Sports Fans Coalition Statement on #MonumentalDisaster being excluded from the VA budget bill
"Every sports fan loves an underdog story, and today is no exception. Sports Fans Coalition applauds the Virginia General Assembly budget conferees for not including any language regarding the Monumental Sports & Entertainment arena proposal," said Brian Hess, Executive Director of Sports Fans Coalition. "There were many problems with this proposal, including spending billions in taxpayer funding, poor fan experience regarding traffic, and the myriad of conflicts of interests and questionable foreign sovereign wealth fund investments between Ted Leonsis and Governor Youngkin. Throughout the entire process, Senator Louise Lucas stood as a champion for sports fans across the commonwealth and exemplified unparalleled courage in the face of seemingly impossible odds. We urge the General Assembly to continue rejecting this 'half-baked' proposal."
MD SB 539/HB 701: Ticket Resale Shouldn’t be a Crime in Maryland
When Maryland SB539/HB701 was introduced, Sports Fans Coalition immediately recognized the well-intentioned nature of the ticketing consumer protection bill. However, the solutions proposed would have massive unintended consequences that would exacerbate harms to sports fans – including criminalizing a fan reselling their ticket.
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Youngkin’s Fumbled Arena Plan Shines Light on Sportswashing
In December of last year, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) surprised all of the Commonwealth with a “half-baked” scheme to bring the Capitals and Wizards, owned by his long-time friend and co-investor, billionaire Ted Leonsis, across the Potomac River and into Virginia. The sweetheart deal included a record-setting $1.4 billion in taxpayer subsidies.
Between the bogus economic analyses, laughable traffic mitigation plans, and a plethora of political mistakes, the glaring threat to American professional sports was overlooked – the influence foreign money plays in our politics and our fandoms.
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NBCUniversal Locks Out Chiefs and Dolphins Fans
Sports Fans Coalition Executive Director Brian Hess issued the following statement in advance of the Chiefs vs Dolphins game streaming on Comcast/NBC-Universal’s Peacock app:
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Open Letter to Virginia Lawmakers: Oppose Wizards/Caps Stadium Deal
Today, lawmakers and Monumental Sports announced a stadium deal to bring the Washington Capitals and the Washington Wizards to Potomac Yard, Alexandria. This deal would be a MONUMENTAL disaster for Virginia taxpayers. If you agree, sign the following open letter to Virginia lawmakers and tell them to vote no on the deal.
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Sports Fans Coalition Praises Passage of the TICKET Act
By a 45-0 vote, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted to pass the TICKET Act, as amended. In committee the bill was merged with the STOP Act. Now the bill represents a consensus package that will significantly reform the live event ticketing marketplace.
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Ticket Transferability Helps Sports Fans Save $260 Million Over Five Years
Ticket transferability is one of the most important consumer protections for fans of live events. It is one of the pillars of the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights, for which Sports Fans Coalition advocates. Fans often have to buy a ticket to an event months in advance, and sometimes life has other plans. This is especially true of fans who invest in season tickets and are holding many tickets for a sports season. If a fan can’t attend the event, they should be able to resell their ticket to make up any losses they may face. However, there’s another important element to fan resale – consumer savings.
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Governor Polis Protects Sports Fans by Vetoing SB 23-060
Last night, in dealing a victory in the name of consumer protection, Colorado Governor Jared Polis vetoed SB23-060. Though it included some good provisions, this legislation would have given permission to live event ticketing giants Ticketmaster and AXS to deceive consumers when tickets go on sale by creating fake scarcity, and turning a blind eye to illegal software bots that scoop up tickets before humans can instead of reporting their usage to law enforcement. It also contained a loophole that could have handed Ticketmaster, AXS and event venues the ability to cancel, revoke, or otherwise invalidate tickets they already sold for various reasons - a unique power in the market that other ticketing companies argue could harm consumers by making them fearful to buy tickets from another ticketing company even if they find better tickets at a lower price.
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NEW POLL: Colorado Voters Overwhelmingly Support Right to Transfer Live Event Tickets and Want Mandated Disclosure of Deceptive Ticket “Hold Backs” When Tickets Go On Sale
Sports Fans Coalition, a member of the Ticket Buyer Bill of Rights Coalition, today released polling conducted by Rick Ridder of RBI Strategies & Research finding that voters overwhelmingly oppose many provisions included in Senate Bill 23-060 and support a key transparency provision that was removed from the final bill at the request of large dominant ticket sellers Ticketmaster and AXS. The poll found that 81% of Colorado voters oppose provisions in the bill which could allow companies like Ticketmaster and AXS to prevent fans from freely giving away or selling their purchased tickets. Additionally, nearly 9 in 10 voters (88%) of those polled support a requirement of these companies to disclose their use of the deceptive practice of holding back tickets from the initial sale to manufacture scarcity to mislead consumers into buying tickets at arbitrarily higher prices.
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Buffalo Buffalos Us on Stadium Deal
A 1977 analysis revealed that, although justified as a catalyst for economic growth, the construction of new stadiums fails to generate local benefits. 25 years later, a similar study reaffirmed this contradiction between rationale and impact. Local and state governments, however, continue to ignore such evidence and instead promote the construction of new stadiums.
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