Most of you probably watched the 12.12.12 Sandy Relief Concert last week, which took place at Madison Square Garden featuring some of the biggest names in music. Bon Jovi, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, The Rolling Stones and Bruce Springsteen were just some of the headline artists that rocked the stage for an important cause – encouraging fans to donate funds to support the victims of Hurricane Sandy. From Red Hook to Coney Island to the Rockaways, millions were affected by Sandy, and we were proud to be among the supporters of the Robin Hood Foundation’s relief efforts.

As we announced last month, all revenues from 12.12.12 tickets purchased on StubHub were donated to the Robin Hood Foundation. We are proud to share that we raised $1 million for the relief effort. Chris Tsakalakis, the president of StubHub, joined Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Norah O’Donnell on CBS This Morning last week to talk about the concert. Check out the clip here: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=50136891n.

We want to thank everyone who donated to this cause!

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Today’s guest blogger is Shannon Barbara, who is filling in for Jo while she’s out 

You may have heard this already, but I have exciting news to report: we have renewed our agreement with Major League Baseball for five more years! This means that we will continue to be the Official Fan to Fan Ticket Marketplace for all MLB and the best place to shop when looking for baseball tickets through 2017.

We first partnered with MLB back in 2007, and at the time it was the first league-wide agreement we’d entered into. We’ve learned a lot over the last five years of the partnership, and we look forward to seeing where the next five years take us. But, most importantly, we are excited to continue providing a safe, reliable, convenient ticket marketplace for fans, and to introducing other innovative technology that will make their experience even better.

I personally can’t wait for the new season to start! Jo will hate me for this, but go Giants!

For more information on our announcement, you can read the full press release here.

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This Saturday, the most prestigious award of the college football season will be awarded to one of three players: Kansas State QB Collin Klein, Notre Dame LB Manti Te’o, and Texas A&M’s freshman phenom, QB Johnny Manziel. Normally there are upwards to five Heisman Trophy finalists, but this year, there are only three. That doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of intrigue surrounding who will take home the prize.

Collin Klein, the relatively unheralded quarterback for Bill Snyder’s resurgent Wildcats, is coming off an incredible year. Kansas State went undefeated for most of the season and finished with an impressive 11-1 record. While not projected to be a top pick at the NFL level, Klein had been winning games with his unorthodox throwing style and impressive toughness. Sound familiar? He’s been sparking throwback images to a similar former Heisman winner, Tim Tebow. He’s also devoutly religious and didn’t kiss his wife until his wedding day!

I learned a lot about Klein in this great profile of him after he graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. Unfortunately for Klein, after this issue ran, the infamous SI jinx got him. The Wildcats lost their next game and dropped from the No. 1 ranking at Baylor. Hopefully I didn’t just jinx his Heisman chances!

Kansas State’s bowl game will be in the Fiesta Bowl against Oregon. If you’re interested in great team offense and excitement, this might be the game for you.

Johnny Manziel, also known as “Johnny Football,” is the freshman sensation for the Texas A&M Aggies. The Aggies, who joined the vaunted SEC for the first time this season, put together an impressive campaign that almost no one predicted. Most of that success can be attributed to their signal caller. Much like Klein, Manziel flew under the radar most of the year before his epic, signature win against the then No. 1 team in the country, Alabama. Manziel will be striving to become the first freshman to win the award and the first Aggie to win since John David Crow won in 1957. This Houston Chronicle profile explains what it means to Texas A&M football and Manziel if he pulls off the historic night.

Texas A&M will finish the season in arguably the best non-BCS bowl game of the entire slate: squaring off against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl.

The sentimental favorite is the one neck and neck with Manziel, Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o. The emotional core of the Irish defense has been the catalyst for the best season in Notre Dame’s history since the 1980s. Returning the Irish to prominence after decades of mediocrity hasn’t been easy, especially after the tragedy that befell the linebacker back in September. Ahead of the game against Michigan State, Te’o’s grandmother and long-time girlfriend passed away on back-to-back days. Despite dealing with the grief, Te’o had a spectacular game. He then went on to have a few more, leading Notre Dame to their first undefeated season in many years. Greg Couch of Fox Sports wrote an incredible piece on Te’o’s impact on a Notre Dame family grieving over the death of their daughter. It will bring you to tears.

While I don’t have a horse in the race, it’s hard for me not to pull for Te’o. Even if Manti doesn’t beat Johnny Football for the Heisman, he has bigger fish to fry down in Miami. Notre Dame will be playing SEC- and defending National Champion, Alabama on January 9 for the title. If you’re interested in going, be prepared to pay a pretty penny!

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The holiday season is in full swing, and here at StubHub, we know what that means: it’s time to start thinking about gift ideas and where you could take your family and friends that are visiting from out of town.

If the above description fits you – you’re in luck because we have great ideas that won’t break the bank. For example, if you’re in New York City, Nashville, Texas or Illinois, grab tickets to the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. We’re seeing tickets go for as little as $16, so you might want to jump on this deal fast!

The Nokia Theater in Los Angeles is once again home to KIIS FM’s annual Jingle Ball 2012. For the first time, there are two nights, two shows and two different lineups. Tickets for this holiday concert extravaganza are starting at $67 on StubHub. Additionally, Donny and Marie Osmond are bringing their “Christmas in Los Angeles” show to the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. If you and your family are in the LA-area in December, consider picking up tickets to this show, as tickets are starting at $42, depending on which day you choose. 

