Brandon Pasch's Super Bowl experience has gone from rage to some kind of resolution. Six weeks after being denied a seat despite having a very expensive ticket, the Sun Prairie bartender's mood toward the game has changed enough that he got a tattoo of the Lombardi trophy inked on his calf.
The permanent reminder of what he once considered a nightmare came as he and fiancee Lindsay Voboril received a flurry of mail including a signed apology letter from National Football League commissioner Roger Goodell plus a $10,000 check from the league.
"We'll never get to see that game again," he said, "but they're doing the best they can to make up for it."
Pasch, along with Voboril and about 1,200 other fans, showed up at the Feb. 6 game with tickets, waiting for what most considered a once-in-lifetime experience that was worth the $800, or more, they paid.
The exhilaration died quickly when officials informed them their seats were invalid due to safety concerns. A long march from one official to the next ensued and eventually landed Pasch, Voboril and about 400 others at a seat below the stadium, and out of field view. They unaffectionately called their part of Cowboys Stadium "The Hole."
The fiasco caused deep resentment among fans who felt cheated out of a Bucket List experience. Their anger grew when the NFL promised to reimburse the ticket holders three times the $800 face value of the seats, which was a fraction of what many spent for tickets and travel.
But the initial fury has cooled for at least some of the fans. The league since revised its offer to one of three options: $2,400 a ticket plus a ticket to next year's Super Bowl; a ticket and full travel expenses to any future Super Bowl; or a $5,000 check for each ticket.
Pasch, 30, a bartender at Bowl-A-Vard Lanes on Madison's East Side, and Voboril, a nursing assistant, took the third option, to pay off what they estimated were $4,000 in Super Bowl-related expenses. Now, Pasch wants to donate $1,000 of the reimbursement to pay for Milwaukee Brewers tickets for state veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I have a bunch of friends just out," he said. The La Follette High School graduate spent his childhood dreaming of being a Marine but didn't qualify because he has flat feet.
Craig and Laurie Mathews, of Madison, who faced the same ticket debacle at the game, have not yet decided which reimbursement option to accept. There are at least three class-action lawsuits pending against the NFL, the Dallas Cowboys and team owner Jerry Jones.
Craig Mathews said he and his wife were not likely to join the lawsuits but wanted to get more details from the league about the settlement options. They're not required to make a decision until May 2.
"I want to move on," he said. "There are a lot more important things in life."
WisconsinStateJournal wrote: