Super Bowl XLV Ticket Fiasco: Bleachers Under Construction

, originally uploaded by DCVBphotos.

This photo shows the temporary seats installed at the 400 level of Cowboys Stadium that, in some cases, were not signed off by the Arlington Fire Marshall in time for Super Bowl XLV. The photo was taken by DCVBphotos on January 19th, and using an using an Apple iPhone 3G.

As you can see, the temporary seats are metal bleachers and were in the middle of being built. (Notice the back seat stand fence that was placed on the seat in the middle ground.) From experience in heading the Oakland bid for the 2005 Super Bowl that Jacksonville won, I can say they were really playing with some access issues with those seats.

First, the area that the seats were installed in is a corridor; thus the space between the bleacher seats and the blue permanent seats is really narrow. This is what Stu Guskind was referring to in my video interview.

You can see from the photo that each of the sections going down was "filled in" with these bleacher seats. I'd love to see a photo of what it looked like during the Super Bowl game. I'll bet it was chaotic for those people able to even get in the stadium to get to their seats.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell issued a plan to compensate Super Bowl patrons who never got to their seats because the fire marshall didn't approve them. Click here for info on his plan.

Stay tuned.