Etiquette question?

[Gaoics79]

Is it okay to give a single sports ticket as a gift? My wife's uncle has done us a fantastic favour looking after our cats and we want to give him a gift. We know he loves hockey, so we thought he'd enjoy a live game. But the tickets are ridiculously expensive. We could give him two mediocre tickets or one kick-ass ticket.

He's separated and tends to himself (he's a bit of a loner) but he does have three sons who love hockey.

We'd rather give the one great seat than the two mediocre ones.

Is it okay to give just one ticket in this circumstance?

Note: if we gave him the one great ticket, there is 0% chance that anyone could go with him because they wouldn't be able to sit with him, even if they had the money to pay for their own tickets. All games are resale only at this point. Unless you buy through Stubhub you aren't getting anything.

[LetterRip]

I think the only option here is to ask him what he would prefer - some people are fine going to games alone and would have a great time, other people would be completely self conscious and mortified.

[JoshCrow]

Hmm... while I like the idea of asking him, I think it sounds oddly cheap to suggest "one great ticket or two mediocre ones"... because who wants a mediocre gift?

It could be cleverly phrased. I would go with: "We've got our choice of some tickets to the game and we wanted to show our appreciation. Do you have someone to go with, or would you go solo? There's a solo seat that's really good but we weren't sure what you'd prefer."

[D.W.]

Has the person ever mentioned going out to see movies or sporting events alone before?  If they are the type to treat themselves or go out when nobody else was interested, I think they'd be thrilled. 

But there are some people would would feel uncomfortable, or not want to go if it was alone.  I think the awkwardness of asking them flat out is better than the whole thing being weird and them being unwilling to decline because someone did treat them to the single ticket. 

[Gaoics79]

Ugggh maybe we will just get another sweater.....

[Fenring]

I say get him the kick-ass ticket. A memorable gift that he would never get himself will be worth something, more so than something he arguably might have gotten himself.

[TheDrake]

Easy. Give him the awesome ticket. If he prefers the other, he can sell the awesome ticket and pay for whatever he wants, perhaps even in a different sport.