According to ESPN, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo thwarted the arrangement between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Ticketmaster to only sell tickets to Saturday's playoff game to Floridians.
Cuomo threatened Ticketmaster, saying the scheme "raises issues, interstate commerce issues."
The "Commerce Clause" of the United States Constitution states "The Congress shall have power . . . To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states..." This power is considered exclusive and plenary, and thus has been interpreted to prevent state and local government from performing acts that restrict interstate commerce (a concept known as the Dormant/Negative Commerce Clause".
There's one problem. Ticketmaster is a private company. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a private company. Raymond James Stadium was publicly financed and is owned by the Tampa Sports Authority (an organization that owns all of Tampa's sporting venues, not a large chain sportings good store.) However, public ownership of the venue does not constitute government action when the actors are private corporations. Did Cuomo successfully scare off Ticketmaster by threatening to win a last-second injunction based on the concept that a quasi-governmental agency's implicit compliance in the dastardly act of interstate commerce interference would make the scheme unconstitutional? Isn't this just the failure of the local government to act to prevent interference with interstate commerce?
Let me also note that Cuomo has simply pointed out that there is absolutely NO question that a team with a privately owned stadium (The Redskins' FedEx field for example) can refuse to sell tickets to anyone outside of the D.C. Metro area. I sure hope Danny Boy doesn't remember that the next time the Giants have a playoff game in Landover, MD.
I presume this will all become moot. The NFL might step forward this offseason and prohibit this practice by its member clubs.
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