Brewers At It Again, Not Letting Cubs Fans Buy Playoff Tickets
I walked into my manager’s office to prep for a sales meeting, and he was on the phone with his Milwaukee Brewers season ticket account representative. My manager is a lifelong, die hard Brewers fan, but I rarely allow that to get in the way of our working relationship. Turns out, he had recently secured a pair of tickets for the Brewers home playoff games, and was surprised that he only received a confirmation, but no other physical or digital proof that he had the tickets.
So he was calling to see how he knew that he actually had the tickets, and to see how he could put the tickets he would not be able to use online for sale.
See, apparently the Brewers has only sent him a confirmation email with a bar code. There’s no other information to indicate the seat number, aisle, numbers documenting the bar code represents anything at all. So basically, none of the information you need to list the tickets on a site like Stub Hub or any other online ticket site, and certainly not enough information to send the tickets to someone else electronically.
When he was talking with the ticket representative, she told him (er, us, since she was on speaker phone at this point) they are doing this to limit the amount of Cubs fans from having access to the tickets. Since Milwaukee’s Miller Park (or Wrigley North) tends to have a lot of Cubs fans in attendance during Cubs Brewers games, they want to try and ensure there’s much more Brewers fans in attendance, if the Cubs and Brewers meet in the playoffs.
Additionally, Brewers single-game playoff tickets go on sale next week, and they will again not allow Illinois zip codes to purchase tickets.
I get it, you don’t want such an important game like a playoff game to feel like a home game for your opponent, especially not one that has become such a big rivalry. I have been to games at Miller Park, and there is easily half Cubs fans in attendance. But, it just speaks poorly about a team that has such little faith in their fans to buy enough tickets to keep Cubs fans away.
This has become a trend, especially in the playoffs. Chicago Blackhawks fans have had limited access to certain cities ticket sales. The Brewers didn’t allow Illinois zip codes to purchase tickets in their presale this season, and now again in the playoffs.
Personally I feel, sell the tickets to whoever wants them. If your fans can’t fill the stadium, shame on those fans. But, I’m a Cubs (and Blackhawks) fan, and I haven’t had to worry about my stadiums getting filled by fans of other teams.
