SUPER BOWL XXI : DENVER vs. NEW YORK : Ticket Game Played at High Costs : Elite Market Excludes Average Fan, Leads Some to Jail

Donald McLean, a San Diego accountant, is like 300,000 other National Football League fans. He desperately wants to go to Sunday’s Super Bowl at the Rose Bowl.

McLean has done his homework. He has called nine Southern California travel agencies to find the best deal in town.

What he has found is the reality of the Super Bowl phenomenon--if you want to watch them play, you’ve really got to pay.

Either that, or be someone, or know someone. Super Bowl tickets are part of corporate America’s barter system, legal tender for repaying political favors or swinging business deals.

Politicians, the corporate elite and other privileged people, including some sportswriters and editors, have been offered tickets for $75, face value.

The rest of America? Depending on location and which broker you choose to believe, Super Bowl XXI tickets have been selling for $400 to $2,000.

McLean, like many a fan, has found the price too steep.

At Firstours, for instance, he was offered a three-night, two-day package at the Hilton Hotel near Los Angeles International Airport for $1,125. It included a cocktail party, a coaches’ clinic and an end-zone seat. It did not include air fare or transportation to Los Angeles.

The Hilton, more than 30 miles from the Rose Bowl, was the last of six hotels available as part of its package, McLean was told by a Firstours employee.

“I’m a little miffed when I find out someone has a corner on the market,” McLean said. “I’ve been going to (Chicago) Bears home games for 30 years and to the Chargers for the last three years. It’s discouraging when you can’t get a ticket.”

McLean’s experience is typical for fans wanting to view the Super Bowl first hand. This is a game made for network television. This is not a game for the average fan.

“The general public gets the shaft,” one NFL official admitted.

And some people are making a bundle as tickets are sold and resold many times before landing in the hands of the person going to the game.

One player reportedly made $28,000 reselling Super Bowl tickets last January. Others supplement their incomes with pocket change in the neighborhood of $1,000.

In 1981, reports surfaced of a black market network of Super Bowl tickets in which millions were made.

Publicity heightened recently with the case of Dominic Frontiere, husband of Ram owner Georgia Frontiere. Dominic Frontiere is serving a one-year sentence in the federal prison camp at Lompoc for tax evasion and lying to federal authorities. He was convicted of failing to report to the Internal Revenue Service hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from the resale of 1980 Super Bowl tickets, which he got from the Rams.

Federal sources familiar with the Frontiere case say that no further investigations into NFL franchises are planned.

The resale of tickets--at whatever price--is legal in California, except at the site of the event, where they can be resold only for face value. The statutes covering scalping, the reselling of tickets, differ from state to state. In New York, for instance, tickets can be resold only by a licensed broker at no more than $2 more than face value.

Since 1978, NFL officials have set distribution guidelines among their 28 teams to discourage scalping. The commissioner’s office recommends a maximum sale of four tickets to a player, coach or staff member and suggests that each person buying tickets should be required to sign a form stating that he or she will not profit from their resale.

Yet, except for the two tickets that must be offered to each player, NFL teams are not bound by any rules on ticket distribution. Owners keep what they want, then dispense the rest among executives, coaches, scouts, season ticket-holders, office workers and local media.

NFL officials say that any kind of black market organization within the league--as reported in The Times’ 1981 investigation--is not happening today.

According to that ’81 article, competing ticket scalpers organized ticket captains on NFL teams. The captains collected tickets from teammates, paying more than face value, and sold them to runners, who work for ticket brokers. The brokers then sold the tickets at still higher prices to travel agencies and corporations that wanted to entertain clients with Super Bowl trips.

Ticket brokers and travel agents also say there is no networking system.

Larry Gold, owner of Ticket Time of Los Angeles, said he spends the year scouring the country to find sources of tickets. He said he buys mostly through newspaper advertisements at inflated prices and makes marginal profits. Gold believes it is the season ticket-holders who reap the largest chunk in the resale exchange.

When the 100,000-plus spectators enter the Rose Bowl Sunday to watch the New York Giants play the Denver Broncos, many of their tickets already will have changed hands as many as six times.

“There’s a lot of crooks out there,” said Kevin Dureck, an Illinois travel agent who has packaged Super Bowl tours for 10 years. “It’s a big racket. Players sell them to friends, who sell them to brokers. It’s turned me off. The thrill of going to a game is missing something--it’s big business.”

