Free tickets to Sonics fans?
According to this report in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sonics fans who filed a class-action suit against the owners of the team are seeking nearly 1,400 free tickets as remedy for the owners’ alleged breach of contract. The fans claim Sonics season ticket holders were promised the chance to renew their seats at the same price for the next three seasons but were denied that opportunity when the franchise relocated to Oklahoma City.
Two things stand out to me in the story. The first is that it seems the attorney for the fans concedes that Howard Schultz’s lawsuit, which aims to rescind the sale of the team and is scheduled to go to trial June 15, is far-fetched.
“Noting it would be extremely difficult to force the team back to Seattle in order to fulfill its promise to provide tickets for the same guaranteed price at KeyArena through the 2009-10 season, (Seattle attorney Frederick) Schoepflin suggested an appropriate solution would be offering nearly 1,400 Sonics fans tickets at Oklahoma City’s arena at those same prices for the next two years.”
The second thing that stands out to me in the article is this sentence, which paraphrases the ownership group’s attorney’s argument.
“The PBC argued that when performances are canceled, ticket holders are merely refunded their money, not guaranteed a new show.”
It takes me back to the time I paid for tickets to Kanye West’s Glow in the Dark Tour at the Ford Center in the spring with the sole purpose of seeing Lupe Fiasco.
Well, as soon as I entered the Ford Center I was greeted by a sign that read, “Lupe Fiasco will not be performing tonight.”
There was no explanation. No refund. No make-up show. And I actually paid. I didn’t sign up to pay for the concert or express interest in paying. Instead, I was left to sit through 2 1/2 hours of acts I didn’t care to see.
Getting my money back would have alleviated my anger but done little in diminishing my disappointment.
If the hundreds (if not thousands) who felt just like me on that April night joined forces to file a class-action suit, you think a judge would order Lupe Fiasco to provide us with free tickets to the rest of his performances in 2008?
-DM-
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Comments
so, they want a bunch of free tickets to replace tickets they INTENDED to buy? well hell, i intended to buy a pair of air jordan 23s, but they sold out of the black ones. so nike needs to ship me a pair, right? oh, and are they going to commute to okc for home games? this is ridiculous. i thought seattle had accepted that the team is gone. what a bunch of delusional babies.
The funniest thing about this suit is that these season-ticket holders actually received the entertainment they purchased. The price they paid was for last season only. A better analogy would be could I sue a restaurant for going out of business after I ate there? Could I argue that the only reason I ate there was becasue I thought it would be a place I could eat at in the future? I paid for a product, that being food. The answer is quite obviously no. The same conclusion will be made in this case. The tickets were used and after use become worthless, just like this lawsuit.
One thing though DM, the ticket-holders lawyers comments about the difficulty to force the team back to Seattle has nothing to do with Schultz’s case. The season-ticket holders lawyer filed a motion with the judge to force the team back to Seattle after the lease was bought out. That in my opinion is even more far-fetched than asking for your money back on tickets you used.
Actually if Seattle fans want to sue an organization over season tickets they might try suing the Mariners. They could argue that the product on the field is insufficent to garner the ticket prices paid.
In all fairness though, DM, Clay Bennett and the PBC/Sonics promised Sonics fans that if they bought season tix in 2007, that their prices would be locked in for the 2008 and 2009 seasons. That is a promise that you were NOT explicitely offered for your Kanye West ticket. It did not say, “if you buy the Kanye West ticket – then you are entitled to X performances of Lupe Fiasco.”
While I agree in principle with your argument, and agree that the judge in the Seattle fans case will probably just throw it out, you have to admit that your situation is an apples to oranges scenario.
That being said, All Clay needs to do is offer the Sonics ticket holders the same price that they had in Seattle – enough said. I wonder if ANY Seattle fan would take him up on it; buy season tix at the Seattle prices and fly back and forth 41 times. …
But honestly, that’s all Clay needs to do. (an even better scenario, he should have written his promise with a disclaimer about being in Seattle, that would have solved everything – but I digress).