By DONNA GORDON BLANKINSHIP
The Associated Press
SEATTLE — After watching their team win with a series of improbable moves in the NFC championship game, Seahawks fans are hoping a similar kind of luck will get them Super Bowl tickets.
Kevin Rempel-Cheuk is going to Arizona because he has a childhood friend who wanted to take the whole gang to the game.
A few other fans will be lucky enough to win a trip from the Washington State Lottery or the online store of Seahawks star Richard Sherman.
Meanwhile, Season ticket owners were put in a lottery for a chance to buy tickets for $950, including service charges.
For the rest, tickets are available at the moment from a number of online sites for $2,500. Other packages are available from a NFL affiliate site starting at $5,000 and from an online retailer for $8,000 and up.
Rempel-Cheuk and his wife Erin are huge Seahawks fans and named their 18-month-old daughter Bennett, though Erin Rempel-Cheuk says that’s just a coincidence and had nothing to do with the fact that they met defensive end Michael Bennett while she was pregnant, and he is her favorite Seahawk.
Erin and Bennett won’t be traveling to Glendale, Arizona, with Kevin, but they will be watching the game with some of their friends.
“I’m thinking about having a Super Bowl toddler party,” she said.
Paula Gardner of Maltby, Washington, who hasn’t seen the Seahawks in person for years, will be cheering from her couch.
“I used to go when the games were affordable,” she said, dismissing the idea of paying $2,500 to see the Super Bowl in person.
“I laugh at people who will pay that for the tickets to a sporting event that’s not the Olympics,” Gardner said.
Even so, she didn’t go to the 2010 Winter Olympics in nearby Vancouver. British Columbia.
“I’m a cheap woman,” the suburban mother of three admits.
But she does love her Seahawks, especially quarterback Russell Wilson.
“I’m old enough to be his mother. I just think he’s cute,” Gardner said.
Wilson said he’s been asked more than a hundred times for free tickets to the game. Since he only has about 15 to share, fans might want to try another approach.
Sherman is giving away a pair of tickets and a trip to the game. He says thousands of people have entered his Super Bowl contest.
“Because everybody thinks they deserve it. Then some people call me an idiot for not selling it to them,” the Seahawks cornerback said.
He is expecting the team to have more fans at the game than it had last year at the Super Bowl in New Jersey.
“It’s a two-hour flight (to Phoenix) versus a 5 1/2 or whatever it is to New York. So I think we’ll have a lot more support,” Sherman said. “A lot of people who didn’t get to go last year are chomping at the bit to go this year.”
Malcolm Smith, the MVP of last year’s game, also is looking forward to more Seahawks fans in Arizona.
“We’ve done pretty well in Arizona before as far as fans traveling and making some noise,” Smith said. “Hopefully they’re not hording the tickets for Patriots fans.”
Season ticket holder Mary Reeder is excited to be going to her second Seahawks Super Bowl in a row, especially since she believes this year’s team is better than last year’s.
“I’m a huge Seahawks fan,” Reeder said. “I went to the opening of the Kingdome and the first Seahawks game with my grandmother.”
Her advice for fans who want to go to the game: Don’t buy a package, stay in a cheap motel, plan ahead for public transportation to and from the game, eat before you enter the stadium and take advantage of the free activities before and after the game.