For more great deals on holiday classics, be sure to check out StubHub. Happy holidays, everyone!

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Today’s guest blog comes courtesy of Shannon J. Barbara, public relations coordinator, while Joellen is out.

Come Monday morning, one of the hottest tickets in New York City will be to attend “12.12.12” The Concert for Sandy Relief. With all profits from each ticket going to the Robin Hood Foundation to help those affected by Hurricane Sandy, on Dec. 12 Madison Square Garden will be packed with big-hearted, charitable fans.  Given the important cause and amazing lineup, featuring Bon Jovi, Dave Grohl, Eddie Vedder, Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, Paul McCartney, Kanye West, Roger Waters, Alicia Keys, The Who and Billy Joel, it’ll probably sell out in minutes.

As a secondary ticket site, we at StubHub will inevitably see tickets posted on our site shortly after Monday’s on-sale. However, rather than remove these listings, we see this as an opportunity to make sure that profits from these tickets go where they were initially intended: to the Sandy relief effort. That’s why we’ll be donating 100% of all profits from the ticket sales to the Robin Hood Foundation.

We’re also making it easy for sellers to donate funds from tickets sold to one of several nonprofit organizations leading Hurricane Sandy relief efforts, including the Robin Hood Relief Fund as well as the American Red Cross, Save the Children, the Humane Society of the United States and the Salvation Army.

If you won’t be in New York City, or are unable to attend the concert, you can still help those in the tri-state area. Donations can be made to the Robin Hood Relief Fund by visiting www.robinhood.org/rhsandy. 

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Today’s guest blog comes courtesy of Shannon J. Barbara, public relations coordinator, while Joellen is out.

 Week Thirteen

Congratulations to the Notre Dame Fighting Irish! Their victory over USC on Saturday placed the Irish in their first ever BCS National Championship Game and provided the legendary squad from South Bend, Indiana their first chance at a National Title since 1988. If we were ranking most popular games for the rest of the season, Irish fans searching frantically for BCS National Championship Game tickets in Miami would dwarf any other search we have ongoing!

But alas, there is still one matter left to be decided: their opponent. The SEC Championship game between Alabama and Georgia at the Georgia Dome is serving as the defacto National Semifinal and is also garnering high demand. But since it’s a neutral site game, it won’t appear on our rankings. Just know that these two games are outpacing anything else we’re seeing in college football.

Thanksgiving weekend proved to be a white-knuckle thrill ride! From The Big Game in the Horseshoe to the Sunshine Showdown in Tallahassee, rivalry games took center stage as the college football regular season draws to a close. Topping our chart are the Ohio State Buckeyes. They were a staple on the Top 25 all year long and their undefeated season will go down in history as a great “What if?” Regardless, fans turned out in droves to see their Buckeyes defeat ‘That School Up North’ as their game was well ahead of Florida State’s rivalry game against Florida in page views.

The Seminoles lost to the Gators, but interest in this matchup was sky high. Not all is lost for the Seminoles, however, as they qualified for the ACC Championship Game and will travel to Charlotte to take on Georgia Tech next weekend. Clemson came in third and was the last school to rank over 100,000 page views for the week. They also lost a heartbreaker to in-state rival South Carolina but should find themselves in a great bowl game for an impressive season.

Rounding out the Top 5 were Texas and UCLA. The Longhorns hosted TCU on Thanksgiving Night and the Bruins welcomed the Cardinal to the Rose Bowl in what became a Pac-12 Championship Preview. Neither of those teams were victorious and goes to show that StubHub Top 25 success doesn’t always translate to on-field glory.

Next week, stay tuned as we’ll compile the stats for the entire season and provide our overall Top 25 list. If you’ve been following our charts all year long, you probably have a good idea already which teams will rank high. For the full list of this week’s rankings, check it out at: www.stubhubtop25.com.

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Today’s guest blogger is Jackie Tincher from the StubHub Social Team.  Any questions? jtincher@stubhub.com

A few months ago, we introduced you to our Ultimate Fan Contest on our Facebook Page. It’s our first User Generated Contest to celebrate fans just for being FANS, in unique and fun ways! This month we are looking for the Ultimate Fan Look-Alike! Some of the submissions we’ve received so far are very rad and spot on! 

Among some of the entries so far include a Forrest Gump (aka Tom Hanks) a Ke$ha, the Most Interesting Man in the World, a Gene Simmons, a Marilyn and a Buddy the Elf. 

As you can see people are into it and it’s a ton of fun. Some of the past winners include the Ultimate Festival Fan, Jeff Hodak who won by seeing 87 performances in 5 days.

 Ultimate Fan Pet, Yogi Berra won in part because of a cross country road trip, when he traveled from Brooklyn to Oakland to watch his beloved Yankees.  He’s also got a custom #8 jersey and a twitter handle @YankeePup

Our most recent winner was Johnny Volk whose Ultimate Fan Date was a road trip from San Diego to Candlestick where his beloved Bolts were routed by the 49ers, 35-3.  The loss didn’t diminish the date or his love of his Chargers. 

To check out more entries and winners, visit the Ultimate Fan Page on our Facebook page. http://on.fb.me/S3gHo4  It’s fun in there and encourage your family, friends and & Facebook homies to enter! They could win $500 StubHub Gift Code!