Time to Piss Off Angie
Posted by
tgirsch
I’m going to the Sharks game tonight. Just got my tickets, and didn’t even have to pay a lot for them.
Sometimes, it’s good to be in the right place at the right time…
UPDATE: I suspect Angie will be more upset that the Sharks lost the game 2-0 (and the series 4-2) than she will be at the fact that I was there to see it.
UPDATE 2: Speaking of being in the right place at the right time, as fate would have it, not only was Angie also at the game, she was in the seat right next to me, although neither one of us realized it at the time. What are the chances of that?!? (I suspect that if she got her seat from a broker, the chances are better than you might think… but I’d still like some math nerd to figure that out.)
I was there as well. And still crying. (sighs) I cannot believe how it all ended. So depressing!!
Comment 5/8/2007
Where were you in the arena? We were in section 227.
Comment 5/8/2007
How funny! So was I; row 7! My boys were in section 219. Wish I had seen this posting earlier, could have met up and said hi.
Comment 5/8/2007
OK, now you’re scaring me. What SEAT in row 7? If you had a loud bearded guy with a camera right next to you, that was me.
Comment 5/8/2007
OH MY GOD! I talked to you briefly! You are the Maple leaf fan!! Too funny!!!!!
Comment 5/8/2007
That’s a friggin’ riot. What are the chances? That’s me, the Leafs fan. Right next to you, of all places. The guy with me was a coworker, and it was his first-ever hockey game.
Had I known, I would have taken a picture!
Comment 5/8/2007
Nope, not from a broker. Ticketmaster. Cheated even. Was limited to two. Bought two for my boys, then quickly (under another acct) bought one for myself. Least you didn’t see me cry. I saved that for much later.
Comment 5/8/2007
That is funny.
chances are better than you might think… but I’d still like some math nerd to figure that out
The odds for an arena with n seats, in which you’re asking how likely it is that someone you already knew was at the game would have been in the seat right next to you, are simply: 1/(n-1). (The person has to sit in the seat right next to you, and there’s essentially an equally likely chance that they would get that seat out of all the remaining seats in the auditorium. This assumes you’re sitting on an aisle, and ticket prices don’t matter. If you have two open seats next to you, the odds improve by a factor of two; if your friend is more or less likely to buy tickets at a given price level, those odds and the percentages of seats at each level must be factored in.) Ignoring complicating factors, for an arena with, say, 33,334 seats, that’s 1/33,333 - or 3 out of 100,000, or 30 out of a million, or 9,000 out of 300 million.
If everyone in America went to a hockey game that night, 18,000 of them would have the same story to tell.
Now, if you’re asking how likely it is that anyone you know would have been at the game and sitting next to you, that’s the product of how many people you kind-of-know-but-don’t-recognize (N), times their individual likelihood of going to the game (P), times the quantity above: N * P / (n - 1). (Again ignoring complications.) Whether that’s higher or lower than 1/33,333 depends, obviously, on whether (N * P) > 1 or not.
If N - the number of people in your life that you are personally acquainted with - through blogs, friend-of-friends, elementary school classmates, etc. - but would not recognize if you saw them equals, say, 100 (and it’s probably a good fraction of that just from this blog alone), and they each go to 1 hockey game a year in your local arena, then (N * P) = 1.22, and the odds decline to 1/27,333. If you have 50 casual acquaintances and they average only 1 game every two years, then (N * P) = 0.30, and the odds lengthen to 1/109,332. (Again assuming a 33,334-seat arena.)
In any event, it’s like winning the lottery: it’s very unlikely to happen to you, but it’s very likely to happen to somebody. Events with similar odds - not necessarily hockey games, but events with odds of 1 in 33,333 or 100,000 - happened many thousands of times that same night, all over America.
Comment 5/8/2007
Angie:
What this means is that I probably paid considerably less per ticket than you did.
Sad part is, you were giving off kind of an “Angie” vibe, and I very nearly asked you if you were, indeed, Angie. Had I known, I’d have bought you a consolation beer (or a coke, or whatever).
KTK:
It was mostly a rhetorical question, but thanks.
My guess would have been 1 in 17,481 (the number of seats in the arena, less the two seats my friend and I were occupying). And you’re right, those odds really aren’t all that long. But a neat coincidence, if nothing else.
Comment 5/8/2007
Uh oh! Now I have to ask, just what is an “Angie” vibe?? lol
KTK — funny!!
Comment 5/8/2007
I’m not entirely sure I can articulate it, really. For one, you looked about like I expected you would look, and for another, what little talking we did do seemed consistent with out on-line chats. Mainly, though, it was just a weird gut feeling, one I wish I had acted upon.
Comment 5/9/2007
Well anyways, it was very nice to sorta meet you.
And for next season — GO SHARKS!!!!
Comment 5/9/2007