And I thought Danny was evil for having pillars installed IN FRONT OF(!) seats at FedEx Field.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080716/NEWS/80716028Lucas Oil Stadium’s 63,000 seats include some turkeys – seats with limited view, and in some cases views of the field that are all but completely obstructed.
Thanks to pillars located in each of the four corners, Colts officials say there are about 200 partially-obstructed seats at the new football stadium, and even fewer seats that are totally obstructed - which the team says won't be sold for games.
The obstructed-view seats include Section 433, Row 13, Seats 27, 28 or 29.
The final media tour before the $750 million stadium’s Aug. 16 grand opening turned up a few of the worst seats, up in the nosebleed section and squarely behind support columns.
If you're on the aisle, it appears you will have the ability to lean to the left or right -- the way Peyton does when he calls an audible, to see around the post.
But if you're in the middle, chances are your elbows will be in your neighbor's popcorn if you try to lean too much.
Larry Hall, the vice president of ticket operations for the Colts, said those totally-obstructed seats are not part of the ticket program and will never be sold for a football game.
During a media tour on Tuesday, the word was that these seats are in a section that could someday go away in order to make way for more suites when the Super Bowl comes to town.
The partically-obstructed seats will be sold, but not as a season ticket and only after all other tickets are sold.
Ticket broker Renny Harrison, a partner in CircleCityTickets.com, says many venues have partially-obstructed views. But he was surprised at the layout shown in The Star photo.
“I’m amazed they put those in there,” he said.
Harrison said his company rarely handles seats with obstructed views. When they do, he said, the customer is informed up front so that the buyer knows what he is getting.
“I think for an event of extraordinary demand, like some of the Colts games have been, there is a market for people who just want to be at the game regardless of the view they have – although this does seem to be an extreme obstruction,” he said.
“I would assume there would be some demand for that ticket - at some price – for the Chicago Bears-Colts game.”
At the RCA Dome, he said, tickets behind obstructions are usually benches, allowing people to move around a bit to get a view of some kind.
“People would kind of crowd together, so quite often it was not as bad as this one appears to be,” Harrison said.
Pete Ward, senior executive vice president of the Colts, said that fans who buy partially-obstructed seats would know in advance that their view will not be unobstructed, like most of the seats in the new stadium.
"Absolutely. It is printed on the ticket," said Ward.
