Even Face-Value Tickets Can Be Preferential
<a href="http://www.cityethics.org/content/getting-green-bay-ethics-program-supe…; target="”_blank”">Last
month, I wrote</a> about how the Green Bay ethics board hadn't met much
more than the Packers had won Super Bowls. Well, now that the Packers
have won another, it's time for the ethics board to meet again (the
last time it met was in 1999).<br>
<br>
One thing Green Bay and Pittsburgh officials have in common is their
payment for face-value Super Bowl tickets. You may wonder what is wrong
with paying face-value for tickets. Usually nothing, especially when
face value is an incredible $1,200. But it turns out that this is a
bargain, because normal people have to pay far more. Even season ticket
holders get a shot at face-value tickets only through a lottery; the
rest have to pay astronomical amounts.<br>
<br>
It doesn't help that the Packers are talking to officials about an
entertainment district on land they own surrounding the stadium,
according to <a href="http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20110130/GPG0101/110129067/…; target="”_blank”">an
article last week in the Green Bay <i>Press Gazette</i></a>. But in any event,
a lot of business is done between sports teams and local governments.<br>
<br>
For the Packers, according to its spokesman, offering face-value
tickets to those they do business with is good business.<br>
"Generally speaking, we have many partners and individuals with whom we
work that we extend the opportunity to purchase tickets. Elected
leaders, at times, are included as well. They are representatives of
our community and as a community-owned team, we work with them on a
variety of fronts. If we can assist, we’ll try.”<br>
<br>
But a village president who turned down the face-value ticket offer
said that "he believes it would have been unethical for
him to accept such special treatment."<br>
<br>
And put simply, that is what it is: preferential treatment in
order to get preferential treatment.<br>
<br>
According to a spokesman, Pittsburgh's ethics code does not prohibit
officials paying for face-value tickets. Green Bay's ethics code says
that officials should use "discretion and the judgment of a reasonable,
prudent person,” which provides very little guidance.<br>
<br>
In a good ethics environment, there would be open discussion about the
ethics of paying for face-value Super Bowl tickets. This is as public a
decision as there is. It will certainly make it into the newspapers.
Citizens will certainly feel that their officials are being given a
special deal. The fact that the cities' ethics codes do not prohibit
this should be a minor part of such a discussion, not the excuse.<br>
<br>
The fact is that a city's mayor should probably attend the Super Bowl
when its team is playing. And he or she shouldn't have to pay $1,200 a
ticket, plus transportation, housing, and meals when getting paid
$80,000. But the team should not be a benefactor; the city should pay.<br>
<br>
Or, perhaps, the city could come up with a creative solution. The team
could be asked to send the mayor and a few poor children from the city
to the game. Representing the city and doing something special for at
least a few citizens might make it a win-win situation. The best way to deal with this is to put it in a contract between team and city, so that it is an expected part of the relationship, not a gift.<br>
<br>
Council members could watch the game at a local forum, along with
hundreds or thousands of citizens who don't have a big screen to watch
it on. There are more ways to represent a community than traveling to
the big game.<br>
<br>
Robert Wechsler<br>
Director of Research-Retired, City Ethics<br>
<br>
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