New Jersey Politicians Under Fire Over Ticket-Gate

"Ethics Commission chairwoman says politicians using official position to secure an unfair advantage"

By Alicia Cruz
The Black Urban Times

Paula Franzese, chairwoman of the state Ethics Commission is calling for an investigation after learning that former New Jersey Governor, Jon Corzine's administration secured tickets to Bruce Springsteen and U2 concerts at a time when the state was suing brokers over ticketing practices.

“I would like to see an investigation," said Franzese. “The public can’t help but feel violated when the perception is some are entitled to special treatment, but not others,” said Franzese, who claims to have been unaware of the ticket practices.

Of the 150 tickets set aside for Springsteen concerts from September through October, 19 were for Corzine’s office.

Reports say from July to October 2009, Corzine’s office reserved 57 tickets for U2, Springsteen and the Jonas Brothers at Giants Stadium and the IZOD Center through the New Jersey Sports & Exposition Authority. The documents indicate more than 350 seats for 15 concerts were set-aside for elected officials. Many of the legislators claimed to have secured the tickets for constituents.

“The means by which the tickets are secured has everything to do with undue access and using official position to secure an unfair advantage,” said Franzese.

Those shows are at the center of a lawsuit filed by former New Jersey Attorney General Ann Milgram against five ticket Web sites, of which two have settled and agreed to pay $5,000. In the litigation, the state says the sites took orders for tickets before they were on sale. Milgram’s successor, Paula Dow, has now taken over pursuing the case.

However, John Samerjan, a sports authority spokesman, said holding “house seats” for VIPs is “standard industry practice” and that the recipients pay face value for the tickets. The agency sets aside less than 1 percent of seats for that purpose, said Samerjan. We’re a public facility hosting major events in the state, and they are paying for the tickets. We think that’s completely appropriate," said Samerjan.

Josh Zeitz, former policy adviser to Corzine backed Samerjan's statement.

"It’s a long-standing practice for the sports authority to hold tickets in reserve and like many other people our office steered interested customers to the sports authority and those people then bought the tickets at face value,” Zeitz said. “We were told as often as not that there were no tickets available. There was no preferential treatment.”

Documents, which are a part of evidence in the lawsuit, show 22 elected officials received "special treatment" when purchasing tickets to venues.

The Star-Ledger, which previously reported tickets were being held from public sale, is suing for access to the sports authority’s contracts with promoters. The number of concert tickets available to the public has been a closely held secret. Consumer advocates and brokers say choice seats are usually withheld by venue operators, artists and promoters.

“Holds happen all the time,” Chris Tsakalakis, president of EBay Inc.’s StubHub resale Web site told Bloomberg.net “No one likes to talk about it, so the lack of information creates misinformation about where the tickets go.”

The best seats on resale sites often originate from hold- backs, said Tsakalakis, who is not a defendant in the New Jersey lawsuit.


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