Alright so here’s what happened when I tried grabbing tickets for my kid’s big basketball weekend.
The Panic Start
Saw the announcement pop up in a parent group chat Wednesday morning. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Instant sweat mode. Didn’t even know where to buy these Montana Class C district finals tickets. Pure panic.
First thing I did was mash up that title in Google: “Montana Class C District Basketball 2025 Tickets buy”. Pages and pages of useless junk showed up. News articles from last year. Seat maps from venues I didn’t recognize. Zero actual buying info. What a waste.
The Website Maze
Remembered the Montana High School Association handles this stuff. Went to their main page. Found their “Championships” section way down at the bottom. Tiny little link said “Winter Events”.
- Clicked it.
- Saw a list. Football, wrestling… finally basketball.
- Clicked basketball.
No buy button. Just a schedule saying districts were at XYZ High School this year. Useless. Back to Google, added “XYZ High School tickets”. Found their athletic site. Horrible layout.
Scrolled past photos of teams, clicked Athletics menu, found “Ticketing” under some dropdown called “Resources”. Felt like I solved a puzzle. Finally saw the “Buy Tickets” button. Relief lasted two seconds.
The Payment Screwup
Clicked the button. Needed some account? Created one quick. Username, password, email. Then the ticket page loaded. Saw “Montana Class C District Tournament 2025” listed. Thursday session $10, Friday $15, weekend pass $25. Simple enough.
Tried buying two weekend passes. Hit “Checkout”.
- Credit card form popped up.
- Filled it all out.
- Clicked Submit.
Error message. Red text. Card declined? Impossible. Tried again. Same dang error. Called my bank – “Nope, no fraud alerts here”. Went back to the site, sweating buckets.
Tried a different card. Third time worked. What a pain! Got the confirmation email finally.
Will Call Worries
Email said “Pick Up At Will Call”. Great. Where is Will Call? Email didn’t say. Back to XYZ High’s site. Found nothing.
Called their main office number, waited on hold. Some secretary finally answered, sounded annoyed. “Will Call’s at the main gym entrance. Opens an hour before tip-off”. Asked if I needed ID. “Just your name”. Quick and grumpy. Got it.
Done… For Now
Printed the confirmation email. Saved it. Sent a copy to my wife. Still paranoid I’ll show up and they’ll have no record.
Honestly? Buying these tickets shouldn’t be this hard. Too many sites, too much clicking, and payments breaking. Feels like every year it’s some new poorly designed system. Still, tickets are in hand. Supposedly.