Many of you recall the fiasco that happened when the Green Bay Packers tried to charge season ticket holders for playoff games in November of 2013. First, the Packers didn’t even look like they were making the playoffs, much less hosting a home game at that point. Second, season ticket holders had to buy tickets to three postseason games as if somehow the Packers would be hosting a wild card, divisional and NFC championship game at Lambeau. Third, the Packers would be taking all of that money and not refunding it if the team didn’t make the playoffs or host three games.
Well, a lot of season ticket holders told the Packers exactly what they could do with that B.S. So many of them, in fact, that the Packers had trouble selling out the wild card game that by several strokes of luck they ended up hosting.
After the season, Packers president Mark Murphy was like, “Uh… guess we ought to change that playoff ticket policy.” Well, the Packers won’t have to because the NFL did it for them.
The league has instituted a new rule barring teams from charging fans for playoff tickets before they clinch a playoff berth. The rule was voted on and passed at the NFL owners meeting today.
Pay as you go. How novel!
The caveat here is teams can still take orders for playoff tickets before they clinch a berth. They just can’t bill the credit cards, but that’s fine because that was the problem last year.
The Packers were taking fan money, which could then only be applied as a credit to this year’s season ticket costs if the team didn’t have three home playoff games. No refunds. No we’ll bill you later. Just greed, plain and simple.
Clearly, the Packers were one of the main reasons for the new rule.
NFL owners may vote this morning to chg playoff ticket polciy, so teams cannot, like packers, charge fans early for the tickets.
— Daniel Kaplan (@KaplanSportsBiz) March 24, 2014
We’re sure the Packers will still take a look at their playoff ticket policy and they may even amend it further considering the blowback they got last year.