The City of New Orleans has decided to limit attendance at Saints games to fans who have been vaccinated or who test negative for COVID prior to entering the venue. The Saints had decided not to issue refunds to season-ticket holders inclined to do neither.
The Saints have now reversed course. The team announced on Thursday that refunds will be made available, if requests are made by Tuesday, August 24 at 4:00 p.m. local time.
“We have received less than 120 requests for ticket refunds as of this morning and, following media inquiries and recent articles about refund policies, we have received thousands of calls from interested fans wanting to purchase any season tickets made available by current season ticket holders seeking refunds,” the Saints said in a statement. “Our preference is to have these loyal fans in the seats rather than see these additional tickets be made available to visiting fans via the secondary market.”
Refunds will have a consequence, however. The season-ticket account will be canceled, and the tickets will be made available to the next person on the waiting list. Thus, for people who want to keep their season tickets but who decline to be vaccinated or tested, they’ll need to try to sell their tickets, one game at a time, through the available digital channels.
For season-ticket holders who already have re-sold tickets to specific games, it’s important to remember that cancellation the season tickets will invalidate those tickets. Which will leave the people who bought those tickets on the secondary market without valid tickets.
The change in policy from the Saints comes after Louisiana attorney Jeff Landry expressed concern about the refusal to issue refunds to people who purchased their tickets before the policy was announced.
