Refund Or Credit? Red Sox Season Ticket Holders Want Answers After Coronavirus Shutdown
BOSTON (CBS) - Boston Red Sox season ticket holders are hoping to have some answers from the team about all the games they've missed this year due to coronavirus.
According to a report, Major League Baseball says teams can now offer refunds, but the question is will they? Or will they offer credits for the 2021 season?
Ken Healy has been a season ticket holder for eight years, and hopes the team offers a refund for games not played. "I'm not looking for a credit next year," said Healy. "I'm still paying for my tickets this year."
Healy said he paid more than $18,000 in December for his four seats behind home plate. If the team didn't want to give some of that back, he's prepared to walk away. "They wanna keep us around, be fair with us," said Healy. "If not, I will seriously think about whether I should keep four tickets next year, or give them up completely."
Sports Illustrated legal analyst Michael McCann said teams give themselves some legal wiggle room with ticket sales. They have classified the games not played this season as postponed, not canceled, which means they don't have to give refunds. "Teams have drafted policies, in terms of buying tickets, that give them a pretty significant latitude," says McCann.
MLB teams have been treating games missed during the shutdown similar to games that get rained out. They are credited for a later date, but no refunds. Last week two fans sued MLB and all of the teams over that policy.
So, should a global pandemic be treated in the same way as a rain delay? No, says McCann. "There's no question they were not thinking about a global pandemic," McCann said. "So there's an argument to be had that that language shouldn't enable baseball and teams to not refund money."
The Red Sox could announce their plans for season ticket holders Wednesday, and McCann isn't optimistic about money coming back to fans who missed games. "I think that teams are going to be reluctant to refund their money, and that's true of all teams," McCann said.
That said, "if some teams are keeping the money, and others aren't," McCann said, "that's gonna put the teams that are keeping the money in a tough spot with their fans."
For fans like Ken Healy, whose auto business has been hit hard by the coronavirus crisis, any money he can recoup from the team will go a long way. "Yeah, I could definitely use the money for other things right now," Healy said.
The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office has received more than 110 complaints about canceled events since March 1. The AG encourages people with tickets to work directly with organizers to ask for refunds.