During his weekly appearance on Dallas-based KRLD-FM, Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones discussed "why there have been so many" visiting fans at AT&T Stadium, according to John Machota of the DALLAS MORNING NEWS. Jones said, "We’re the hottest ticket there is on
the internet-type marketing of tickets, that’s the secondary market.
Really you have fans that are out there fishing, so to speak. They’re
testing the market." He added, "The other day, these tickets for the Houston game
were going as high as 300 percent of face value. Three-hundred percent. A
Party Pass for $29 was going for $100. That’s standing only going for a
hundred. So you do have a situation where, frankly, the interest in the
stadium, the venue (is appealing to fans), which was a dream of mine. I
wanted it to be like Madison Square Garden. But this one is located in
the central part of the United States. There’s no place in this country
you can’t get to it from about two and a half, three hours." Jones, on season-ticket holders selling their seats: "The
rights to those tickets are owned by fans. A large percentage of them
don’t go to but four games, five games a year. The rest of the time they
take into a very active and attractive situation, and they go out into
the market and they sell their tickets and get that money and in doing
so, they really do reduce their overall cost of coming to the stadium
considerably because you sell two or three games as a season ticket
holder and you’ve just about recouped what you’ve spent to buy the
ticket" (DALLASNEWS.com, 10/7).
SUPPLY & DEMAND: In Ft. Worth, Clarence Hill Jr. notes Jones "doesn't see it as a major issue." He said that the club has season-ticket holders "from all over the state, Oklahoma and New Mexico and even Mexico." Jones added that the "lure of the stadium also has made Cowboys games the hottest selling ticket on the secondary market for opposing fans" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 10/8). Also in Ft. Worth, Gil LeBreton writes of QB Tony Romo's comments regarding fans selling tickets on the secondary market, "What Romo seems to miss is that he, as Mr. December, and Owner Jones, in particular, are two of the reasons why people deemed it attractive this year to unload their 2014 tickets." The club has "benefited from the second-hand ticket market for years" (FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, 10/8). ESPN’s Mike Golic, on the Cowboys' tickets sales: “'I’m sure (Jones) wants his Cowboys to win, but does he care who shows up? I would imagine he does. I would imagine you’ll like to see that it's 95 percent, if not more, Cowboys fans waving their colors and cheering.” ESPN’s Mike Greenberg said, “Would you rather have other people's fans in the game or nobody at the game? Sports is a dichotomy. It's a business and it’s a different kind of competition. The different kind of competition is important, but rarely is it as important as the business. That's just the truth” ("Mike & Mike," ESPN Radio, 10/7).
NEIGHBORLY APPRECIATION: In Dallas, Eddie Sefko writes Mavericks Owner Mark Cuban is "sympathetic" to Jones, who has had to "listen to visiting teams dominate the team's stadium". Cuban said, "It would drive me nuts. ... When I first bought the Mavs, we’d have more Lakers and Spurs fans than Mavericks fans, and it killed me.” He added, “Jerry’s in a Catch-22 in some respects because that’s a very, very expensive building. He took one for the team in some respects. He created a landmark. They’re going to talk about it in the future like they used to talk about the Astrodome as the Eighth Wonder of the World. And he put that landmark right here in North Texas for all of us to enjoy. And part of having to pay for a $1.2 billion building is (high) ticket prices. Part of the trade-off, particularly going into the season when people didn’t think they were going to have a (good) season, you got to sell those tickets. That’s just what happens. So I do feel bad for him. He’s in a tough situation. It would kill me" (DALLAS MORNING NEWS, 10/8).
