Brewers Restore Timeless Ticket Benefits After World Series Complaints

Milwaukee Brewers fans who purchased a special ticket package in 2015 have raised concerns about their World Series seating arrangements, prompting the team to offer a remedy. The Brewers will allow eligible holders to keep their World Series tickets and retain their original passes for future games after some fans expressed dissatisfaction with their assigned seats.

Rick Schlesinger, the Brewers' president of business operations, said Tuesday that several hundred fans had expressed interest in using their Timeless Tickets for a World Series game. He acknowledged problems with the team's internal coordination during the redemption process.

"We subsequently erred in our internal communications on the logistics of fulfilling the requests," Schlesinger said.

The team accommodated all applicants with seats, but some fans objected to their locations. Schlesinger said the organization was working to address those concerns despite the limited number of seats available for the series.

"While we were able to accommodate all with seats, we received feedback from some that they were unhappy with their seat locations," Schlesinger said.

He acknowledged that the team's handling of the program fell short of its intended purpose and said the organization was working toward a resolution.

"Clearly, even with extraordinary limitations on available seats, we did not live up to the spirit of the program, and we have been working through a resolution," Schlesinger said.

The Timeless Ticket promotion offered fans admission to any future Brewers game for a $1,000 purchase. Holders could also buy three additional tickets at full retail price for the game they selected, subject to availability.

The offer stated that tickets could be redeemed for the best available seating at the time of redemption. Danny Fochesato, a Milwaukee resident who bought a ticket on his 27th birthday, said priority access to premium seats was a major selling point when he purchased the package.

"Back in 2015, that was a big selling point from the sales people about this," Fochesato said.

He said sales representatives had described the program as providing priority immediately behind season-ticket holders, with access to seats those customers did not claim for major games.

"They really touted, 'Hey, this is going to be the best available seats. You're getting the priority just behind season-ticket holders. Anything the season-ticket holders don't have, you'll have dibs at it for the World Series.' That's kind of the story they sold," Fochesato said.

Fochesato previously attempted to redeem his ticket in 2018, when Milwaukee reached the National League Championship Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He said he received four seats in the 100 level behind home plate that could have been used for the World Series had the Brewers advanced, but Milwaukee lost Game 7 of the NLCS.

For the current World Series, Fochesato said the redemption form offered only 400-level seating or standing-room options. Applicants also had to submit their preferences without knowing which game they would receive.

"We had a form, and it only had 400-level or standing-room options," Fochesato said.

He described the process as frustrating because customers had to submit their choices and wait for the team's allocation.

"We couldn't even know what game we had. We just had to put a preference of which ones we wanted, and then we had to submit the form and just sit and wait for them what we got. I immediately was like, 'No, that's bogus,'" Fochesato said.

Fochesato said he negotiated three seats in the 400 level for Saturday's Game 2 against the Tampa Bay Rays and one lower-level seat in the right-field corner for Friday's Game 1. He also said he saw better seats available during the public ticket sale than those initially offered through the Timeless Ticket program.

Under the revised arrangement announced by Schlesinger, every Timeless Ticket holder who applied for World Series tickets before the deadline can keep the tickets allocated for the series and preserve the original pass for redemption during another game in a future season.

"We regret our mistake and look forward to welcoming them to American Family Field for their World Series experience," Schlesinger said.