Owner of Box Seat Tickets John Wilson talks with a client while finding them a ticket. Wilson’s vast array of personal contacts of season ticket holders allows him to find tickets to games and events that are often sold out.
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By Nicholas Serrano
It’s Tuesday January 5. Walking into the Box Seat Tickets in Valparaiso, there are dozens of photos covering the walls. Sports figures, musicians, professional wrestlers, Nascar drivers, everything. From his office, you can hear owner John Wilson’s voice as he speaks with a client over the telephone. It’s a busy day at Box Seat Tickets, as most are. Lady Gaga rescheduled her Chicago and Detroit concerts and as a result, ticket holders are scrambling to Wilson for tickets to the new concerts. It’s a smart move on their part because, as Wilson will undoubtedly inform anyone who is interested, he has access to tickets to any major concert in Chicago, from the cheapest to the most expensive.
After he’s done dealing with his first client, before Wilson can swivel around his chair to say hello, the phone rings again. This time it’s someone dealing with tickets bought using a stolen credit card. It’s business as usual for Wilson, who for the past 14 years has provided people with tickets to the events they love. Most are for events in Chicago and Indianapolis, but he has the ability to track down tickets for anything throughout the United States.
When it comes to certain sports, Blackhawks in my case, no matter how much you explain it, you can’t describe what happens in a live game. You can go and get a very good seat to any event because I have those tickets. I have the tickets for you to go to get the experience you can’t get on television.
“I’ve sold tickets to the Golf Masters, the World Series, the Super Bowl, the NCAA Final Four, the Olympics, even the Obama Inauguration,” Wilson said. “My biggest thing is, I sell to anything you can’t go to. I have a ticket to everything.”
Wilson’s seemingly endless supply of tickets comes from his massive Rolodex, which is a compilation of friends, business associates and personal contacts he’s amassed over the years in the ticket business as well and several other careers. Wilson became a businessman at the age of 14 when he began working for his dad, who was landlord of several apartments in the area. In 1966, he joined the Air Force for four years, including spending one year in Vietnam. After his time in the service was done, he began working at Bethlehem Steel before moving to Roadway Express, one of the largest trucking companies in the United States, where he hired over 9,000 employees in the nine years he spent there. From there he followed through with his dream of owning a liquor store, six of them to be exact. J&B Spirits was a successful business venture for Wilson, who eventually moved to Fort Lauderdale, Florida and started a limousine service. He moved back to Indiana while his son attended college at Purdue in 1996. This was when he opened Box Seat Tickets in Valparaiso.
In the 30 years since he joined the Air Force, Wilson said he developed a steady base of friends and acquaintances who regularly attended sporting events, many of which were season ticket holders for Chicago Bears, Bulls and Blackhawks games. Wilson offered to sell the tickets to games these people couldn’t attend. From there, word of mouth spread Wilson’s reputation as a reliable way to sell unused tickets. Among the many benefits of this process for Wilson’s clients, he said, is the fact that most season ticket holders have the best seats in the building or stadium.
Another bonus for Wilson’s clients is reliability. Reliability that the tickets are real, aren’t stolen and will get in the buyer’s hands by game time. He said he’s heard more stories than he can remember of people who have called his office with complaints of buying fake tickets online or through other sources. People who have planned on attending events for months in advance, only to show up without being able to get in because their tickets were fake, or worse stolen. It’s a heartbreaking experience Wilson can help people avoid.
“When they come to me, I have an office, I’m a person, we give invoices, we give business cards, we give magnets, we give receipts, we’re a true legitimate business,” Wilson said. “We’re not working out of a basement somewhere. Ninety five percent of all tickets purchased online are from people who are 30 years old or younger and you don’t know where the tickets are coming from.”
Wilson said Blackhawks tickets are his biggest sellers right now, due to the disappointing season of the Bears and the current mediocrity of the Bulls. Whether the tickets are seemingly impossible to find or couldn’t be given away because the team is playing so poorly, Wilson can get them all. Box Seat Tickets is located at 607 Morgan Blvd. in Valparaiso and can be reached at (219) 462-3349.