The best NFL officials can do is explain the original distribution of the tickets for this year:

--20% for the American Football Conference champion, or in the Rose Bowl, about 20,000.

--20% for the National Football Conference champion.

--20% for the NFL.

--10% for the host team, or as is the case this year, 5% each for the host teams, the Raiders and the Rams.

--1.25% for each of the remaining 24 teams.

The Broncos, the AFC champions, offered about 16,000 of their 20,000 tickets to their season ticket-holders in a lottery. The New York Giants used a similar system.

Players on the competing teams had the chance to buy about 15 tickets each, and owners, staff and others involved with the team have the opportunity to buy the remaining tickets.

The NFL offers tickets to its affiliates, such as NFL Properties and NFL Films, as well as to the NFL Players Assn., the Management Council, network television, national and regional media and the game’s major sponsors.

It also offers 1,000 tickets in a fan lottery held between Feb. 1 and June 1 each year, and about 200 for such charities as the Make a Wish Foundation and the American Red Cross.

In a special arrangement with Pasadena, the NFL offered city officials 1,200 tickets. Each city director bought 100 to offer for resale. Most directors say they are using the tickets to repay or solicit political favors and are not selling them for more than $75. Some also are making them available to constituents. Pasadena has had this arrangement with the NFL since it first was host to the Super Bowl in 1977.

Gary Gillig, a Pasadena deputy city attorney, said that NFL representatives wanted scalping restrictions imposed on these tickets but that the city refused because state scalping laws and the city personnel code do not prohibit scalping.

The league also offers the print and electronic media an allotment of tickets to purchase.

For instance, The Times bought 270 tickets from the NFL, the Rams, Raiders and New England Patriots, and through the Denver Post, another Times Mirror Co. newspaper. The Post was able to purchase some tickets from the Broncos as well as through the league.

Tom Johnson, publisher and chief executive officer of The Times, said that many of the tickets would be used as part of a Super Bowl party for key advertisers. Some others will be used by working reporters who did not get media accreditation. A few staff members also purchased tickets simply to watch the game.

The Orange County Register bought 20 tickets from the NFL, said Jim Colonna, sports editor. The Los Angeles Herald Examiner and the Pasadena Star-News each bought 10. The Daily Pilot of Costa Mesa bought four. Craig Sheff, Daily Pilot sports editor, said employees cannot resell tickets for more than face value, according to company policy.

Sports editors at the Los Angeles Daily News and the Long Beach Press-Telegram said they were unaware of letters from the NFL soliciting their ticket purchases, so those two papers bought none from the league. The Daily News, however, is owned by Jack Kent Cooke, who also owns the Washington Redskins, so the Daily News was able to acquire--for use by its advertisers--75 tickets from Cooke. The Press-Telegram was able later to acquire two tickets through the Raiders for use in a promotional lottery.

Area newspapers and radio and TV stations, as well as media outlets from all over the country, receive working accreditation in numbers usually commensurate with respective size and market served. These are separate from ticket purchases.

The 26 teams not playing Sunday allow each player to buy two tickets, and the rest are offered to season ticket-holders, staff, owners and sponsors.

Some teams, such as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the San Diego Chargers, have stipulated that if a player wants his tickets, he must pick them up at the will-call window with proof of identification. Herb Gold, a Tampa Bay spokesman, said such a policy has effectively halted scalping by the players.

With this said, fans such as Donald McLean, the San Diego accountant, remain baffled. Where do the tickets really go? How can ticket brokers supply blocks of thousands of tickets? Why are prices inflated?

For the most part, the answers remain vague. Brokers do not want to reveal trade secrets. Team owners, staff and players do not want to be portrayed as greedy, even if their transactions are above board. And league officials say that without stricter scalping laws, they cannot control the resales.

Damone Johnson, a Ram tight end from Anaheim, said that last year, when he was a rookie, other players wanted to buy his Super Bowl tickets.

“Last year, I sold mine for a little less than $400 to some players on the team,” he said. “I know they sold them for $500. I got lots of inquires from other team members, from brokers and friends. The veterans usually call on the rookies because the rookies usually don’t know what they have. It’s not a big deal. Few players are ambitious enough to talk to all the players.”

Bill Bain, a former Ram who plays for the New England Patriots, said he has sold tickets to a Denver ticket broker for face value. He said the broker, a friend, had helped him in the past.

“Either I owed people favors and felt I had to give the tickets to them, or I just have given them away to my family,” Bain said.

This year, Bain donated two tickets to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo for an auction. The money raised will be used to help the school’s football team.

