A petition has been established on Change.org to address a new Green Bay Packers ticketing policy regarding fans with disabilities.
About 1,600 fans received letters from the Packers last week stating that the team will no longer be able to sell single-game tickets to individuals with disabilities or their companions, per changes to the Americans with Disabilities Act that went into effect last March with a compliance deadline of March 15, 2012. The changes require entertainment venues to treat people with disabilities like everyone else in terms of ticket sales. From now on, those individuals will have to purchase season tickets to gain admittance to Lambeau Field. In addition, the Packers will end the practice of allowing season-ticket holders with disabilities to sell unused tickets back to the team.
According to the Green Bay Press-Gazette, past users of Lambeau's accessible seating sections have until March 16 to express interest in season tickets, and Mark Wagner, the Packers' director of ticket operations, expressed confidence that all 772 locations will be sold.
That's not good enough for Lynn Vreeke, who's 24-year-old son has cerebral palsy and receives roughly $800 a month in disability benefits. "He was crushed," Vreeke told the Press-Gazette. "He'll never get to go to a game again, because if he doesn't buy season tickets, they'll take his name off the list."
Neil Andrew is hoping to get enough names on his Change.org list that the Packers pay attention. "I created the petition in hopes that it would promote change," Andrew told local ABC affiliate WBAY. The petition reads, in part, that it "takes into account the fixed income often faced by the disabled fan and does not exclude them from participating because of their inability to pay for an expensive set of season tickets for not only themselves but, in many cases, their aides as well." As of this writing, the petition had received 23 signatures.
The Packers have said that no amount of signatures will change the fact that they must comply with the new ADA requirements. "The Packers may be fine as far as the law is concerned, but it's a moral issue, not just necessarily a legal one," Andrew told WBAY, "and I think that they need to do what's right."
