From columnist Jon Tevlin at the
Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
They seemed like perfect seats to see the Twins play the Braves later this week. The advertisement on Craigslist even showed photos of the view, just down the left field line. But the ad promised more:
"Enjoy the comfort and extra room these seats provide," it said. "You'll never want to sit in hard stadium seats again."
What the ad failed to mention is that the seats offered, red padded folding chairs at the row top, are intended for disabled people.
The Twins have rightly been lauded for making probably the most disability-friendly stadium in the country. They have nearly 800 seats that can accommodate people in wheelchairs or those who have trouble using stairs.
But a lot of those seats are ending up online, on Craigslist or StubHub, Major League Baseball's official resale outlet. For one game, I quickly found more than a dozen. While some used the symbol, "WC," for wheelchair, most didn't. Those tickets get resold at inflated prices to fans who do not need special seats, which may prevent at least some disabled fans from attending games.
When I saw the tickets, I wrote to some of the sellers to see if I need to have a disabled person in my group to buy them. One broker who acknowledged the seats were WC, Kyle Kraemer, wrote back: "You don't need to be handicapped or have someone in your party to use these seats. In fact the Twins have been selling these seats to anyone and nine times out of 10 there isn't a single wheelchair in the section."
So I called Kevin Smith, Twins executive director of public affairs. He reiterated the team's dedication to the needs of people with disabilities and was disturbed some might misrepresent themselves to get tickets.
"We fully expect people who buy these seats to use them as intended," Smith said. "Otherwise, not good. It's like a 16-year-old taking Grandpa's handicapped parking sticker."
Smith said it's hard to police those seats because many people who use the seats might not seem disabled because they have invisible illnesses, such as lung disease.
"You can't go up to people in those seats and ask them to prove they are disabled," he said. Smith said disability seats are released to the general public, but usually the day of the game or perhaps a little sooner, depending on demand and other factors. He said he didn't know of any disabled person being denied seats.
But I did. I wrote about Deb Swenson, a blind attorney, on Tuesday. She mentioned she had partial season tickets. She said she has tried to get extra disability game tickets three times, including for Friday night, and was told they were sold out. Swenson has asked non-disabled people in her row how they got their seats, and they say, "I just got them on the Internet."
"The Twins are absolutely wonderful in helping disabled people," said Swenson. "It seems there is something here that they need to fix."
So, are dishonest brokers to blame, are the Twins being a bit disingenuous about holding tickets, or is there an 800-ticket glitch in the system?
Kraemer seemed forthright. He said he simply bought "best seats available" from the Twins website.
"To my knowledge, I have never purchased nor resold tickets in wheelchair rows with intention of profiting from another person's disability. Neither have I been made aware of the Twins strong interest in reserving these seats specifically for handicapped individuals," he wrote. "I can tell you with definite certainty that these seats are not 'held back' until the day of the game as I purchased these tickets about two weeks ago. I have been able to buy such WC tickets in the past far in advance of the game. Neither special requests nor feigned 'special needs' were used to procure the seats."
Paul Froehle, senior director of ticket operations, said Kraemer is likely being honest. Disability seats for some games are released ahead of time. And popular games sell out of those seats. But disabled people can usually get tickets if they plan ahead, he said.
"We're taking a look at that," said Froehle. "It's a balancing act. It's all on good faith, and there are always people with an angle."
Margot Imdieke Cross, with the Minnesota State Council on Disability, was on the committee to help makes games easy to attend.
"This is terrible," she said. "When disabled people get crappy seats, nobody cares. But these are good seats with great sight lines, so we knew there would be competition." She said Kraemer sounded earnest.
"But if there's a glitch, let's fix it," said Cross. "If some people are misrepresenting themselves to get these tickets, let's shame them."
From columnist Jon Tevlin at the Minneapolis Star-Tribune:
