Do you fans think this is fair and do you think the league should allow this practice? Chargers shut out Pats fans Only Southern Calif. residents to get seats By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff | January 10, 2007 The San Diego Chargers are trying to solidify their home-field advantage against the New England Patriots Sunday by restricting the sale of tickets to Southern California residents only. Several Patriots fans who went looking for game tickets on Ticketmaster were stunned to learn that their money was no good. "The San Diego Chargers have restricted sales to the Divisional Playoff game to residents of Southern California and the surrounding area only," Ticketmaster warned. "Residency will be based on your credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside of southern California will be canceled without notice." Lynda Frank , a Patriots fan from Tewksbury, thought the sales restriction is unfair, if not outright illegal. "Who do they think they are?" she asked. "Our reputation must have somehow preceded us and made us part of the fear factor associated with our team at playoff time." Bill Johnston , a Chargers spokesman, said about 1,000 tickets went on sale Monday and sold within minutes. "Our goal has always been to fill our stadium with Charger fans and supporters of the team. This also helps give our team the best home-field advantage possible," he said. Johnston said the same ticket policy will be employed if the Chargers defeat the Patriots and advance to the American Football Conference title game. The hometown-fan-only restriction was not in place for regular season games of the Chargers. The Chicago Bears also restricted sales to the team's game this Sunday against the Seattle Seahawks to fans from Illinois and northwest Indiana. Greg Aiello , a National Football League spokesman, said he is not aware of how many teams restrict ticket sales to local fans. "There is no league policy that would prohibit it," he said. Ticket industry officials said tickets are revocable licenses issued at the discretion of a team or venue. Lawyers consulted by the Globe said such sales would be legal unless specifically prohibited . Excluding minorities or women from ticket purchases, for example, would raise legal problems because there are laws against discrimination of such groups. Officials with the Patriots said they received a handful of complaints from fans about the Chargers' ticket restriction. Stacey James , the team spokesman, said the Patriots have never restricted ticket sales to their games. "There's certainly logic to it," he said. "No team wants to fill their stadium with fans from the other team." The only other option for Patriots fans wanting to see the game in San Diego is to buy tickets from a ticket reseller, but the prices are steep. Ace Ticket of Boston yesterday was selling $95 upper-level seats for $285. StubHub Inc. of San Francisco yesterday listed $95 end-zone upper-level seats for prices ranging from $214 to $295. "Tickets are available. We have been getting lots of calls, and it seems to be a fair amount of Patriots fans are going to the game," said Jim Holzman , president of Ace. Frank, the Patriots fan, said she doesn't think the hometown ticket restriction will do the Chargers any good because the Patriots play so well on the road. The team this season is 7-1 away from home. Frank's prediction for Sunday? Patriots 35, Chargers 21.
I have never heard of anything like this, and it strikes me as incredibly bush-league. It's too late to matter now, presumably, but I wouldn't be surprised if the NFL issues a decree that this will not be permitted in the future.
Too bad this system fails to keep half their stadium from being filled with Raider fans when they play each other.
WOW. That is screwed, for any team. But seeing as it's the Pats, I'm sure the league will end up doing something about it.
That's the right thing to do, for anybody. You don't want opposing teams fans in your stadium, especially for a playoff game. DW is in Cali though, so he'll probably get in, haha.
Some Patriots fans will get in anyway. But the Chargers have always been paranoid about this. They pulled a stunt last season (they hosted the Steelers, whose fans travel to road games a lot) by making anyone who wanted to buy a ticket to the Steelers game buy tickets to three other games as well (they made it part of a "package" only).
SD is probably the 2nd worst sports market in the country behind Miami, it's no suprise they have to resort to tricks like this.
Its not just the pats game as the bears announced they are using the same practice for this weeks ticket sales for their playoff game.
Wow, that is really weak. Although I love the Pats fan's quote in the article, people from Massachusetts truly believe the success of the team is due to their "contribution." "Gee, Sully, we're really responsible for the dynasty, the Chargers are afraid to sell us tickets." I think the whole 12th man thing, and 300+ lb defensive lineman waving their arms like spastic highschool cheerleaders to incite the crowd, is incredibly gay. Your not a fucking cheerleader, your a football player. Play fucking football. If you need the crowd to help you, you probably aren't that good. Just the perspective of a fan that likes to watch the game, not pretend he's part of the game."
I don't feel that enough pats fans are going to travel to SD to take over their so call 12 man advantage but it would be nice for a diehard fan that can afford the cost and the time off to be able to attend a game on the road. There is something to be said about what the Chargers front office is so afraid of from a few thousand fans.
To put this in perspective for you let me ask you this. How would you have felt if the Krafts decided to use this practice last week? Don't sell a single ticket to any fan with a billing address in either NY or NJ. After what I've seen from the chargers and the league allowing it Bob Kraft could have very well done that very thing to jets fans last week. What if teams decide to use this practice for every one of their home games during the regular season too? If the league turns a blind eye to this it could very well turn out like that with one owner retaliating against another. IMO this isn't a good practice from the stand point of the NFL as a business.
Are you trying to go to the game? If not, who really gives a sh*t? And BTW, they can get tickets, just not at ticketmaster.
Lawyers crack me up.... "Lawyers consulted by the Globe said such sales would be legal unless specifically prohibited ." No sh*t Sherlock....
