Chicago Cubs Tickets on Sale Today at Wrigley Field and Online

Chicago Cubs tickets went on sale today in a carefully orchestrated system designed to ensure fairness. As a Red Sox and Rockies fan who endured the 2007 World Series ticket fiasco in Denver, I know that fans are passionate about getting their chance to buy great seats for the coming season, not just the playoffs and World Series.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Cubs' system adds some elements of chance to the ticket purchasing process, so "first-come, first served," all-night campouts in line, and perhaps most importantly, thousands of fans clicking at the stroke of 10 o'clock to access the website are not likely to be factors. Though the Rockies in Denver spoke of malicious attacks on their server, simple overloading is more likely to have been the cause, and the Cubs have provided an "online waiting room" to allow fans a half-hour to get in line on the website, with a random selection process in effect, hopefully preventing such an overload.

In person, a wristband system will have the same effect, as a drawing determines the order of priority for fans wearing wristbands, and the lucky fans' numbers are announced on radio station WGN. Camping out in line might still have some romance, but it won't guarantee that you're first to purchase tickets.

For that segment of the population without credit cards, purchasing Cubs tickets could be tricky, especially on the first day. Safeguards are in place to limit the number of tickets purchased, and fans will be required to provide personal information and use their own credit card to purchase the tickets. The team's ticket sales organization will compare ticket sales to determine if more than the allowed number is being purchased. In the case of the Denver fiasco, the failure of the online system resulted in numerous fans claiming that the system recorded duplicate orders, then canceled all tickets for that customer because of a false detection of "cheating." Local news reported that the team's management was not sympathetic to those fans. The Cubs system is said to also detect and reject all orders from customers using automated computer scripts to access the ticket website.

Fair play is important in the game of baseball, a traditional American sport which takes on almost religious significance for some of us. Part of the idea of fair play is in the way that the baseball organizations conduct their business. When Colorado fans found themselves excited about their team's participation in the World Series, buying tickets to the event and planning to make the trip to the historic downtown Denver field was a dream come true.

When server problems arose in the online-only ticket sales process, the nightmare of botched orders, accusations of "cheating" and unsympathetic treatment from the business side of the organization took some of the luster of the team's success and Christian ethic and turned it to bitterness. Fans felt betrayed by the team they supported, and those watching the local news felt their pain. For local fans, the noble sport of baseball relies on the fair and sportsmanlike conduct of the business part of the ball club as well.

To see what seats are still available for this year's Cubs games and purchase your own online, visit their website at chicago.cubs.mlb.com, where you can print your tickets at home, get on the wait list for season tickets, and even buy a brick from Wrigley field. Make sure to check the security information to avoid disappointment. Some items such as coolers will be refused, larger bags may be checked after inspection, and reentry on a ticket stub is not permitted, they note.

"2008 Cubs Schedule", http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/schedule/index.jsp?c_id=chc

"Cubs Tickets on Sale Today", http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/808221,022208cubstickets.article

"Wrigley Field Security Procedures", http://chicago.cubs.mlb.com/chc/ballpark/security.jsp