I’m not a huge fan of the litigiousness of today’s society in the U.S. But an 83-year-old man in New York has filed a lawsuit that I had hoped to see.
Harold Oshinsky contends that the New York Giants and New York Jets are unilaterally pricing him out of season tickets he owns for both teams’ games at the Meadowlands with the prices for their Personal Seat Licenses at their new stadium
Oshinsky has six Giants seats and four Jets seats, all in the lower level near midfield and between rows 8 and 20, according to the New York Daily News. His 76-page complaint in the U.S. District Court in Newark accuses the teams of violating anti-trust laws and the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act.
In the new stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2010, his seats fall into the premiere “Coaches Club” section where the seat licenses – which don’t cover the cost of game tiockets but give owners the right to purchase them – are selling for between $20,000 and $26,000, according to the Daily News. NewJersey.com reports that the Giants are charging all fans between $1,000 and $20,000 for a PSL while the Jets are charging fans in the lower level a minimum of $5,000.
Oshinsky’s lawyer, Andrew Friedman, told the paper: “It makes him very angry, and I think it makes all fans angry,” he said. “He’s losing his good seats because he can’t afford those and he has to go to the worst seats.”
I’m no lawyer. I’m not sure Oshinsky has a chance to win this suit. And in most cases, despite the growing costs and risks to consumers, people have bought them.
But I do think and hope that this suit maybe brings to light the impact these prices have on the ability of the “average fan” to purchase tickets to games. They’re just getting way out of hand – the Jets and the Giants aren’t even close to the worst offenders. The Dallas Cowboys planned as of mid-2008 to charge up to $150,000 to fans so they could buy the right to later buy the tickets.
I don’t know about you, but that reeks of team owners spending billions to build stadiums and forgetting that most people don’t have the same resources they do to help them pay down the debt. And I think it’s indicative of the greed that has spread like wildfire across the country over the past few years – the greed that helped put this country in the economic situation we are in right now.
No, I’m not naive enough to expect Oshinsky’s suit will stanch the spread of PSL licenses. But I do respect the man for standing up and being heard.
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The Personal Seat License should be treated as a share of common stock in a corporation. When it is purchased the owner of the license should retain the right to sell it at later date, whether that be at a profit or loss depending on current market conditions.
The team still gets the initial windfall of cash (especially since it gets to set the opening market price) but the fans who attend now have a fiduciary interest in making sure the team produces a high-quality product.
At least in some situations the personal seat licenses are treated that way – fans can sell them for whatever they can on the open market.
That doesn’t change the fact that the PSLs are priced so high to begin with that it eliminates the opportunity for a lot of people to buy them in the first place.
I understand capitalism and buying what you can afford and all that – and I don’t think the theories are wrong in principle either. I just can’t help thinking that by charging a mid-five or six figure PSL just for the right to later buy tickets these team owners are pricing some of the people that would be their most loyal fans out of the market.
So it goes, I guess.
The greed that has ruined our economy will also destroy the rooting interest of professional sports fans. The peak of professional sports in the US was achieved in 2006 and is now heading into a downward spiral and will not recover. How many football fans of the Jets or Giants who have supported the team for years will truly be able to afford PSL’s? I expect many of the loyal season ticket holders especially those from NY are not going to renew their season tickets. When you consider the facts such as building a new stadium for billionaire owners, that the stadium is in NJ and that their corporate offices are also in NJ even though they call themselves a NY football franchise, increased toll and parking fees along with the price of increased public transportation and gasoline fees you would have to be considered crazy to give the Giants and Jets owners the right to steal your hard earned money. The real problem with sports in the USA is the anti-trust exemption of which is given to these professional teams of which have created licenses to steal from not only the season ticket holders but every American. The TV contracts that pay the NFL ridiculous sums of monies trickle down to the fan sitting in their living room and paying more to watch football games as the cable operators need to squeeze more profit for paying into the broadcast of sporting events on their TV networks. Add the cheating in sports and the ridiculous sums of monies that we pay these spoiled athletes for playing a game is all starting to sink in and perhaps not so much with the youth of our country but the 40 year olds who have finally had enough of the highway robbery that the owners and athletes have enjoyed for far too long. The mood and sentiment of the country is one of which is tired of greed and no matter how legal the license to steal from sports fans may be the forthcoming results will be a new found interest in family values and activities. Reality check for these greedy owners is coming to fruition as Americans will no longer give them carte blanche and be taken as suckers. There is a new awareness in America that we are no longer the land of milk and honey as evidenced by the increasing national debt and its high time that Americans finally recognize that there are better things to do with their money than to give it to these greedy professional sports teams and owners. I can think of a few ways to spend it that would be more beneficial and for starters how about my childrens college education and my own retirement. I have had season tickets of the Jets ever since they have played at Shea however I no longer see myself as the ardent supporter of the team that I once loved, for the greedy ownership has truly soured my rooting interest and after having supported the franchise as many other disenfranchised Jet fans have for so many years I will no longer care about the financial welfare of the team as the owners have sacrificed my loyalty for the sake of the almight buck.
