Kobritz’s Corner

The “Ticketgate” scandal at Super Bowl XLV is a monumental headache for the NFL, one which is unlikely to disappear any time soon.    
The ticket fiasco originated with Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who wasn’t content to just show off Cowboys Stadium, the team’s new palace in Arlington, Texas during the February 6 game.  Jones wanted to exceed the all-time attendance record for a Super Bowl, 103,985, which has stood since the 1980 game in Pasadena.  One minor impediment:  Cowboys Stadium doesn’t have as many seats as the Rose Bowl.  So plans were made to erect some 13,000 temporary seats to accommodate the additional fans.  The NFL, confident that the construction timetable would be met, sold tickets for every last one of those seats at $800 a pop.  By game day, the local fire marshal had inspected and approved only 11,740 of those additional seats, leaving 1,260 ticket holders without a place to rest their posteriors during the game.
Anyone who has ever been involved in a building project undoubtedly has a story to tell about what happens to a construction schedule when real life intervenes.  But if a new homeowner’s move-in day is postponed for 24 hours, it’s usually no big deal.  Not so when the biggest sporting event in the U.S. is scheduled for kick off and 1,260 ticketholders are in the house with no where to sit.  
While the NFL admits it knew the week before the Super Bowl that not all the seats would be completed by game time, the league elected to do nothing.  No attempt was made to notify the affected ticketholders either individually or by mass communication.  Had the league done so, the nightmare that exists today may have been avoided.
By game time, the NFL was able to find seats for 860 fans and herded the remaining 400 into various rooms in the bowels of Cowboys Stadium.  There, fans watched the game on TV, sans food, drinks, an explanation or an apology, inexcusable conduct from a $9 billion-a-year juggernaut that seemingly scripts every move down to the last minute detail.  
NFL Executive VP/Business Operations Eric Grubman, in perhaps the understatement of the year, appeared on a “PFT Live” podcast and said, “This is a tough situation.  A lot of people probably could have done things better or differently.”  Grubman later told CNBC the seating issue was a “mistake of monumental proportions.”  You think?
After the aggrieved fans went public with their complaints, the NFL offered them several options.  The affected ticketholders could accept three times the face value of their ticket in cash, or a total of $2,400, plus a ticket to next year’s Super Bowl in Indianapolis; or they could accept a ticket to any future Super Bowl, plus free accommodations and airfare.  In addition to the ticketholders without seats, the NFL acknowledged that an additional 2,000 fans had been delayed in finding their seats.  In an effort to mollify those fans, the NFL offered a face-value refund or a ticket to a future Super Bowl.
Forget for a moment that accommodating several thousand additional fans at future Super Bowls will create more headaches for the NFL and will limit fan access to tickets.  The immediate question is how do you adequately compensate a life-long Packers or Steelers fan that missed seeing “their” team play in the Super Bowl?  Is a ticket to next year’s game featuring say, the Patriots and Falcons, an adequate substitute?  In addition, the cash compensation offered by the NFL may not sufficiently reimburse fans that purchased a ticket on the secondary market where Super Bowl tickets were fetching as much as $20,000.    
Not surprisingly, several lawsuits have already been filed against the NFL, the Cowboys and Jones personally.  The lawsuits allege breach of contract, breach of covenant of fair dealing, fraud, and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.  Plaintiffs seek compensation in the form of compensatory and punitive damages.  Given their outrageous conduct, it behooves the league to resolve the suits prior to trial.   
The entire affair could have been avoided but for the hubris, greed and arrogance of the NFL and Jones.  Instead of celebrating the biggest sporting event of the year, the NFL is left with a permanent stain on Super Bowl XLV.