TicketNetwork Blog

My dad doesn't wear ties. His garage is already overflowing with tools. He's not big into golf, or basketball, and he has enough New England Patriots paraphernalia that he never asked for to decorate an entire house. (Hey, it's the one thing everyone knows he likes, so he gets it all the time.) Figuring out what to get him each Father's Day is, to put it lightly, a bit challenging.

If your dad is anything like mine, you probably feel like there's no way to get a decent gift — not even if you start thinking about it for months in advance (and I have!). And now it's just one week before Father's Day and if you don't already have something picked out, it's panic time. Lucky for you, TicketNetwork.com has put up a Father's Day Gift Guide so you can stop struggling to come up with something to buy dad.

The guide lists a bunch of events in sports, concerts, theater, and comedy, including The Eagles, MLB, Catch Me If You Can, and Daniel Tosh. I could tell you more, but then you'd have no reason to check it out for yourself! (Don't worry about tickets not arriving in time — we offer some pretty fun gift notes that you can stick in the card to Dad. He'll freak out and think you didn't get him a gift and then SURPRISE! HE'S ACTUALLY GOING TO SEE JIMMY BUFFETT. Or something like that. I don't know, you figure out the logistics, we just have the tickets.)

Any ideas what you're getting Dad this year?

The New York Knicks have been mired in mediocrity (or just sheer awfulness) for more than a decade now, never finishing higher than 6th in the Eastern Conference. This season, however, the Knicks have been the surprise team of the NBA, running out to the best record in the conference and second best in the entire league, trailing only the Oklahoma City Thunder. And while Knicks tickets are always popular, when the team is good, that popularity grows to another level.

So far for the 2012-13 season, orders of New York Knicks tickets have accounted for nearly 30% of all NBA orders on TicketNetwork.com, nearly double that of the Boston Celtics, the next closest team. In fact, that is nearly the same percentage of orders as the 25 lowest-selling teams combined.

Knicks games have also always been an attraction for tourists visiting New York City, and orders for tickets have come in from 28 different countries including Australia, Belgium and the Netherlands. Most international customers came from France, which has actually had more orders than U.S. so far this season.

While the Knicks popularity is evident, they are not the only team that are dominating sales on our site. The top 5 teams in terms of orders (Knicks, Celtics, Miami Heat, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Lakers) account for more than two-thirds of all NBA sales.

The newest addition to the group of top selling teams is the Nets, who moved from New Jersey to Brooklyn this past off-season and immediately began to establish one of the most popular brands in the NBA. They now play at the brand-new Barclays Center, which has already hosted two hard-fought games between the Nets and their New York rivals. However, while the Nets may be able to catch the Knicks on the court, it will still be awhile before they catch them in ticket sales.

No team went through as many changes as the Miami Marlins did this past offseason, and their fans have taken notice. Changes included getting a new name (the Florida Marlins became the Miami Marlins), hiring outspoken manager Ozzie Guillen, moving into a brand-new 37,000-seat stadium (that features an over-the-top structure in center field, see left) and signing prized free agents Jose Reyes and Mark Buehrle.

If those moves alone didn't add to excitement among baseball fans, the team has become a sleeper pick to win the National League East Division and possibly the World Series. The team's first test will be the defending champion St. Louis Cardinals on opening night, April 4. The game has created a buzz around the city and has caused Miami Marlins tickets for this game to have a higher average on TicketNetwork.com than any other opening day game this week.

It's almost April, which will hopefully bring some spring weather (without the relapses into winter that filled up March here in CT). April will also bring some pretty great live events, plus April Fools Day, National Welding Month and National Karaoke Week (my favorite!). Check out the preview of April live events below!

Concerts

Coachella: For the first time, the festival will span two weekends, starting April 13 and going through April 22. Top headliners include Radiohead, David Guetta, Florence and the Machine, Gotye, and Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.

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Nickelback: Nickelback is teaming up with Bush, Seether and My Darkest Days for their latest tour, which kicks off April 10 in Moline, IL.

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Crosby, Stills and Nash: The trio is back again with a US tour starting April 17, continuing all the way through September.

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Now that the world knows that Peyton Manning is taking his talents to Mile High, the Denver Broncos are among the NFL's serious contenders to win the Super Bowl come next February. Excitement in Denver is growing by the moment, and you can bet when #18 Manning jerseys are available for purchase they will quickly jump to the top of best-selling jerseys in the NFL.

It's crazy to think that just a few months ago, Denver was completely taken over by the heroics of quarterback Tim Tebow, who led the Broncos to the playoffs after the team started 1-4 without him. Now he is the odd man out and although Tebow was the biggest NFL story of 2011, nothing matches the promise of winning a Super Bowl.

When Peyton Manning takes to the field in 2012, the hype and expectations that Manning will bring will make "Tebowmania" an afterthought.