The Dolphins last month announced plans to reduce the number of tickets they sell to independent brokers, but one broker who was cut off said that the team "gave a big chunk of these tickets to one firm in particular: Atlanta-based PrimeSport Inc., which was acquired in February by an investor group that includes Dolphins owner Stephen Ross," according to Sharon Terlep of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Miami-based ticket broker Gus Rodriguez said that he "used to buy" about $1M worth of Dolphins tickets every year, but the team "cut back his supply last season ... and wouldn't sell to him at all this year." He added when he "pressed the team to explain, he got a call" from Dolphins VP/Ticket Sales & Service Nick Forro. Rodriguez: "He said, ‘We have a company that our owner owns and we have to do business with them.'" Dolphins Senior VP/Communications & Community Affairs Jason Jenkins "denied that Forro at any time asserted that the team would only do business with PrimeSport." Ross said his stake in PrimeSport, which is held by RSE Ventures, a firm he co-founded, is "very, very small." Sources said that RSE's stake is "less than 2%." An NFL spokesperson said that the league was "aware of the investment and had no issues with it." Jenkins said that brokers "got a total of 1,000 to 2,000 tickets per game this season, down from roughly 8,000 in previous years." He added that PrimeSport "received less than half of that total and that it receives tickets as part of a sponsorship deal with the Dolphins." The team said that it "hasn’t sold any tickets to PrimeSport directly." Terlep reports PrimeSport in some cases is "selling Dolphins tickets for well more than their face value" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/2).
