Viva Democracy

by
November 4, 2009

With perks like these, you’d think the folks in Congress wouldn’t beat baseball up over steroids and stuff as often as they do. I mean really, isn’t a bribe worth anything in Washington anymore?

Tickets for Wednesday’s World Series game are nearly impossible to come by at face value. But that isn’t the case if you are a member of Congress or one of their aides.

Federal lawmakers and people who work for them have gotten their hands on scores of tickets to the sold-out World Series games this year between the New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies courtesy of a perk not available to the public.

Major League Baseball and the teams sell a limited number of prime seats to lawmakers and congressional aides at face value, often hundreds of dollars less than the going rate.

(thanks to reader Rich C. for the link)


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HP3
14 years ago

MLB providing lower cost services to Congress and Congress accepting?  I am shocked beyond belief. 

And when exactly are they going to get rid of the antitrust exemption?  You know that pesky little thing that has been in place since the Supreme Court ruled in the 1920’s that baseball is a “sport” and not interstate commerce.

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Ryan
14 years ago

I would like to be corrupt, but apparently I’m not important enough.

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John_Michael
14 years ago

If congress-people receive a WS ticket for less than what it’s fair market value is, wouldn’t they have to pay taxes on the difference?

This gives a whole new meaning to the Congressional Oversight Committee.

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Jonathan Fellows
14 years ago

They do have to pay face value—which is a difference from the bad old days when they could get them as perks, or go as guests of corporate types.

As far as the antitrust exemption—that was codified in the Curt Flood Act of 1998.  The act applied the antitrust law to their labor relations and exempted them from it otherwise.

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Aaron Moreno
14 years ago

If we really wanted to punish Congress, we’d make them attend Nats and Skins games.

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Richard Dansky
14 years ago

Waitaminute.

They’re not giving the tickets away. They’re selling them. More specifically, they’re selling them at face value – the same amount anyone else would have to pay if they’d bought the tickets from the Yankees – not at a discount. Is the special access a little dicey? Enh. Show me a genuine fan sitting below the nosebleeds at the Super Bowl instead of a corporate interest or planted “celebrity”, and we’ll talk.

Good thing there’s nothing else going on in the world that people should be worried about, so we can geshry over stuff like this.

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