THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL TICKET RISK COULD BE A REWARD.

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Face it, the chances of the San Diego Chargers actually charging through the tunnel at Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., on a crisp Sunday afternoon in early February still are pretty far out there. Their performance Sunday against the Indianapolis Colts not withstanding.

But with a little forward thinking, a Chargers fan could have started the process toward actually buying a ticket to Super Bowl XXXIX for far less than the $500-to-$600 face price that the league soon will issue.

Start with $30. And he could have charged it. That's how much a Chicago-based company, The Ticket Reserve, was asking back in April for what it calls an initial issuance price for anyone willing to take a small risk in the insane process of scrambling to find an entrance pass to the NFL's championship game should the Chargers actually be there.

Then, in the same way a Wall Street investor decides how much it's worth to buy or sell a commodity, that meager investment rises and falls with the team's success. Which means today, that desire last spring to witness a Hollywood ending of the Chargers' season is worth about $120, and likely climbing. There's no funny money stuff going on here, although, despite its name, the Ticket Reserve isn't really in the ticket-selling business, explained CEO Rick Harmon.

At no time does the company (www.theticketreserve.com) actually own tickets to events like the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, NBA Finals or World Cup. Through what they call the ``contractual underlying rights,'' it secures the purchase through corporate connections. It then offers customers the opportunity to cut in front of the line, with a binding contract, to scoop up those tickets at face value.

``The whole concept is to create a level playing field for buying tickets to major events,'' said Harmon, a venture capitalist in oil and gas before he founded this 20-person company a few years ago and launched it successfully for last year's Super Bowl in Houston. ``I don't care if you're a Goldman Sachs partner or a little shot, no matter who comes to us, it's the same reality. We're just the neutral enabling platform.''

Harmon compares it to buying an auto insurance policy - a small hedge just in case you need it later on. The stock market/pork belly analogy works because of the fluctuating process involved in The Ticket Reserve's business model.

A finite number of tickets are locked in before the bidding even takes place, meaning the market won't be artificially influenced later. Traders are at the mercy of what the group decides is the going rate. And since these tickets aren't controlled by the major sports organizations, there's an added trust in this third-party intervention to prevent insider trading and keep it liquid. For Super Bowl XXXIX, Harmon says there are only 100 ticket contracts available, and it's ``small by design. The trades and the closes have to deliver correctly, and we want each launch to be healthy end-to-end.''

Those who invest and see their teams fall short obviously don't get their money back. Those who banked $100 on the issuance price for Indianapolis, New England, Philadelphia or Green Bay are now seeing their contracts worth $800 or more (and the Ticket Reserve makes its money on charging commissions for every transaction). Fans still have to come up with the additional cash to buy the face-value ticket, but it will likely end up far less than the several grand scalpers seek for the same rump space somewhere in the upper stadium regions.

The concept might not be one that a business-challenged mind immediately grasps, but in the long run, it could pay off for die-hards who otherwise think they have to sell off their first-borns to afford not just a ticket, but a plane trip and hotel room to experience this kind of sporting experience. It also takes away the high-wire act a Cal fan might have had if he was set to go to the Rose Bowl but suddenly found a need for a detour to San Diego and didn't want to sweat out a FedEx package from someone who sold them something on eBay.com.

``I don't want to wake up on Dec. 4 (the day the BCS announced the four major bowl games) and go through a fire drill,'' said Harmon, a University of Texas grad who changed holiday plans once the Longhorns were headed to Pasadena. ``This is a way a fan can look forward and then decide how many notches he wants to put in his pistol handle.''

So what do you say, hot shot? Chargers all the way?