400 Super Bowl fans lose seats

ARLINGTON, Texas - Super Bowl tickets are a tough get, but actual seats at the Super Bowl turned out to be even more difficult to come by.

Four hundred fans with tickets to the game at Cowboys Stadium Sunday night nearly were turned away because construction on their temporary sections was not completed in time. According to the NFL, each of those fans received a refund of triple the face value of the $800 ticket.

"The safety of fans attending the Super Bowl was paramount in making the decision, and the NFL, Dallas Cowboys and City of Arlington officials are in agreement with the resolution," a league statement said.

Those bumped originally were to remain in the Party Plaza outside the stadium and watch the games on large screens. The Party Plaza usually has a view of the field, but that view was blocked . . . by the temporary seating. But shortly after kickoff, NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the 400 fans indeed were allowed inside the stadium. They either were in the field-level club behind the Pittsburgh Steelers' bench, where they could watch the game on monitors, or on standing-room platforms in each corner of Cowboys Stadium, where they could see the game in person. They still received their refunds.

Another 850 fans arrived at the game to find that their seats in temporary stands were not ready. They had to either wait for them or be relocated to similar or better seats.

Even those fans who had unaffected seats had difficulty. Four of the 10 entrances into the $1.2- billion stadium were closed Sunday, two days after snow and ice fell from the roof, seriously injuring two. Bottlenecked fans were heard chanting "Jerry Jones --!" while trying to get in for the game.

The situation capped a long, disappointing week for the North Texas area, which had to deal with historically bad weather conditions.

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