Want to see the Hawks in Atlanta? It will cost you

SEATTLE – If your sights are settled on seeing the Seahawks play this weekend in Atlanta, plan on shelling out a small fortune to make it happen.

“I have been a Seahawks fan for as basically as long as I can remember,” said Chris Turple, via Skype on Sunday.

He’s stationed in Georgia, which means he can easily drive to Saturday’s game.

“I haven’t been to a football game in 15 years,” he said. In the army for 13 years, he said he’s always been on the wrong side of the world when the Seahawks would play.



Now, they’re coming to his backyard.

“I am going to bring my 12th man flag, and hopefully I can hang it over the edge,” he said.

Turple said he paid just under $500 dollars for his official playoffs ticket. He bought just one because, as he put it, “with the price of the tickets, it was kind of one or none.”

Fortunately, he won’t need to buy a plane ticket, or lodging.

“It’s playoffs; it’s expensive,” said Jake Washburn, a Seahawks fan at a neighborhood bar. Washburn said he didn’t even bother to check the prices, knowing he wouldn’t be able to afford the time off or the ticket, let alone both.

Google Flight shows tickets from Seattle to Atlanta range from $600-800 dollars flying in Saturday night, leaving Sunday. Tickets on Ticketmaster.com show high level tickets starting at $126.00 and going up to $2,000 dollars for 50-yard-line front row spots.

“It’s a really exciting time and scammers are going to take advantage of that,” said Amy Schmidt, with the Better Business Bureau. She said things aren’t going to be cheap this weekend, and if they are, be leery.

“One of the things that you can watch out for is really low ticket prices,” said Schmidt. “Scammers will also try and hone in on that and set up a really great deal with hotel and flight and playoff tickets. Again, seeing that really low number, if it’s too good to be true, it’s something to walk away from.”

Schmidt recommends checking the site selling the tickets, if you feel it could be fake, search the page url with the word “SCAM.”

Often times, others will have flagged the website for fraudulent activity.

Turple said if you do make it to the game, look out for him. After all, he said, he’s part of the fan-mily.

“As soon as I got the ticket, I put it on the fridge and I was like, ‘man, I can’t wait,’” he said.