The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
January 24, 2000
Section: News
Edition: Home; The Atlanta Constitution
Page: A1
SUPER BOWL-BOUND: Titans, Rams coming to Georgia Dome
BIG BUCKS THE ONLY LURE FOR PRIME PIGSKIN SEATS
Dan Chapman; Staff
It's 15 degrees and the slate-gray sky threatens snow. A man hustles inside the strip mall, down its scruffy, linoleum-lined corridor to the stairwell in back. Upstairs, behind the marble countertop and smoked-glass doors, the ticket brokers wait. They've got what the man needs: two tickets to the Super Bowl. Almost $2,000 apiece. Take it or leave it. He takes it.
In Georgia, this is illegal.
But here in Maryland, and 38 other states, the resale of sports and entertainment tickets is a bona fide, chamber-blessed business. And Danny Matta could be the poster boy for an industry gone online, upscale and indoors.
His Great Seats Inc. ticket brokerage, just outside Washington, D.C., employs 23, including eight relatives. He lists phone numbers in 30 cities, all call-forwarded to College Park.
Matta, 37, has come a long way from age 15 when he scalped his first hockey ticket at the nearby Capital Center. He drives a minivan, brings his two young children to work with him every day and belongs to the 180-member trade group that lobbies on behalf of ticket brokers across the country.
The so-called black market never looked so wholesome.
And it has never been this lucrative.
Tickets for Sunday's Super Bowl list for $325 and $400 (club and suite-level), according to rates set by the National Football League. Not that the average fan could actually buy any of these tickets from the NFL. But plenty of seats are available from brokers like Matta. Nosebleed, upper-level end zone seats are a bargain, starting at $1,750. Lower-level, midfield seats might set you back $6,000.
And prices this week could go higher, as brokers, fans and corporations catch Super Bowl fever. The Super Bowl ticket is one of the most sought-after sports ducats in the country. And, so far, tickets to Super Bowl XXXIV cost more than any football game ever played.
"This Super Bowl will definitely be the most expensive ever," Matta said. "Until next year."
Although reselling tickets is illegal in Georgia, any well-bankrolled fan can find a ticket to sold-out sporting events. Scalpers lurk near the entrances to the Georgia Dome, Turner Field and Philips Arena.
The "Queen of Tickets," for example, has practiced her craft for 15 years. Her business card lists two telephone numbers and offers to buy, sell, trade and deliver tickets. ("God Bless You," it also reads.) For obvious reasons, she didn't want her name published.
"This Super Bowl is a crazy Super Bowl with crazy Super Bowl prices," says the Queen, who offers upper-level seats at $4,000 and a suite for $60,000.
Street scalpers such as the Queen are typically the only ticket brokers to draw police scrutiny. Georgia law prohibits the resale of sports and entertainment tickets for more than $3 over face value. But there are loopholes big enough for a 350-pound lineman to romp through.
Brokers get around the law by basing their operations in states like Maryland, Texas and California where it's legal to resell tickets at whatever price the market will bear. Georgia is one of only 11 states that still consider this enterprise a crime.
A handful of brokers maintain offices in Atlanta, but they insist the actual transactions -- the processing of the credit cards, the shipping of tickets -- transpire out of state.
Other brokers package tickets with hotel rooms, meals, game-day transportation and additional perks. Some offer to "swap" Super Bowl tickets for Alaskan cruises or trips to Paris. Ticket clubs and auctions proliferate online.
Georgia law enforcement officials say all of these devices are crimes, albeit misdemeanors, punishable with a fine of $1,000 and up to a year in jail. "We want the law of Georgia to be enforced," says Jeff DiSantis, spokesman for Georgia's attorney general. But "obviously there are crimes with a higher priority than ticket-scalping."
Atlanta police, who busted 27 ticket scalpers last fall during the Braves playoff run, promise undercover officers will target Super Bowl scalpers.
Atlanta's vigilance puzzles Matta. "We're the middle men for tickets. It's a victimless crime," he says. "I pay my taxes and this is a free-market enterprise. It's capitalism."
Hard to believe, but there wasn't much of a market in 1967 when the first Super Bowl was played in Los Angeles. The game didn't sell out. A year later in Miami tickets were hawked in local newspapers for $6 and $8. It took a month to sell 20,000 tickets.
Last year, when the Denver Broncos humbled the Atlanta Falcons, the average street price of a Super Bowl ticket was $3,200. Brokers expect this year's ticket to be the most expensive ever, thanks to the robust economy and the game's wild popularity.
The unusual matchup in this year's Super Bowl further fuels the rise in ticket prices. These two cities have never sent a team to the Super Bowl, so their first-time fans are eager to come. And Atlanta is within driving distance of both cities.
Demand is there. But brokers and NFL officials dispute just how much supply -- black market tickets -- will be available. The NFL, which considers scalping a blot on its well-honed image, says no more than 15,000 seats will be resold. Brokers say it will be closer to 30,000.
Both agree the way the tickets are dispersed leaves almost no opportunity for the average fan to get one. The league distributes all tickets, parceling out large chunks to the Super Bowl teams and the Atlanta Falcons, the host city. The remaining 28 teams get about 700 tickets each. Each team holds a lottery for its season-ticket holders. But the bulk of all tickets -- 60 percent -- goes to corporations and their friends.
The NFL admits it's mostly powerless to prevent a player, team official, Coca-Cola executive or season-ticket holder from unloading tickets. "It's so tough to prove scalping when somebody says, 'I gave two tickets to a friend, and he sold them,' " says Jim Steeg, the NFL's vice president for special events.
Steeg estimates 90 percent of resold tickets come from season-ticket holders, not players, team officials or corporate recipients.
But ticket resellers get tickets anywhere they can. Carey Dean says he gets tickets from players on four different teams, as well as coaches, front-office personnel and many fans.
Dean, a Duluth sports tour operator who packages tickets with hotel rooms, transportation and other perks, needs 280 tickets for the Super Bowl. He recently had about half in hand, but didn't think he'd have any problem getting the rest.
"Let's face it. If a ticket-holder pays face value and somebody (offers) him $1,200 per ticket, he can buy season tickets for the next five years. Or take his family to the Bahamas. It's easy money," says Dean, who operates Esoteric Sports Tours from the white-carpeted basement of his home.
Dean, who also runs sports tours to the Kentucky Derby, Rose Bowl and Stanley Cup, says he paid no more than $1,600 each for his first round of Super Bowl tickets. His packages run from $2,895 per person (upper-level end-zone seat; three nights at a hotel outside the Perimeter) to $5,491 (upper-level sideline seat; four nights at the Westin Peachtree Plaza). He hopes to make 10 percent profit per person, $60,000 in all.
It's a risky business, though. Dean lined up 150 nonrefundable hotel rooms three years ago. He set his prices and printed his brochures last March, well before the football season started.
Dean and Matta say they no longer take the risks they once did. Both have lost tens of thousands of dollars on Super Bowls when the market turned fickle, or when they grossly undervalued the price of tickets they promised to deliver.
Matta is confident he'll find 250 or so Super Bowl tickets this year. And if he comes up short, well, he can always do what he did when the Super Bowl came to Atlanta in 1994. In need of a dozen tickets, Matta stood atop the Hyatt Regency's escalator for 18 hours handing out business cards which read, "Buying Super Bowl Tickets. Paying Top Dollar." He filled every order.
Copyright 2000 The Atlanta Journal and The Atlanta Constitution
