Jets Gaints Mets Yankees season tickets will soon be PSL ..learn about PSL tickets

Dallas Cowboys fans wrestle with $100K price tag on seat rights

11:13 AM CST on Thursday, November 29, 2007
By JEFF MOSIER / The Dallas Morning News
jmosier@dallasnews.com

ARLINGTON – Mark Zable expected to pay a pretty price to continue his lifelong devotion to the Dallas Cowboys.

Also Online
Graphic: Ticket prices

Tell Us: Would you pay $100K for a Cowboys seat license?
But what he got when he visited the Cowboys this week to hear the team's sales pitch was severe sticker shock – $100,000 each for two personal seat licenses, a new feature that would allow him to buy tickets at the team's new $1 billion stadium in Arlington. And those seats near Cowboys owner Jerry Jones' luxury box weren't even for the priciest seat licenses in the new stadium – those go for $150,000.

"It takes a different kind of fan to afford these seats," Mr. Zable said.

Robert A. Baade, president of the International Association of Sport Economists, said these are the most expensive seat licenses he's ever encountered. He said it's difficult to know the upper limits of what the public would pay but that Mr. Jones is walking along that edge.

"He's breaking new ground here," Dr. Baade said.

Most other NFL teams offering seat licenses in recent years have had prices ranging from $1,000 to $10,000. Many teams are using seat licensing fees to help pay for new stadiums.

Greg McElroy, the Cowboys senior vice president of sales and marketing, said the Cowboys have been studying stadium ticket and suite packages for 18 months. He said these top-tier Founders Club seats – which number about 1,000 – are comparable to courtside Mavericks tickets or front-row seats at Yankee Stadium.

He said interest has been strong but that there are no figures about how many of the super premium seats have been sold.

Texas Stadium has no such premium seats now, making price comparisons difficult, team officials say. But tickets for similarly located seats cost $129 this season.

Mr. McElroy said the current round of seat license sales are just for the high-dollar, lower-bowl seats. He said more seats would be available next year in the upper deck at a lower price, although those prices are not yet available.

Team officials say they want to sell season tickets for every one of the stadium's 80,000 seats, each with a seat option.

Mr. Zable said he and his father, a season ticket holder since the team's Cotton Bowl days, were prepared to pay $50,000 for each seat license , the maximum price mentioned in recent media reports. Instead, Mr. Zable, 37, walked out of the Arlington ticket office Tuesday – the first day tickets went on sale – empty-handed and wondering what to do next.

Mr. McElroy said the $50,000 maximum was for the club seats. Mr. Zable's option was in the Founders Club, which has been described as a "suite within a seat."

He said the $100,000 and $150,000 seats include all-inclusive food and beverages and access to a private club.

"It gives all the amenities of a suite but without having to deal with all the extra tickets," Mr. McElroy said.

Mr. Zable, who works as a senior recruiter at a mortgage company, said the Cowboys contacted him Wednesday and assured him that they would find him other season ticket seats at a lower price. He had worried that he would lose his season tickets and put his seat license rights up for auction on eBay.

Mr. McElroy said Mr. Zable's concern was a misunderstanding and that season ticket holders who get first shot at the $100,000 or $150,000 seat licenses also would be given the chance to buy less expensive seats. The Cowboys are contacting those season ticket holders to make sure they are clear about the options.

"We learned a lot on our first day," Mr. McElroy said about Tuesday's opening of the ticket office adjacent to the stadium.

According to Cowboys documents, the seat licenses in the lower bowl could be purchased for $16,000 to $150,000 and grant the owner the right to buy those tickets for the next 30 years. Tickets cost $340 for each of the team's 10 guaranteed home games – eight in the regular season and two in the preseason.

That price was fixed for the first five years after the stadium opens in 2009.

Dallas resident Dick Lethe, who also has held season tickets since the Cowboys played in the Cotton Bowl, said he hadn't received pricing information yet. But he said he would opt out even at the $16,000 price tag.

Mr. Jones "is asking for an awful lot," Mr. Lethe said. "I'm willing to pay a reasonable amount, but if they make it unreasonable, I won't buy it. I will be upset if they price me out of the market."

Dr. Baade said he's not sure whether there are enough fans willing and able to pay such high prices. But a 10-1 record by the Cowboys and local oil executives riding high on record gas prices help, he said.

"This is risky business for the team, but Jerry Jones has proven to be a financial maverick," he said.

Darrell Jordan, an attorney and a former Dallas mayoral candidate, said he's heard several people say that the prices are too high and that they wouldn't continue purchasing season tickets. He said Mr. Jones is overreaching.

"It's outrageous," Mr. Jordan said. "I can't imagine the audacity of it."

Mr. Jordan had previously proposed using $10,000 seat licenses to help pay for a Cowboys stadium in Dallas, but that effort failed.

Mr. Zable said he's confident he'll be able to get seats, but he doesn't know whether they'll be seats he wants. About 30 years after attending his first game, Mr. Zable said he's not sure he'll remain a season ticket holder.

He said he'd wait until February to see what seats he's offered but that he fears they'll be picked over and won't be as good as what he has now near the 45-yard line.

"It just doesn't seem like it was equitable," he said.

Staff writer Jay Parsons contributed to this report.