Ticket Exchange and the Obnoxious Fan (1 Viewer)

RJ in Lafayette

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I get it. People who spend more than I spend on their season tickets--in some cases much more--need at times a vehicle to sell game tickets that they are using to recoup some of their ticket costs. But when you go to the games and find that the person next to you is an obnoxious supporter of the visiting team--and when you know that a business controls the tickets--the merits of Ticket Exchange seem questionable.

I have season tickets for two seats. Great seats, especially for the money. Upper Box, end zone, first row. We have a good group in our section. But there are four seats next to mine controlled by a retail business in the city. I have tried to buy two of the seats without success. At times, the business gives the tickets to customers. At times, the business sells the tickets on Ticket Exchange.

Yesterday, there were two women dressed in Carolina blue. Sadly, it appears that they were from New Orleans and are huge Cam Newton fans. One woman had a large sign proclaiming that she was black and blue though from New Orleans, and went out of her way to stand and wave the sign and to irritate those around her. After a security person and a police officer spoke with her, she engaged in a foul, obscenity-filled tirade. The man sitting across the aisle from me--I have two seats at the end of the row--said he was going to complaint to the Saints' office today and wanted to know the name of the business that sold the tickets.

A problem is that with the Saints playing so poorly at home over the past two or three years, more and more fans are selling their tickets to the fans of visiting teams, who seem to be showing up in greater numbers than in the past. And it seems that more and more, a problem in the Superdome is not how the fans of visiting teams are being treated, but how provocative some of those fans can be.

I would love to see NFL teams set aside sections in the stadium where the fans of visiting teams can sit, much like the colleges. But I know that (a) yesterday's game experience was unacceptable, (b) I am glad that my grandson and my wife were not with me, and (c) a negative aspect of Ticket Exchange is the type of experience I had yesterday.
 
Sadly, there is no solution to this problem besides not selling your tickets.

The Raiders fans this year came in to the Dome like a plague that was spreading and acted the worst I've ever seen, and I've seen a many game in my life at the Dome. I felt sorry for the children who had to listen to their vulgarities, and also for the parents who were put in the position of fighting in front of their kids or taking the high road and ignoring the immature Raider fans.

I noticed a few years back on Craigslist that in order to purchase a ticket you had to guarantee that you weren't a fan of the opposing team, and the seller would meet you downtown to deliver the tickets on gameday to assure it.

Sorry you had a bad experience, these type of stories have become all too common in the Dome. Honestly, they need cops in every section to police rowdy opposing fans, because the problem is getting worse, not better.
 
anytime you're in a room with strangers this is going to happen....there's just always "those" people. I like to keep to myself and hate crowds. I do go out and do stuff but have learned to just ignore the people around me. Just because I don't like to be loud doesn't mean others are the same. What if those signs would've been black/gold and they were die hard saints fans.....would that have changed your opinion of them? I watch the games on tv and always feel sorry for the people sitting behind or around those people....whether it's visiting teams or whistle head. Wouldn't want to be the seat right behind him.
 
If you are a fan of a visiting team, you have basically three options:

1. Remember that you are a visitor, try to make friends with those around you, but do cheer for your team when it is appropriate to do so.

2. Loudly support your team, but be mindful of the line between proud fan and obnoxious fan.

3. Have the attitude that, because you paid a lot of money for your ticket, you can do nearly whatever you want, which includes irritating whenever possible those around you.

I think there needs to be a feature on Ticket Exchange that the seller can restrict sales to only those living in certain telephone area codes or zip codes. Of course, the person who caused all of the trouble yesterday would have been able to buy tickets because she was local, though an in-person exchange would have solved the problem.

Look, I have had some great experiences with visiting fans. But this year I have seen more problems with fans of other teams than in the past, and it detracts greatly from the game-day experience. At a certain point, it affects the decision to renew season tickets.
 
Yup. It stinks sometimes. I have awesome seats in the lower Terrace and when I can't go to games I try really hard to get my tickets into the hands of Saints fans. However, now and then I have to put them in the exchange and my tickets are favorites of visiting fans because my seats are on the visitors side.

It bums me out but sometimes it's out of my hands.
 
My seats in the upper terrace sideline are completely surrounded by seats that are on the secondary market every week. There are almost no familiar faces outside of my little group and the odds of being surrounded by visiting team fans have gone way up in these past few seasons.

This is not the case of a few fans who couldn't make a game and wanted to recoup the cost, this a huge chunk of seats that are owned for the sole purpose of making money in the secondary market. I've begun to wonder if it's just a handful of professional brokers who own the 100s of the seats around me.

