Citizendia

A personal seat license gives the holder the right to buy season tickets for a certain seat in a stadium. This holder can sell the seat license to someone else if he no longer wishes to purchase season tickets. However, if the seat license holder chooses not to sell the seat licenses and does not renew the season tickets, the holder forfeits the license back to the team. Most seat licenses are valid for as long as the team plays in the current venue.

Seat licenses have been given various names- the most common term in North America is Personal Seat License and in Europe is Debenture. The primary reason sporting venues offer PSLs is that the proceeds are used to help pay the debt incurred during the construction of the stadium or arena. Also, many supporters feel that such licenses essentially give fans ownership of the seat. Opponents of PSLs see this as another way to extract money from the sports fans.

Origin of Seat Licenses

The permanent seat license was invented by a Columbus, Ohio architect, Rick Ohanian, in January of 1987, not seven years thereafter by Charlotte sports marketing agent, Max Muhleman, in 1993, as is commonly believed. Columbus is the Capital and the largest city of the US state of Ohio. The first appearance of the product can be seen in a "Letter to The Editor" from Mr. Ohanian to the Columbus Dispatch, published on March 2, 1987, entitled "Ticketbond is Answer to Financing Proposed Facility". The Columbus Dispatch is a daily Newspaper, based in Columbus Ohio, that serves the central portion of the state Events 986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks. 1127 - Assassination of Charles the Good Year 1987 ( MCMLXXXVII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar)

Those in disagreement with this claim, cite that similar program(s) were in existence among many college fund raising activities, prior to 1987. However, the difference here is the fact that these programs were tax-deductible donations to a scholarship fund, in which case the main "quid-pro-quo" was between the donation and the resultant deduction, not between the donation and the actual seating rights. The seating rights in all these cases were the "icing on the cake", not the cake itself, and it remains to be seen how many of these "College PSLs" would have sold, if any at all, had they not been tax-deductible.

Seat Licenses Across Teams and Leagues

Here is a list of some of the teams that have seat licenses:

NFL Seat Licenses

MLB Seat Licenses

Car Racing Seat Licenses

NHL Seat Licenses

NBA Seat Licenses

NRL Seat Licenses

The Houston Texans is a professional American football team based in Houston, Texas. The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Seattle Seahawks are a professional American football team based in Seattle Washington, USA The St Louis Rams are a professional American football team based in St The Tennessee Titans are a professional American football team based in Nashville Tennessee. The Arizona Diamondbacks (also referred to as the D-backs) are a professional baseball team based in Phoenix Arizona. The San Diego Padres are a Major League Baseball team based in San Diego California since their founding in 1969 The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in, that currently play in the National League West Division. The St Louis Cardinals (also referred to as "the Cards " or "the Redbirds " are a professional Baseball team based in St The Auto Club Speedway of Southern California (formerly California Speedway) is a two-mile low-banked D-shaped oval Superspeedway in Fontana California Kentucky Speedway is a motor speedway located in north-central Kentucky near the community of Sparta Kentucky; approximately halfway between Louisville Kentucky Texas Motor Speedway is a speedway located in the northernmost portion of the U The Columbus Blue Jackets are a professional Ice hockey team based in Columbus, Ohio, United States. "Leafs" and "Maple Leafs" redirect here For the former American Hockey League team see St The Toronto Raptors are a professional Basketball team based in Toronto, Ontario. The Gold Coast Titans are an Australian professional Rugby league football team based on the Gold Coast in Queensland.
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
 Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic