The Real Ticket Story

Rich Hoffman gives Eagles’ fans only half a loaf today in his look at the team’s ticket practices. In fact, much of what Hoffman writes is erroneous if for nothing more than the simple fact that he ignores the availability of personal seat licenses, or what the Eagles’ management calls “stadium builder licenses” (SBLs). In theory, the SBLs are completely transferable from an “owner” to a prospective season ticket holder (the SBL gives the holder the “right” to then purchase Eagles tickets.) Thus, someone truly desiring season tickets and unwilling to wait the “4,000 years” to acquire non-SBL seats (i.e., the upper, upper bowl of LFF) would only have to bid up a SBL to a level at which point someone would part with their SBL. The free market at its finest. In theory.

 

In theory, then, the Eagles really don’t even have to be involved, indeed, shouldn’t be involved in season ticket transactions covering roughly 40% of the stadium’s seats (the lower bowl and mid-field seats in the upper bowl.) Aside, that is, from collecting the season ticket payments and sending out the tickets (a responsibility that the team has had some difficulty doing in recent years and I will elaborate on in a future post).

 

In practice, however, is the bigger scandal that Hoffman doesn’t delve into. The Eagles ticket office is a mess. In fact, Hoffman would do fans a real service if he ran a follow up article on how a SBL owner goes about selling/transferring his license to a buyer. I’ve sought this information for 3+ years and have gotten nowhere, just like the guy wanting to know where he ranked on the “waiting list.” SBL owners aren’t given a certificate or any documentation of their “license” so it is unclear how one goes about transferring it. Calls to the ticket office usually wind up in a voice mail black hole that are never returned.