand is high, and prices are soaring.
"It's out of sight," said Mitch Dorger, chief executive of the Tournament of Roses, which will hold its 92nd Rose Bowl game in Pasadena on Jan. 4.
On Tuesday, the last public tickets for the game, about 1,000, went on sale through Ticketmaster. They sold out within five minutes.
The ticket crunch can be partly attributed to first ever revenue-sharing agreements with two ticket distribution companies.
The Tournament of Roses, which is prevented from selling tickets beyond the $175 face value, has entered into an agreement with PrimeSport, a subsidiary of RazorGator Interactive Group, which will resell the tickets as part of travel packages that start at $1,879 per person.
The packages include two night stays at a hotel, a ticket in an end zone and ground transportation.
RazorGator is also a sponsor of the Rose Bowl. Dorger declined to reveal specifics of the financial agreements.
The Tournament of Roses also allocated 2,500 tickets to The Ticket Reserve, which sold options to the big game. A Longhorn or Trojan who bought early could get away with paying as little as $100 above the regular ticket price.
"We had the tickets available, and it was a way to increase revenues for the game," Dorger said. "It was also an opportunity ... to give people who would not ordinarily have a chance to buy a ticket that...
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