Laps in Judgment : Even Tiny Tots Must Pay the Piper for a Glimpse of Super Bowl Game

In the category of “Oh, by the way . . . “ and “Wow--I’m glad I asked!”: Does a 2-year-old need a ticket to sit in his father’s lap at the Super Bowl game?

“I honestly don’t know,” said a spokeswoman for the San Diego Super Bowl Task Force. “You’ll have to call the National Football League.”

A phone call to NFL headquarters in New York brought this response from a spokeswoman in special events:

“Good question. I don’t know that we’ve thought about it; don’t think we’ve ever heard it before. . . . I don’t know what the policy is. I’ll find out and call you back.”

Two hours later, she did phone back, saying she couldn’t be quoted by name.

‘The League Says . . . ‘

“Just say, ‘the league says,’ ” she said.

And what the league said is that “everybody needs a ticket, regardless of age. It doesn’t matter if they’re 2 days, 2 years or 200 years old. One person, one ticket. That’s the rule.”

a So fans holding tickets to the Super Bowl game, set for Sunday, Jan. 31, in San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium, had better not show up

with thoughts of holding little Tammys or Tonys on their laps.

Even a new-born, breast-feeding infant will have to have a ducat to Super Bowl XXII.

List price for each of the 73,500 seats is $100.

What happens if chagrined parents show up wielding infants who don’t have tickets?

“We just won’t let them in,” the league said. “We’ll turn them away. The parents will have to do something with the baby.”

Such a policy is in stark contrast to that of the San Diego Chargers, who allow in for free any child who can walk under the turnstile and sit comfortably in an adult’s lap.

Representatives in the ticket offices of the Los Angeles Rams, Los Angeles Raiders and Dallas Cowboys said each of those teams has the same policy as the Chargers.

“If the kid can sit in the parent’s lap, no, of course, they don’t have to have a ticket,” said a spokeswoman for the Cowboys. “We just leave it up to the parents.

“I know of no team in the league that makes little kids pay,” she added.

“We’re kind of like family,” said Jack Teele, the Chargers’ director of administration. “But this is a national game. It doesn’t belong to the Chargers or the City of San Diego. If that’s the league policy, well, I guess I understand it.

“Our rules are based on everyone trying to enjoy the game. If a drunk happens to be disturbing those around him, we toss him out. If a 2-year-old can sit in a parent’s lap, why force his dad to buy him a ticket?

“You see more and more parents taking kids with them wherever they go. I know my kids take their kids (Teele’s grandchildren) with them almost anywhere they go, more so than my wife and I did. Maybe in that way people are getting back to the old-fashioned values. For a lot of folks, baby-sitting is now a costly proposition, or they just want to have their kids with them. I think that’s neat.”

Teele said he could envision a situation in which a child might cry or “be a pest,” thus disturbing someone who had paid $100 (or more) to see the game. Of course, that could still happen--as long as little Tammy or Tony had been admitted with a ticket.

And even if they were unruly, are children the only annoying fans at football games?

“Look, it’s not the Chargers’ game, or San Diego’s game,” Teele said. “But it’s bringing $120 to $140 million to the local economy, so it should be good for the city.”

For parents who do show up with babies in tow and can’t manage to get them past the turnstile, a major hassle awaits. Teele said turning right around and going home won’t be a simple task. The record crowd will be served almost entirely by public transportation.

“Once you’re inside the parking lot,” Teele said, “you’re looking at a four- to five-hour wait before leaving. You could have a problem.”