Seahawks, Broncos Enact Radical Ticket Policy To Bolster Homefield Advantage
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- It's pretty simple. If you are a San Francisco 49ers or New England Patriots fan feeling adventurous and want to go on the road to support your team you better come up with a really creative way of doing it.
Because odds are you are not getting into Seattle's CenturyLink Field or Sports Authority Field at Mile High in Denver.
The Seahawks and Broncos have no intention of selling tickets to the fans of their conference championship game opponents. They've each enacted controversial policies that will turn already very solid homefield advantages into the absolute unfriendliest of confines.
Following the Seahawks' 23-15 win over New Orleans on Saturday, which put them in the NFC Championship Game for the second time in franchise history, the team announced tickets for Sunday's title game against the 49ers would be available for sale on Monday morning — but only to fans who live in Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Alaska, or Hawaii, as well as the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta.
In other words, fans of the 49ers, specifically those who live near San Francisco, are out of luck. As expected, those fans were not amused, SI.com reported.
"What kind of nonsense is that? Are they that afraid of the Niners Nation?" posited Fred Santillan to KTVU.com.
"It's pretty sad," added David Fucillo, who runs SB Nation's Niners Nation website. "There was no need to do this. It adds another distraction."
A similar policy is in place for the AFC Championship Game. The Broncos announced following their 24-17 win over San Diego on Sunday that tickets that went on sale Monday morning for their matchup with the Patriots "will be available only to those with a valid billing address in the Rocky Mountain region, including Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, South Dakota and Western Kansas."
Policies like these are not unprecedented. Back in 2007 the Chargers tried to limit the tickets sold for their playoff game against the Patriots to southern California residents. Around the same time, the Chicago Bears attempted to limit the number of tickets sold for their playoff game against the Seahawks, SI.com reported.
If 49ers and Patriots fans still want to go cheer on their team, they are welcome to try to get tickets on the secondary market. However, prices are extremely high. As of noon on Monday, the cheapest ticket available on StubHub for the NFC Championship Game was $443, while the cheapest ticket available for the AFC Championship Game was $202.
And prices were only expected to rise from there.
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