If we do buy a PSL, I don’t understand why we don’t get the rights to those seats at all events, including concerts.. why is that we fund the construction, yet don’t get to share in the enjoyment outside of the games? Yeah, you share your seat with a jet fan and vice versa, but that can be worked out for sure… It eats me up that we are paying for the new stadium and providing a new venue for the state and team owners to reap huge rewards from renting it out… Am I suppose to now pay $125 or more, the same as someone without a PSL, to go see a concert at the Stadium we built? It’s wrong and the Tisch, Mara and Johnson families should be ashamed of their blatant greed, disrespect and lack of loyalty towards its fans…As if these billionaires need my money. Shame shame shame… Look at the Yankees, they traded in a baseball shrine for a place that is as important in the history of baseball as Joe Robbie Stadium.. talk about disenfranchising their fans… Tisch Mara and Johnson – Dewy Cheatum and Howe.
Rudy and Gman said it all. I decided not to give into emotional pressure of keeping a family legacy alive. Too many hands are in the pockets of hard working Americans. Enough is enough.
Greed is not good.
As long as we go to games and watch them on TV, the owners know they can rip us off. If we stop, then their franchises will not be worth a whole lot.
I would continue to but season ticket sin the old stadium. There is nothing wrong with it. I walked through it during the Jets-Bengals game and shook my head b/c this ready made well built building will be knocked down!
What a waste! A perfectly good building will be knocked down! Did I ask for the new stadium? NO! Will the new stadium add so much more value to me? NO!
The benefit is to the owners. The JETS are estimated to make $80M – $100M more per year in the new stadium.
However, they want us to provide free money to them with no obligation so they can make $1,000,000,000.00 – MORE than the make today – in ten years!
While many of the fans are still paying off their PSLs after 10 years, they would have swooped $1B more each!
I wouldn’t mind if they told us when they recoup theri money they will refund our PSL back. But NO!
On top of this, if they decide to add a roof -which they should have done initially – or imporve the stadium substantially, it’s possible they may force you pay an additional PSL!
Stop going and stop watching, believe me, they will get the message!
I am actually considering buying a Giants PSL, even though I realize I could do better going on StubHub for any game I want to go to, thereby avoiding the PSL…and probably being able to scoop up those club seats for less than face value for any game I want other than playoffs and maybe Cowboys. It is an emotional thing for me since I have been on the waiting list for years and now finally have a chance to have seats in my own name. I am fortunate to be able to afford it, although certainly it is not the best possible use of my money.
What is really giving me pause though is the fact that the psl contract states that if you do not buy the tickets for each upcoming season — AT A PRICE SET BY THE TEAM — they will revoke your psl and give you none of your money back. And then the team will resell the psl to someone else. What is to stop the team from jacking prices way up each year and simply clawing back all the psl’s of anyone who protests. It is ridiculously lopsided and gives the PSL holders zero leverage in insuring that the team sets fair ticket prices.
Does anyone know if this is standard practice with all PSL’s? I can understand the team revoking your PSL if you don’t buy the tickets, but they should give you the pro-rated value of your PSL as a refund.
GOOD LUCK, BUDDY!
CAN YOU BELIEVE THE GREED OF SOME OF THESE TEAMS WITH NEW STADIUMS? THEY ARE ALLREADY GETTING MORE REVENUE FROM MORE COPORATE SUITES!!!!!!!
NOT TO MENTION MORE TV, ENDORSEMENT, AND OTHER SOURCES (I READ THE GIANTS WILL BE GETTING A NICE CUT OF ALL FUTURE EVENTS HELD AT THE NEW STADIUM INCLUDING CONCERTS!!! SEE IF BON JOVI WILL GIVE HIS STADIUM OPENING PROCEEDS TO THE PSL FEES!!!