What you need to know about the NFC Championship

Ticket tape

Football is a thrilling spectator sport. Buying tickets can be a thrilling participatory sport for football fans. Today, Ticket Tape looks at sites that are auctioning seats to the big game.

• www.ebay.com: There are dozens of auctions, some with minutes left, others with days. Not everything is drawing heavy bidding, however, and it takes vigilance. A pair of seats three rows back on the 10-yard line started at $988 and had drawn no bids with four minutes left on the clock. Two seats higher up stood at $456 with 36 minutes left. A bid of $197.50 entered with less than five minutes to go took a single seat in Section 313.

• www.uniqueauction.com: This site says the winner of its auctions is not the highest bidder — in fact the price is capped at 20 percent of each lot's retail price — but the one with the most "unique" bid. So if something costs $20, and you're the only one to bid $19.98, but two people bid $19.99, you win. It claims somebody will win two tickets to Super Bowl XL, plus accommodations and a bunch of other goodies for less than $74. How can this be? You have to pay $2 to bid "to cover the retail price of the product." As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 1,300 bids were recorded on the site and the "auction" runs until Monday night. Also, there's a $49.95 shipping fee.

Ben Romano

Did you know

Josh Brown's fourth-quarter field goal against Washington not only gave the Seahawks a two-score lead with 2:54 to play, it also affected the pocketbooks of sports bettors all over the country. That's because Brown's 31-yard kick gave the Seahawks a 20-10 lead, which would go on to be the final score, meaning the Seahawks, 9 ½-point favorites in the game, covered the spread.

The Seahawks are 14-3 heading into the NFC Championship Game, but are a slightly less impressive 10-7 against the spread this year. With the exception of a meaningless regular-season finale against Green Bay, the Seahawks have been favored in every game since their Oct. 9 win at St. Louis, where they were a 3-point underdog. They are 3 ½-point favorites for Sunday's game.

John Boyle

Carolina fun facts

The Double Door Inn is Charlotte's oldest spot for live music, opening in 1973. It's crowded, smoky, the service has been described as slow, the food mediocre, the drinks overpriced. But, if you can get past all that, it's a great place to hear the blues.

Among the musicians who have played the Double Door: the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, Buddy Guy, Delbert McClinton, Willie Dixon, Junior Walker, Elvin Bishop and J.J. Cale. Eric Clapton stopped in one night after a concert in Charlotte and jumped up on the Double Door stage to the delight of stunned blues fans.

It's all about the music there, according to one online reviewer who claims to have been going to the Double Door since it opened. The reviewer, in a screed titled "Yuppies Go Home," adds, "It ain't your average pickup bar with chicks grinding each other on the dance floor."

OK ... so maybe you won't find any of those wacky Panthers cheerleaders at the Double Door. But there's live blues, rock or Zydeco music every night at the spot voted Charlotte's best live-music venue for 2005.

Bill Reader