The Los Angeles Dodgers have effectively excluded one of the most devoted fans from their ballpark.
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Errol Segal has been a season ticket holder for five decades. But this year, the team refused to print paper tickets for the 81-year-old fan this year.
Why Won't the Dodgers Print Out This Fan's Season Tickets?
If you've been to any live sporting event over the last few years, you've undoubtedly noticed that tickets are becoming digital. Rather than giving someone at the front of the venue a ticket to scan, you hold out your smartphone instead.
As the New York Post reports, Segal doesn't have a smartphone. He doesn't even know how to use a computer. Rather, he has a flip phone.
Since the Dodgers have adopted a "digital-only" policy, Segal can't access his tickets. He even offered to pay extra to have the team print paper tickets. However, the team refused.
"If I had the tickets one year, five years, 10 years, that's another story," said Segal. "Fifty years I've had these tickets. They threw me under the bus."
Segal Is Skipping Games
The team offered to buy back Segal's seats. He rejected their offer. So he's opting to skip games entirely this season.
"That's not fair," Segal told the Dodgers when the team offered him a refund.
The team says that digital ticketing prevents scalping and fraud. However, the California business owner can still purchase single-game paper tickets at the stadium.
Yet the Dodgers, a baseball franchise valued at an estimated $8 billion, refuses to print 81 paper tickets for the lifelong fan.
While the team has not publicly said whether it would ever make exceptions to its digital-only policy for longtime season ticket holders like Segal, social media users are commenting on his story.
Many believe that if Segal can afford season tickets to the Dodgers every year, he should shell out for a smartphone that lets him use them digitally.
One user on X wrote, "Will someone show this poor man how to store and use digital tickets? It's infinitely easier than carrying paper tix."
