As is my norm, my impression was inaccurate.
The worst of the problems that I've heard of, so far, is that around 1,250 people who had tickets were stopped by the NFL from sitting in the seats they had paid for.
The NFL supposedly claimed the seats were not safe. But no one has been able to get an answer as to why they were unsafe. Or how it was that tickets were sold to seats that had not been verified as seatable.
The NFL claims that 850 of the seatless fans were moved to comparable or better seats. Some seatless fans were moved outside the stadium. Others were allowed to wander the concourse watching the game on TVs. Those for whom a seat was not found will, supposedly, receive a refund of $2,400, three times the value of their $800 ticket.
I read a comment on Bud Kennedy's Facebook entry about Dale Hansen's Super Bowl report that said...
"Personal opinions aside, Dale's not saying anything that isn't being said nationally. Let's face it, Fort Worth was the lone bright spot of this thing. Be proud.........if you're from Fort Worth."
Okay, I am currently sitting in Fort Worth. I was in Fort Worth during the Super Bowl. I am totally not getting how it was that Fort Worth was the bright spot in this debacle.
As for what Dale Hansen had to say about this particular Super Bowl and why he thought it was a disorganized mess, watch the video below....
OUCH.
ReplyDeleteI live in Fort Worth, too. I spoke to several disappointed business owners on Thursday in the food & entertainment industry who might argue about the weather assertion. This week was a disaster for them, emotionally as well as financially.
I think Fort Worth did come off well from the event -- getting ESPN was a major coup and the ESPN guys never had anything bad to say about the city, as far as I know. Not even privately (no mean tweets, radio interviews, blog posts, etc.). Maybe they have, but I haven't seen anything.
Arlington got this from the New York Times early in the week: "The faithful have started to arrive in this drab, featureless city a little closer to Fort Worth than to Dallas." That 'bout sums it up for them, I thought.
And Dallas, among other things, had disgruntled fans chanting "Dallas sucks!" on national television.
So yeah, Fort Worth came out okay, by my estimation.
I thought downtown Fort Worth became a ghost town after the Ice Storm hit, with ESPN broadcasting through clouds of vapor, in front of no people. Eventually retreating to an indoor location where they could stay warm.
ReplyDeleteBud is a big fat idiot. A paid liar. nuff said.
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