Seatless Super Bowl Fan Questions League's Commitment

Source: nfl.com

Superbowl XLV Logo

Yesterday, I wrote about how it at least appeared like the NFL had done a good job in recovering from the ticket disaster at Super Bowl XLV.

But, after talking with two of the people who were among the 400 people who never got the seats they paid for, I'm not confident that's accurate.

While the people will get three times face value for their seats and a ticket to next year’s Super Bowl, I’m not sure the experience of the fans was as positive as the league is suggesting it was.

The following is an account from Dan Powell, a project manager for an electrical contracting company who is a Steelers fan:

We waited in the security line for an hour and half to get into the stadium. When we got to the ticket taker, at around 4 p.m., they told us it was no good. We had to go to place that they called the ticket resolution office, which was a tent over by the baseball stadium. There were hundreds of people, waiting for answers. People were yelling and screaming.

They made an announcement that our tickets had been reactivated. So we waited another 45 minutes to an hour to get in again. We got up to our seats in 430A and the usher told us, “Sorry your seats are closed. Go to the Pro Shop.”

Photo by: Dan Powell

Dan Powell leaned up against the glass to take this shot from his vantage point at the game. As you can see, there is little that can be seen of the field.

We were then taken by a security official in a freight elevator down to the Miller Lite Club. By the time we got down there, Christina Aguilera was singing the National Anthem.

A security guard came down about halfway through the first quarter and told us, “We’re working on getting you all seats somewhere.”

And that’s the last I heard from anybody until we were handed this letter (CLICK HERE FOR LETTER) by some people in NFL ties.

They basically said, “Take this and we’re not speaking.” Aside from that, no one from the NFL ever said anything to anybody that I was aware of. And I was down there the entire time. We watched the game on TV and people were taking turns taking pictures at the glass. There was no food at all, you couldn’t even order down there.

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The bartender, at his own discretion, gave a few of us some free drinks because he felt bad for us. But at halftime, the bartender said, “The tab is closed, you have to buy drinks now.”

After almost all of the players had cleared off the field, we were allowed on.

On our way onto the field, they had a bunch people handing out gift bags – with a hat, T-shirt and a program, but it seemed to me, most of the people were gone by then. The NFL is making it out like we were treated like kings down there. The reality is we were herded down there with no answers, told to wait and then heard nothing for the entire game.

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