I FEEL BAD FOR THE JETS...

Did Jets fans sell out? So what!
BY ANTHONY RIEBER | anthony.rieber@newsday.com
November 25, 2007


The behavior of Jets fans during last Sunday's game against the Steelers was a hot topic more than once this week.

A day before the harassment story, "Gate D-Gate," broke, Jets fans were on the hot seat for allowing Steelers fans to take over Giants Stadium. It didn't feel like a Jets home game, that's for sure, with yellow-clad Pittsburghers waving "Terrible Towels" all day. Kellen Clemens said he had to go to a silent count because of the pro-Steelers noise. Jets safety Kerry Rhodes said he was "ticked off." Tight end Chris Baker called it "irritating."

Even Newsday's NFL columnist, Bob Glauber, called what Jets fans did "inexcusable."



Where did Steelers fans get the tickets? Obviously from Jets fans, who decided to sell out rather than contribute to a meaningless sellout in a lost season. Giving up their seats didn't sit well with Jets players Rhodes and Baker and with Glauber, who wrote on his Newsday.com blog, "You cannot allow your stadium to be invaded by that many fans from the opposing team."

Uh, Bob, I love you, big guy, but you're dead wrong. Here's the way I tally it:

Jets tickets: $80. Re-sale value: $120. Making a few bucks from re-selling your tickets and sitting home on a cold, rainy day and watching an upset win: priceless.

What it is about sports tickets -- any entertainment tickets, for that matter -- that the people who buy them are not supposed to re-sell them? For whatever they can get? To whoever wants them?

If I buy a car from my next-door neighbor for $5,000 and want to sell it to the guy across the street for $6,000, is there a law that says I can't? This idea that fans should not re-sell their tickets comes from the days when ticket-scalping could only be done by shady characters in back alleys. The laws were made to protect us by politicians who, by the way, can get tickets for any hot event by having an aide make a phone call to the team.

Well, there's this thing called the Internet now, and re-selling and buying tickets is as easy as one-two-three, click.

Let's say 10,000 Jets fans put their tickets for the Steelers game up for sale and 10,000 Steelers fans clicked and bought. How is that a bad thing? Jets fans have endured enough in a season that has had two highlights in 12 long weeks (three if you count the bye week). Aren't they allowed to make back a few bucks for what so far has been a bad investment in money, time and sanity?

(I'm not telling any fan to do anything illegal when it comes to re-selling tickets. Many teams now have ticket resale areas on their Web sites, and other legal ticket brokers operate on the Web. Make sure what you're doing is on the up and up. But don't feel dirty if you do it.)

I once had tickets for a Yankees-Red Sox game at Yankee Stadium and ended up getting offered concert tickets for the same night. No way I was going to miss Anne Murray and Neil Diamond singing the best of Tom Jones!

(OK, just wanted to see if you were paying attention. It was the Dave Matthews Band.)

So I put the Yankees-Red Sox tickets up on a legal ticket-selling site for a wee bit over face value. The tickets were snapped up within a day.

I guess the person who brought the tickets could have re-sold them for a huge profit or could have even been -- gasp! -- Red Sox fans who wore Big Papi jerseys and booed Derek Jeter. Big deal.

As for the Jets, they have only two home games left, against Cleveland and Kansas City. Probably won't be a ton of demand for the Chiefs game, but maybe a few Dawg Pounders want to travel from Ohio to the Big Apple? Make the sale.

The Giants probably will have a wild-card berth sewn up when they host the Patriots on Dec. 29. If the Pats are going for 16-0, people from New England are going to want those tickets. Ka-ching, Giants fans!

You can watch it on the big screen you buy with the profit. And if Patriots fans make too much noise and "take over" Giants Stadium?

Turn the sound off.