Ryan Lingernfelter left the Thunder Seat Relocation and Upgrade Event on Wednesday with new seats and more friends who wanted in on his season tickets.
“They were jealous of us,” said Lingernfelter, 32, of Oklahoma City. “We all can’t make every game, so we’ll do a ticket draft to pick the top games you want to go to. It’s kind of like a fantasy draft. We have a good system going on.”
The same could be said about the Thunder’s weeklong event at the Coca-Cola Bricktown Events Center, where season ticket members who renewed for the 2009-10 season could relocate or upgrade their seats from the Thunder’s inaugural season, plus receive some information on the Ford Center renovations.
The Thunder also announced that starting at 2 p.m. on Friday, June 12, the remaining season ticket inventory will be made available to the general public.
So far, this has been a week that’s afforded season ticket members an opportunity to take more ownership of their account and further develop their relationship with the organization, Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales & Service Brian Byrnes said.
“Because last year, just how fast we sold tickets – 13,000 tickets in a week – it was just a quick, fast decision process,” Byrnes said. “You walked in, there was a lot of competition. People were buying what was available. And this year what they’re able to do is say, ‘well, what I really wanted to do was be a little closer to this aisle, or a little closer to my friend in this section.’ So this was the first time they could do that.”
Lingernfelter, for example, was able to upgrade from Loud City to the lower bowl. He and a friend still own two season tickets, but added two more people to the group. It didn’t even take Lingernfelter 20 minutes to upgrade and head back to his job at Dell about 10 miles away.
“We were in and out in 15 minutes, which was awesome,” he said. “The hospitality was great and got us exactly what we wanted.”
And since the Ford Center was closed for renovations, walking the concourse and staircases were not an option. Instead, the Thunder invested in a three-dimensional seating chart of every view in the arena. The 3-D model, provided by Ballena Technologies, Inc., showcased the new seating platforms and terrace seating along with the new scoreboard.
Edmond residents Denise and Mark Calvert attended both last year’s and this year’s event. They said they enjoyed their seats in Loud City last season and look forward to sitting in Section 109 this season.
As far as the relocation and upgrade event went, Mark Calvert said, “I think both times it was first class.”
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