(Paul Jacob) – Those New York Yankees did it again. I’d love to have seen them win their 27th World Series crown. But, well, the tickets are terribly expensive. For those who don’t buy season tickets, the average ticket price is $750. For Game 6 in New York, that average soared to $900.
But a few people pay a fraction of those amounts.
Major League Baseball’s lobbying office makes special tickets available to members of Congress at the face value of the tickets, many hundreds of dollars less than the price you’d pay. This deal is not for run-of-the-mill Americans, mind you, but for folks with clout, members of the inner politburo of America.
Bribery! Who said that?
Silly us, it’s all perfectly legal. The league and teams are selling the tickets at the price it says on the ticket, not giving them away.
But as Melanie Sloan, with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, put it, “Anytime you have access to something that regular people don’t have, it should be considered a gift. Regular people can’t call the Major League Baseball office and get tickets.”
Vice President Joe Biden went to one of the games in Philly along with his wife, Jill. As VP, he’s not even covered by the gift ban, but he was nice enough to pay $325 each for the two tickets worth $1,500.
Is this a great country or what?
(Paul Jacob is President of Citizens in Charge and the Citizens in Charge Foundation)
