- They sent out Seat Selection request forms. I believe these were sent out by seniority date. Some were due earlier this week. Mine was due back yesterday (2/20/09). Some are due next week.
- They asked for my top three seating choices based upon the chart provided along with some amenities.
- I was worried about my seniority date of 1984 because I was seeing on some forums and blogs that said anyone with a date over 1983 might be booted from the upper level since its expected that the vast majority of people will move up from the bottom level to the top.
- I believe that anyone with a date prior to 1977 will have a date of 1977 because they don't have records from before that.
- There is a big bubble of people with 1983 and 1984 dates since that's when the Jets announced the move to Giants Stadium.
- As soon as I received my form, a "New Stadium Sales Specialist" called me to confirm that I received the form and to ask if I had any questions.
- I discussed the program in pretty good detail with her. I told her that I was disappointed that the Jets PSL program was far worse than the Giants program. She disagreed. I explained that that the Giants plan would have enabled me to own a PSL for a cost of $1K and the Giants ticket prices were significantly lower than the Jets prices so the PSL $1K would be offset in about two years.
- Since I will sit in the "upper bowl", I will own no PSL and no transfer rights for my seat, not even the ability to transfer to someone in my own family. She finally conceded that the Giants program had several benefits over the Jets. I would much rather pay $1K per seat and own the seat (can sell for a profit, can transfer, etc).
- I'm not sure if the Giants let you buy the PSL for your current seat location or if you go into a seniority draft like the Jets.
- She seemed to be pushing the PSL seats in the lower level but I explained to the Rep that my seats (Section 330) were much better than those seats and why would I pay $16K-$20K (4 tickets) and much higher ticket prices for a worse seat than I have today. She sort of agreed.
- I told her that I wished the Jets had made some of the Upper Bowl seats PSLs. If they let us pay $2K-$3K for the Upper Prime section (between the 40's), I probably would have done that.
- I pretty much decided on making my three choices but had a few questions. I called the Rep three days in a row with no return call. My guess is that I was labeled as a non-PSL sale so no sense talking to me at that point.
- I called their 1-800 number and asked "Mike" my questions.
- My seniority date is Jan. 1, 1984. He said there are other 1984 dates that are not Jan. 1.
- When I asked where I was in the overall seniority list, he said I was number 6,500 out of 22,000. If that's true, that's a lot better than I thought.
- He said once the Jets receive my form, a sales rep would call me to confirm my choices.
- I told him that I sit on the aisle today but would not check that amenity box if it would worsen my seat location. He said that checking that box should not worsen my location.
He said sometime in the spring, a rep will call me with some seat options. Those would include the amenities I selected. - I submitted the on-line form instead of the paper one. The web site didn't look too sophisticated so once I clicked on "Resister", I got a very long delay and then the words "Thank You" appeared. That's it. No confirmation that it was received nor any email confirmation. I guess I'll call them to make sure it worked okay.
- I called my rep again, leaving a message asking if she would confirm that my form arrived okay. She sent me an email indicating that my form was complete and someone would get back to me in "late spring" with seating options.
- I have no idea what "seating options" means. Will I get one, several???
Okay, bottom line, if you couldn't tell, I'm not impressed with their program, how its administered or their on-line tools. I think time will tell what happens from here. I'll see if I stay on the upper level sidelines, get moved to upper end zone or get booted from the stadium altogether. My prediction is that most people will move up from the bottom level and based upon seniority, it will be a free-for-all with many, many long time season ticket holders either losing their tickets or having to buy very expensive PSLs. After that, the Jets will go to the wait list and sell to people who have a bunch of money and we will see a whole new look of fans in 2010 (assuming we're even there to see it.)
I think a key point is for people to ask where they are on the overall list. With a seniority date of Jan. 1, 1984, I was surprised to hear that I was number 6500 out of 22,000 (top 30%) so we'll see how that works out.
Just a prediction but I'm guessing that I end up near a goal line and lose my seats on the aisle.
John
