Personal Seat License
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A personal seat license, or PSL, gives the holder the right to buy season tickets for a certain seat in a stadium. This holder can sell the seat license to someone else if they no longer wish to purchase season tickets.[1] However, if the seat license holder chooses not to sell the seat licenses and does not renew the season tickets, the holder forfeits the license back to the team. Most seat licenses are valid for as long as the team plays in the current venue.
Seat licenses have been given various names- the most common term in North America is Personal Seat License and in Europe is Debenture. The primary reason sporting venues offer PSLs is that the proceeds are used to help pay the debt incurred during the construction of the stadium or arena. Opponents of PSLs see this as another way to extract money from the sports fans.
[edit] Origin of Seat Licenses
The permanent seat license was invented by a Columbus, Ohio architect, Rick Ohanian, in January 1987, rather than by Charlotte sports marketing agent, Max Muhleman, in 1993, as is commonly believed. The first appearance of a PSL can be seen in a Letter to The Editor from Ohanian to the Columbus Dispatch, published on March 2, 1987, entitled "Ticketbond is Answer to Financing Proposed Facility".[2] However Muhleman is credited as the founder of the first PSL's at Charlotte's then Carolinas Stadium.
Those in disagreement with this claim cite that similar programs were in existence among many college fund raising activities prior to 1987. However, the difference here is the fact that these programs were tax-deductible donations to a scholarship fund, in which case the main "quid-pro-quo" was between the donation and the resultant deduction, not between the donation and the actual seating rights. The seating rights in all these cases were the "icing on the cake", not the cake itself, and it remains to be seen how many of these "College PSLs" would have sold, if any at all, had they not been tax-deductible.
[edit] Seat Licenses Across Teams and Leagues
Here is a list of some of the teams that have seat licenses:
NFL Seat Licenses
- Baltimore Ravens PSL[1]
- Carolina Panthers PSL
- Chicago Bears PSL
- Cincinnati Bengals COA (Charter Ownership Agreements)
- Cleveland Browns PSL
- Dallas Cowboys SL (Seat Licenses) (Effective at Cowboys Stadium only.)
- Green Bay Packers PSL
- New York Giants PSL (Effective in the Meadowlands Stadium only.)
- New York Jets PSL (Effective in the Meadowlands Stadium only. Policies differ from the Giants.)
- Houston Texans PSL
- Philadelphia Eagles SBL (Stadium Builder Licenses)
- Pittsburgh Steelers SL
- Seattle Seahawks CSL (Charter Seat Licenses)
- St. Louis Rams PSL
- Tennessee Titans PSL
MLB Seat Licenses
- Arizona Diamondbacks Legacy Club Seat Licenses
- Minnesota Twins Legends Club Memberships (effective in Target Field only)
- San Diego Padres Founders Club Memberships
- San Francisco Giants CSL Charter Seat Licenses
- St. Louis Cardinals Ballpark Founders Club Seat Licenses
Car Racing Seat Licenses
- California Speedway PSL
- Kentucky Speedway PSL
- Texas Motor Speedway PSL
NHL Seat Licenses
NBA Seat Licenses
- Toronto Raptors PSL
NRL SL
- Gold Coast Titans PSR (Personal Seat Right)
