Pols Score World Series Tickets
Christopher Weber
Correspondent
Posted:
11/4/09
World Series tickets are hard to come by for average baseball fans (assuming they could even afford them in the first place) but some members of Congress and their staffers are having no problems getting into the big games.
Major League Baseball sells seats to federal lawmakers and their aides at face value, hundreds of dollars less than the going rate, the Wall Street Journal reports. So far during the series between New York and Philadelphia, MLB has sold about 75 tickets to a total of 15 congress members and members of their staffs. A league spokesperson declined to say exactly who purchased the tickets.
Major League Baseball sells seats to federal lawmakers and their aides at face value, hundreds of dollars less than the going rate, the Wall Street Journal reports. So far during the series between New York and Philadelphia, MLB has sold about 75 tickets to a total of 15 congress members and members of their staffs. A league spokesperson declined to say exactly who purchased the tickets.
Because the tickets are bought, not gifted, no congressional rules are broken. But ethics groups say the purchasers are exploiting a loophole.
"Anytime you have access to something that regular people don't have, it should be considered a gift," Melanie Sloan, executive director of the nonpartisan Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the Journal. "Regular people can't call the Major League Baseball office and get tickets."