I wish something could be done to weed out the big time brokers and get those tickets into the hands of the real fans on the waiting list who would love to be in the dome every week. The Saints send out a questionnaire yearly where they ask what could be done to improve the game-day experience. I have mentioned this a few times but sadly I don't think anything can or will be done about it.
 
I've got some seats like that around me. I've never seen the owners in the 10 years I've sat there. I have an idea I think could work well to reduce this sort of thing. If the original bar code on your seats are not used a certain percentage of time, you can be deemed a vendor and lose your season ticket rights. This way, the occasional selling of your tickets on Ticket Exchange is fine. You can email your tickets to whomever you want whenever you want. But brokering through ticket exchange would be discouraged.

The only problem is I don't think teams want to discourage the practice. They make money off the second sale as well as the first. I doubt culture inside the stadium is enough of a concern to stop it.
 
whew.

i saw the title and was like oh snap...i done sold my tix to some opposing fan.

but im not a business.

just a regular joe. making it in this crazy world.


:mwink:
 
I think that opposing fans have always been in the stadium, only now, we as Saints fans, have more reasons to be frustrated (due to on-field play) and the opposing fans have more reason to cheer (because their teams are doing so well against us).

The opposing fans were in the dome during our prime years of 2009-2013; it is just only now, they are cheering more and angering Saints fans more. There was a time where any teams' fans that came to dome ended up sitting on their hands the entire game while watching their team get blown away. They were there, they were just muted by Brees and co. lighting their team up.

NFL fans travel, and there are certain teams that travel RELIGIOUSLY. I keep seeing the Raiders game brought up like it was some sort of out of this world ordeal, but they do that literally at EVERY road game they play in. Oakland, Pittsburgh, Green Bay, and Dallas....those teams' fans take over any stadium. Seriously, watch any of those teams play a road game, and you will hear loud roars after any big play they make. The Cowboys fans even took over Lambeau Field of all places yesterday.

Another thing that is happening is that the demand for tickets by Saints fans is going down (again, due to team performance), while the demand for New Orleans as a travel destination for fans that like to travel is staying the same, if not rising. So that just means that, as opposed to our golden years of 2009-2013, our locals aren't buying as many tickets as they used to on Stub Hub, Ticket Exchange, etc. and the fans from other teams that chose us as the one road game they want to go to, buy them.
 
As a season ticket holder, I completely understand your feelings; however, ***t happens sometimes. One thing we always face with opposing fans is that New Orleans is a destination city and no matter how good or bad the team there team is, visiting fans will want to come. Many Carolina fans likely made their travel plans before the season began (when the bandwagon will still holding SB hopes) unlike last year when I could tell it was bandwagon fans showing up in the dome.

The worst is when we have AFC teams or teams that have not been here in quite sometime (or even worse - the 9er fans from the 80s/90s bandwagon who jumped back on a couple of years ago - they were the absolute worst!!). I am already preparing myself for the Seattle bandwagoners. The last time Seattle came to New Orleans - they did have much of a fan base show up, but you know their bandwagon is still somewhat full and they will have a decent amount in two weeks.
 
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Here is how the Miami Dolphins handled the situation

Dolphins dropping some season ticket holders who resold their tickets | Miami Dolphins In Depth

he Miami Dolphins are informing some of their season ticket holders they will not be allowed to renew their memberships for 2016 because those fans re-sold a majority of their tickets on secondary markets in the past.

This is the second year the team is using this approach to weed out what it believes to be professional brokers who in the past have bought swaths of seats on a season ticket basis and re-sold them to out-of-town buyers who are typically fans of Dolphins' opponents. This year, however, the program is affecting fewer season ticket accounts but is identifying more than merely brokers.

This year the program is identifying fans that for whatever reason have decided to sell their seats rather than use them. The Dolphins want to give current season ticket members the first option to sit in those seats through the renewal process.

"We want to protect our most valuable fans, provide them opportunities to get better seats and defend our home field," Dolphins senior vice president and chief marketing officer Jeremy Walls in a statement to The Miami Herald. "We are doing this so we can create more access and a better stadium experience for our true members. However, if there are extenuating circumstances or we make an error with our real fans, we will work to accommodate them on a case by case basis.”

The Dolphins are not the only professional team that does this. The NHL New Jersey Devils, for example, have done this in the past.
 
...... I have an idea I think could work well to reduce this sort of thing. If the original bar code on your seats are not used a certain percentage of time, you can be deemed a vendor and lose your season ticket rights. .....

I like it, but....
I never use my real tickets, I keep the book.
 

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