Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Angry Fans Seek 5 Million in Damages After Super Bowl Seating Fiasco

Shortly before this year's Super Bowl started, 1,200 temporary seats were deemed unusable. Angry fans have now brought lawsuits against the Cowboys, their owner Jerry Jones and the N.F.L with accusations of fraud and breach of contract. The plaintiffs are seeking 5 million in damages and making it a PR nightmare for the Cowboys.

One fan from Texas, Mike Dolabi, had paid $100,000 per season ticket that included the privilege of being able to purchase "comparable seats" for the Super Bowl. When Dolabi arrived he was forced to sit on the 10-yard-line in one of 1,740 temporary seats and said he was not even able to see the new giant video board.

The other plaintiff, Steve Simms, was one of 400 people who were denied seats after the 1,200 were deemed unusable. He was so obviously upset that he left the game during halftime.

The N.F.L. has offered two solutions to compensate the roughly 400 affected fans:

1) A free ticket to next year's Super Bowl game and $2,400 (three time the face value of the Super Bowl XLV game ticket held by the individual). The ticket to next year's Super Bowl is transferable.

Or:

2) A free ticket to a future Super Bowl game of the fan's choice, including next year's, if so desired, and round-trip airfare and hotel accommodations provided by the N.F.L. This offer will be personalized in the ticketholder's name and is not transferable.

I think that the offers sound reasonable for the fans who purchased the tickets at the cheaper price, but for the fan who had season tickets should definitely be compensated much more than he is being offered.

This is obviously a PR nightmare for the Cowboys and the N.F.L. The PR teams are going to have to work hard to earn the forgiveness from the fans and get their trust back.

2 comments:

Alexis Garcia said...

I can definitely understand the anger that the fans have. If you waited your entire life for your team to go to Superbowl and paid a fortune for the ticket, nothing is going to replace what you missed out on. Although the NFL is trying to work out something, I don't understand how seats are deemed unusable the day of a game that the stadium had been preparing months for.

Noelle White said...

This made me angry. Not all of us Dallasites are stuck-up, selfish and money-hungry. Only Jerry :D