Spurs' request leaves Mavs fans out in cold
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By Darren Rovell
ESPN.com
If an in-state rivalry isn't enough to create added motivation in the Western Conference finals, maybe a brouhaha over a ticket policy will.
Dallas Mavericks fans who bought tickets to the first two games in San Antonio have been frustrated over the past couple days when their orders were canceled because their credit card billing address did not come from areas apparently specified by the San Antonio Spurs.
A notice on the Ticketmaster site states that sales to games at the SBC Center "will be restricted to residents of San Antonio, Austin and south of San Antonio areas." Dallas is located roughly 200 miles north of Austin and 275 miles north of San Antonio.
"It probably adds to (the rivalry)," said Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who received about 20 e-mails from fans who wanted to purchase tickets to the game. "We have a lot of upset Mavs fans who have friends in San Antonio who would have loved to go to the game, actually got online and bought tickets and had the purchases canceled."
Ticketmaster spokesperson Kandus Simpson declined to comment on the specifics of the Spurs requests, but did say that "ticket and selling policies are established by the client." Calls placed to San Antonio Spurs spokesman Tom James were not immediately returned.
Cuban said he contacted the league about the policy, but league executives said that because the game was a sellout, there was nothing they could do. "They weren't altogether pleased about the policy," Cuban added. NBA executives couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
The Spurs face the Mavericks in Game 1 Monday night and will play Game 2 on Wednesday.
"The Mavs try to accomodate San Antonio (Spurs) fans," Cuban said. "When we did the tribute for David Robinson, we went out of our way to make whatever we could available -- standing room only -- whatever we could, given the game had been sold out for a long while. To exclude our fans from games in San Antonio is just plain wrong and sends the wrong message."
Jbeau Lewis, a student at University of Texas Southwestern medical school in Dallas, tried to purchase two tickets with his credit card. After he approved his seats, his credit card was rejected. He managed to borrow a credit card of a friend who lives in Austin and purchased two nosebleed seats to Game 1 for $85. "I think it's incredibly absurd, considering that when the Spurs came to Dallas this year, the crowd was peppered with a good number of Spurs fans," Lewis said. "Mavericks fans should be able to reciprocate that in San Antonio."
When the Mavericks played the Spurs in the Western Conference semifinals two years ago, Cuban said he bought about 500 nosebleed tickets to reserve for Mavs fans.
"The only unfortunate message it sends it that they are more concerned about the other team's fans than they are (about their) business partners," Cuban said.