Damone Johnson is selling his tickets again this year, but now he knows the ticket game well enough to make a nice profit.

“I can’t afford to go the game,” he said. “It’s too tempting to sell the tickets. There’s too much money to be made.”

That attitude is a far cry from Super Bowl I, when the Kansas City Chiefs played the Green Bay Packers in the Coliseum in 1967.

Mike Duberstein, an attorney with the NFL Players Assn., attended the 1967 game, the first and last time a Super Bowl was not sold out.

“I remember it was a bunch of fans watching that game,” Duberstein said. “It wasn’t a cultural event. Today, the Super Bowl is part of the business mythology more than a sporting event.”

Don Weiss, NFL executive director, said the game never was intended for fans. He said the Super Bowl is for those who have given professional football longtime support.

“It’s just not possible to accommodate those who are not closely associated with a particular franchise at the expense of someone who has been directly involved over the years,” Weiss said. “Besides, we still offer the game on TV.”

That’s the reality, but it does not temper the disappointment that fans experience when they are left out. The New York and Denver followings both are strong, for instance. The teams’ home games are sold out, and both have waiting lists for season tickets.

So this season, perhaps more than any other, the demand is greater.

“It’s a shame that some corporate martini-type will be sitting in seats that should go to those Giant fans who have sat through the cold to watch their team for all these seasons,” said Henry DeBanchi, president of a Giant fan club.

Denver police last week capitalized on the thirst for tickets, using a Super Bowl sting operation to arrest 65 wanted people. Authorities sent 1,800 letters to the last-known addresses of suspects in a variety of felonies and misdemeanors, offering two free Super Bowl tickets and the chance to win a drawing for 10 free trips to the game.

Congressman Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) also is using the demand to his advantage. His office is offering a three-day Super Bowl tour for $5,000 a couple, not including game tickets.

Kemp had 400 tickets--at $75 each, if you signed up for the tour--that he got through Norman Braman, Philadelphia Eagles owner, said Mark Berry, Kemp’s spokesman.

Berry said that Kemp, a former quarterback for the Chargers and the Buffalo Bills, will use the proceeds to help finance a political action committee and a presidential exploratory committee. Berry said they hope to raise $1 million.

Those die-hards who really want to go--at whatever the price--can find tour operators who arrange Super Bowl packages such as Kemp’s.

Federal officials warned fans to be careful when shopping for tour packages or they might find themselves at the Rose Bowl without tickets.

The Transportation Department’s consumer affairs office said that if an air tour operator does not specifically mention in advertising that a game ticket is included, it probably is not.

In some cases, the trip to the game is too expensive for those who get tickets. So, the season ticket-holder decides to sell the ticket to a broker, for a tidy profit, then stay home and watch the game on television.

That is the kind of person representatives of Murray’s, a major L.A. ticket broker, targets, said Randy LeBoda, general manager. He said Murray’s representatives work all year trying to get blocks of tickets.

The campaign intensifies during the playoffs, and Murray’s opens offices in hotel rooms in several cities that have teams, speculating on which team will win. Once a team is eliminated, Murray’s closes its operations in that city.

LeBoda said these on-site operators place buy-and-sell advertisements in classified sections of area newspapers to establish contacts.

“We buy the tickets at inflated prices,” he said. “We have to offer enough to entice the ticket-holder to sell. The ticket broker makes his money through volume.”

LeBoda said that this year’s Super Bowl is one of the most popular because of the New York interest. The Giants have not been in a championship game since 1963.

“New Yorkers are outbidding everyone else,” he said.

This game of speculation is perhaps as intense as the one everyone wants to watch on the field. Learning the truth is difficult, because in scalping tickets, honesty apparently is not the best policy. Brokers deflate the prices they will pay for tickets to keep the buying price down. Then they inflate the prices people are willing to pay to increase the selling price.

Eventually, the market busts. Ticket prices are expected to spiral Friday or Saturday, just before the game, Murray’s LeBoda said.

The system of ticket distribution is not unique to the Super Bowl. The ticket game is played year round for all types of entertainment and sporting events. The Super Bowl just happens to be played on a grander scale.

“Players are aware of the whole system,” said the Rams’ Damone Johnson. “When we played the Redskins in the playoffs, tickets cost hundreds of dollars because you couldn’t get them. Redskin games (in RFK Stadium) are sold out.”

If the problem is complex, though, the result is simple: Fans such as Donald McLean usually are left out.

FO