Bowl-Goers’ Ticket Snafu Investigated
Federal officials launched an investigation Friday of an Atlanta-based travel agency that Michigan football fans said charged them an additional $250 each for Rose Bowl tickets they had already purchased.
Department of Transportation officials said it is illegal for a tour operator to boost prices less than 10 days before an event, a rule passed after hundreds of University of Wisconsin fans said they were cheated out of tickets for the 1994 Rose Bowl.
“If [the fans] were told on the eve of the game that they’d have to pay more, then under this rule, the requirement would be to refund the entire price of the tour,” said Bill Schulz, a spokesman for the department.
In addition, the Michigan attorney general’s office has begun an investigation to determine whether Worldwide Sport Travel Inc. or any travel agents selling Worldwide’s tour package may have violated state consumer protection laws by taking money for tickets they didn’t have.
“We’ll do what we can to recover any damages that people may have suffered,” said Chris De Witt, a spokesman for the office.
Worldwide executives said that fans were never under any obligation to pay more money for tickets, but that some did so voluntarily to make sure they had tickets in hand.
Despite earlier fears, the executives said, the company delivered tickets as promised to all 300 fans.
“Every single passenger got their tickets,” said David Berstein, director of operations for Worldwide. “No one was under any obligation to pay one dollar more.”
Berstein blamed the shortage on two ticket brokers who failed to provide tickets as promised. He said his company is planning to sue the brokers, whom he declined to name.
The trouble started Tuesday, when about 300 Wolverine fans, who had come west on a package tour that included rooms at the Warner Center Marriott and game tickets, were told there were no tickets yet available.
According to several fans, Worldwide then offered a series of deals that culminated New Year’s Eve.
Several fans said they were given the option of a $500 refund or paying an additional $250 to obtain a ticket--in addition to the $1,500 most had paid for the tour package.
Berstein confirmed that the company asked for an additional $250 for tickets, but only from those who insisted on having a ticket that day, he said. He had to buy more tickets to replace those he said were not delivered to him, and prices had soared, he said.
There was no additional charge for fans who agreed to wait for delivery of their tickets until the morning of the game, the date promised in Worldwide’s contract, Berstein said. He was able to buy enough tickets for all of them, he said.