THE PRO FOOTBALL BUSINESS SLANT: VOL. 1

SEAT LICENSES & THE INEVITABLE
By Phil (P.J.) Wurtz, NFL Draft Bible

You can call them Personal Seat Licenses like the Baltimore Ravens, Carolina Panthers, or the St. Louis Rams. The Chicago Bears and Cleveland Browns like the ring of Permanent Seat Licenses better. Maybe, you want to feel extremely important and enter into a Charter Ownership agreement with the Cincinnati Bengals. Whatever you, the NFL, or its teams want to call them is up to you. I personally like the sound of EMH’s, Extreme Migraine Headaches, because that is what always seems to occur when those three letters are strung together to form some type of Seat License Agreement between a season ticket holder and their beloved stadium seats.

The mere invention of the PSL or “Personal Seat License” as they are most commonly referred to brings about heated debate much like the licenses themselves do amongst fans. When asked, historians familiar with PSL’s often credit Max Muhleman for the invention around 1993. Others will disagree and give credit to an architect by the name of Rick Ohanian with the creation of the licenses in 1987. Yet, a little research shows that PSL’s were common way before ‘93 and run even deeper than ‘87, dating back to various collegiate programs that would use the “donation” for similar funding. What the license actually entitled is pretty simple; just like most of us have a license that gives u the right to operate a motor vehicle, a PSL gives its owner the right to purchase season tickets for the specific seat the license is associated with.

Ok, that’s not so terrible. A season ticket holder should ultimately obtain the right to purchase their same season tickets year after year until they decide to forfeit the seats to another fan, no argument there. Until, that season ticket holder of 20 years plus is informed of the overwhelming costs that a PSL is going to run them, on-top of their already incurred ticket expense. Before the ink dries on the proposal, one can see the divide between fans who are pro PSL, and those who oppose it.

Sports Evolution are the best two words I can think of to explain PSL’s. Many of us are already aware, while the rest should prepare to be rudely awoken; sports are no longer a fun family event, not for your wallet at least. With the popularity of sports constantly growing, athlete’s astronomical salaries and the demand for new and improved “fan friendly confines”, concession prices are no longer the only items that are through the roof. Just the cost of obtaining tickets themselves has become a financial grind. This is all occurring with only about one third of the league enforcing PSL’s. What’s going to happen when the other two thirds decide to hop on the band-wagon?

I understand the view point of PSL supporters; they want to have complete ownership of their season ticket seat. No fan wants their seat stripped from them for any reason, especially because a new and improved stadium is being built. If anything, that loyal fan feels the right to not only obtain ownership of a similar seat in the new venue but they want their name catapulted to the top of the list for improved seat position. Both of which seem to be valid, reasonable requests, until the actual bill arrives and that same fan witnesses the mentality behind the use of PSL’s.

No honorable paying customer should be forced to pay, in some cases, an extraordinary amount of extra income just to obtain, not purchase, obtain the right to purchase their similar seat in the new stadium. Furthermore, no loyal, paying “fan” should even have to worry about contributing to the cost of a new multimillion or even billion dollar facility that their local tax dollars will probably go to anyway just to see the team profit further for the next 15-20 years. Yet, fans don’t seem to mind. Year after year, season after season, gorgeous stadiums are sprouting up around the country and fans are swooping in to purchase every PSL the facility has to offer. The grumbling over PSL’s continues to grow louder, but no one ever stops to defend their use. The money is exchanged the licenses are written and the prices continue to rise with no end in sight.

Although personal seat licenses were created to benefit the owner with seat protection and astonishing venues it could spell the end to the casual fan. As the stadiums grow larger, fancier and more expensive the licenses will continue to rise, causing a nasty trickle down effect that no one wants to see. As PSL price tags continue to steadily rise over the next few decades, watch how high the price of a regular seat prices follows. All the fans forced to purchase a PSL need to pass their expense on some how. What better way then to include it into the cost of the extra seats that they sell to the casual fan, those who can’t afford a nose bleed season ticket, let alone a PSL to ice the cake. Those fans have to find a way to obtain tickets as well, and often they are purchased from other current ticket holders. It’s already a shame how team owners are cutting into regular seating to create more prominent viewing locations, such as corporate luxury boxes or front row “dream seats.” Inflating ticket prices even more with the use of special licenses is only going to run out the remaining fans that are left until every ballpark, stadium or arena in the country is filled only with the extremely wealthy or the corporate honchos who created this mess to begin with.

Our very own Phil Wurtz dissects the Business side of the game as he takes an in-depth look at behind the scenes happenings taking place in pro football each week exclusively at 4th and Goal.

Email: pj@nfldraftbible.com