When about 3,200 fans were denied their seats at last year’s Super Bowl because of the temporary-seating debacle, one of the NFL’s offers to compensate them was a free trip to this year’s Super Bowl.
More than 90 percent of those fans turned that trip down.
The NFL told the Indianapolis Star that 246 fans took the NFL up on its offer and are heading to Indianapolis. That would mean about 3,000 will take another one of the NFL’s offers, or will pursue legal action to get better compensation than the league is offering.
Fans who didn’t want to go to this year’s Super Bowl had other options, including a trip to a future Super Bowl, or just settling the whole thing for $5,000. It’s not surprising that not many fans took the trip to this year’s game: Packers and Steelers fans would probably rather wait until their teams are back in the Super Bowl and accept the free tickets then, and a trip to Indianapolis in February isn’t exactly what most people view as a great travel destination.
Temporary seats will be used for this year’s Super Bowl, too, but the NFL insists that everything will be ready and no fans will be turned away.