One of our more lengthy processes here in the Ticket office of the Philadelphia Eagles is the process of transferring seats. We have two different types of seats within Lincoln Financial Field, Stadium Builder Licensed seats, SBL’s, and Non-Stadium Builder Licensed seats, Non-SBL’s. Now with Non-SBL’s you can only transfer those seats to your immediate family members. In other words you can transfer them to a wife, son, daughter, aunt, cousin, nephew, etc. as long as you can provide proof of your relationship. For example, if you want to transfer your Non-SBL seats to your sister-in-law then a valid item of proof would be a marriage certificate which would link your last names together. Those transfers are definitely the easier of the two because all we need is the proof and if you have the same last name we require photo copy’s of both of the party’s identification.
Now the transfer of SBL seats is a rather long process. Not only is there a 14 page packet to fill out but the document must be notarized by a legitimate source, once that is done they send it to our P.O. Box in the city. We then pick them up in increments, make sure all of the necessary information is included, a lot of the time they are missing something or filled out the paperwork incorrectly. Once we check off all of the necessary information and because these are licensed seats we then send the transfer paperwork to the city to be approved. Now this entire process takes at least a month or two to be completed. There are also a few complications that may occur. For instance if the season ticket member who is transferring his/her license has already forwarded their tickets to someone we can not complete the seat license transfer because they technically do not have the rights of the tickets at the moment. It is definitely easier to transfer a licensed seat in the off season that way the new holder will have a full season to start fresh with payments and such. Doing mid season transfers takes time and can be confusing for the parties involved although it can be done.
When it comes to a licensed seat we actually do not handle the money involved with the license itself. The money transaction goes through the STR Marketplace especially if you are purchasing the seat from a stranger. For instance, if you do not want to wait on our waiting list that has roughly 80,000 people on it, then you can purchase an SBL through the STR Marketplace. That is just a site where season ticket members can sell and purchase seat licenses. The price you will see when you go onto the site is just the license alone so of course they have to consider the added price of the season tickets themselves. The money transaction of the tickets does however come through our Ticketing department. It does get a bit confusing but that is what our call center is for. Below you can find the SBL Transfer Pack that both parties have to fill out in order to complete the request as well as the letter we send to the new holder of the seats as a welcoming to our Philadelphia Eagles family.
It has taken me a while to fully understand the difference between the two kinds of seats we have at our stadium but once I got the hang of it I feel as though I can answer any questions one may have about the process. Of course it gets frustrating at times because I am still learning all of the correct terms such as a transferor versus a transferee and what kinds of information each party of the transfer needs to fill out but I am still learning to this day. That is why I love the people I work under because they understand how difficult it can be to keep everything straight. Learning so much in such a short period of time and having to relay that information to those who don’t understand the process either is definitely challenging. But that is the point of these internships and I am more than grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn and grow because of my program at the University of South Carolina.
Mackenzie Williams 