Takin' a T/O With BT: Max Deale—Fan, Author, and Sports Strategist

All summer, some of the best writers here on Bleacher Report have been talking about beating the "Summer Blues"and finding a variety of ways to distract themselves from the August doldrums while awaiting the return of the NHL.

Well although it's not directly related to hockey, there may be the opportunity for you to spend the rest of the summer planning on how to attend your favorite team's first game against their most bitter rival, all thanks to one man.

That man's name is Max Deale.

Now there's really only one difference between me, you, and Max—Max has written a book.

But this isn't just any book, this is a book that'll help get you into your favorite sporting event (or concert), and help you experience the action for the most reasonable price and (more often than not) the best seats in the house.

I was fortunate enough to be granted an opportunity to speak with Max about his book Sold Out...SO WHAT?! and am able to allow the readers here at Bleacher Report a little bit of insight into a book that may change your bank account, and your sports experience, for the better.

Bryan Thiel: Max, thanks so much for taking the time out of your schedule to sit down with us here at Bleacher Report, and allowing us this opportunity.

Now you've told me that this book is for the sports (or music) fan who has trouble getting tickets after sales have gone through to scalpers and re-salers. Were those who were getting "frozen out" of these tickets your main inspiration for writing the book or were there others as well?

Max Deale: There were actually a couple of events that spawned the writing of Sold Out...SO WHAT?!

I've been told for a long time now by a close friend of mine that I should start a concierge service for the average fan and help them the same way I help myself and my friends. Whenever we would go to a game or a concert, my friends would just automatically defer to me to get the tickets. I was fascinated with "the game within the game" and scoring the impossible ticket was great fun.

I thought about the concierge service for a while, but at the end it just seemed like a bunch of work for little reward. After all, I would have to charge some kind of fee for my services, and then I would just end up being one of "them". I remembered the old  saying "give a man a fish and you've fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and you have fed him for a lifetime", and that made me think about another way I could contribute that would help in the long run with having to charge fans once.

The second event that was a prologue to writing the book was another good friend of mine who was so set in his ways about going to scalpers, I actually had to prove my methods to him on three different occasions before he came around.

He spent hundreds, if not thousands, of extra dollars needlessly because he believed it when "the man" told him the show or game was "sold out" and therefore MUST spend whatever the going rate was to get in. After witnessing three events (A Roger Water Dark Side of the Moon

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