While fans crowded with their green and gold jerseys, I can imagine many being quite envious of those who were sitting in the stands, feeling the intense excitement and suspense. Unfortunately, this group of envious supporters didn’t just consist of those watching through the television screen, but also many of those who were turned away from their thousand dollar stadium seats, minutes before the game started.

This Sunday, over 1,000 ticket holders were turned away from their seats after sections of the Cowboys Stadium’s bleachers were left uncompleted.

Wisconsin native Jim Rouleau, a Packers fan who held his season passes with pride, was told his $7,800 seats were “unavailable” and he and his friend simply “could not sit there.”

“We got all the way to our seats,” Rouleau said. “They just turned us away.”

With approximately 1,250 people having bought tickets with seats now deemed unavailable, Mr. Rouleau was not the only one who was simply turned away.

And even though the N.F.L. was able to supply 850 of these confused fans with relocated seating, the several hundred others were left to wait in line, hoping for some type of plausible solution.

Eventually, these unsatisfied ticket holders were either turned away or invited to enjoy the game at one of the stadium’s local clubs. The N.F.L. promised a refund worth three times the ticket’s face value.

However, the $800 to $900 face value of most of these tickets didn’t even come close to the true amount of thousands of dollars numerous customers paid for these seats.

“I’ve just lost eight grand,” said the Dallas lawyer Bradley Geier who spent $9,700 for two tickets that had a face value of $900 each. “Just because they decided to put seats where they shouldn’t.”

These fans not only lost money and an amazing experience, but they also had to undergo the horrid security checks before they were informed of their ticket’s disablement.

“The frustrating thing here is that they wait till the day of the game to say these auxiliary seats aren’t good?” said Dan McGinnity of Spokane, Washington, a Packers fan who paid $900 for his ticket. “Don’t they have any sort of plan ahead of time?”

With this question left unanswered, we can only hope that next year wont face the same dilemma.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/sports/football/07fans-super-bowl-dallas.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB