Danny Fochesato turned 27 in January 2015 and wanted a present for himself. His Milwaukee Brewers had just put one on sale. For $1,000, a fan got a one-pound brass ticket with his own name engraved on it. It was good for one home game. Any game, any year, forever. He figured it couldn't be real.
Jared Diamond tells the story in the Thursday Journal's A-hed. The Brewers sold 1,000 of these timeless tickets at $1,000 each, about $1 million up front. One holder, Emily Mae Heller, likened hers to Willy Wonka's golden ticket. Holders felt they had fronted the team real money in lean years. This month the Brewers made the World Series for the first time since 1982. They host the Tampa Bay Rays in Game 1 on Friday, Oct. 23. Resale seats start near $3,000. Several hundred holders picked this as their game.
Best available seat, subject to availability
The card mailed to buyers said a ticket got the best seat available, subject to what was left on redemption day. Fans took that to mean good seats. Instead, holders who cashed in for the Series could choose the upper deck or standing room. Fochesato expected better. In 2018, when the team came one win short of the Series, he picked from a long list at the box office. He landed four field-level seats near home plate. This year he got a form with no lower-level seats on it. After some haggling, the team offered him one lower-level outfield seat for Game 1. He could also buy three upper-deck seats for Game 2.
Kevin Deaton runs Gateway Mortgage Corp. in Wisconsin. He bought two, one for himself and one for his son, then a toddler. Once he learned where they'd sit, he chose not to redeem. He's still a fan, he told the Journal, but he won't take his kids up to the 400 level. “You need binoculars.” Not everyone's sore. Matt Stollak, a business professor at St. Norbert College in Wisconsin, traded his for a seat on Friday. “It's an investment in dreams and the future,” he said.
Ticket reps said holders got the best seats left after the presales. On Tuesday evening, Oct. 20, Rick Schlesinger, the team's president of business operations, apologized. The team “did not live up to the spirit of the program,” he said. He got the idea from forever stamps at the post office. Now anyone who redeemed for the Series still goes. They also keep the timeless ticket for one more game in a future season.
Our read
Our read, Insurance and Consumer Protection (M11), with a nod to the time value of money (M3). Strip away the brass and this is a prepaid product. A promise like that is only as good as the sentence that defines it. This one said best available, subject to availability. That line let the team seat presale groups first and still keep its word on paper. The Brewers made it right after fans pushed back. Plenty of sellers never do.
Here's where it touches your own plan. Pick one prepaid promise you hold, like a gift card, a lifetime membership or a prepaid funeral plan. This week, read its redemption terms and find the subject-to line. Note who decides what's available, and when. If the seller decides, count it as a hope, not an asset. Fochesato waited eleven years to learn what his ticket bought. If you'd like a second set of eyes on the fine print in your plan, we're glad to read it with you.