TICKET INFO

I'm always proud to say that my dad has had Jets season tickets for more than 40 years. I always thought it might be worth something - impress someone.

Apparently it's worth nothing, and doesn't impress the Jets. And I fear my days of being able to say my dad has been a season ticket holder for the Jets for more than 40 years may be coming to an end.
When the new stadium opens the season after next, there are all sorts of issues. My dad's seats in the current stadium are in the upper deck (they were in the upper deck at Shea Stadium too, and were moved further back when the Jets went to Giants Stadium), so they won't be hit with the Personal Seat Licenses (which declare that you own a seat for every event at a stadium....except when the other team that shares the stadium with you is home....and when there is another event that goes up for grabs between the ticket-holders who share the same seat, I guess).

The fact that you would pay thousands of dollars for this PSL to not have complete ownership of a seat is a crock, in my opinion. Then there's this:

After being told seniority would be honored when it came to seat preferences, and thinking my dad could move his seats towards the front of the upper deck as a result, the Jets have recently come out with paperwork that says seniority would only be considered from 1977 on.

I have a feeling they're not going to go giving my dad his money back from 1965-1977. Way to reward loyalty. It really makes me mad. 1977? Why? The Jets didn't move to Giants Stadium until 1984. This makes no sense to me.

They're probably trying to force people out of long-held season tickets, especially in the upper bowl, where no money is to be made off of bogus PSL's. Then they can knock some people off the waiting list, advertise the fact that they have a shorter waiting list, and then make more money off of charging people an annual fee to get onto the waiting list.

It's disheartening, really. And it's another reason I try to avoid thinking about the business side of sports. And it's another reason I'm rooting so hard for this to be 'the year' - at least this year I have a shot at Super Bowl tickets....in future years I don't know that I'll even have a chance at playoff tickets.

ON A RELATED NOTE: Since my dad has had part of a Mets season-ticket plan in recent years (most recently a Tuesday & Friday deal), the Mets contacted him about the release of ticket plans for next year at Citi Field. Partial plans include 40-game and 15-game packages.

I haven't gotten down for Mets games as often as I wish I could in the past few years, so I told my dad that 15 games would even be too much, unless he could make use of them. And only one of the 15-game packages has Opening Day, which is just about the only game next year that means anything to me right now. If he can somehow get that package (which I'm sure, by virture of its inclusion of Opening Day, will be the most popular of the ticket packages), that would be it for me. That would make my 2009.

Because next year, there's Opening Day at Citi Field, and there's every other game at Citi Field. If I don't make the first game, any other game is just another game at the Mets' new ballpark. Somehow I have to get tickets to that game and I have to get the day off from school. The ticket sale for season-ticket holders starts this week. I have my fingers crossed.