Phillies fan wants answers on invalidated World Series Game 5 tickets

Brent Blanchard said he paid $1,100 for two pairs of standing-room tickets to Game 5 of the World Series.

He said he bought them from "a guy" who purchased them through StubHub.

"Knowing Game 5 was the only theoretical game that could be a clinching game, we bought those a week earlier," he said Tuesday by phone. "Almost speculating, if you will."

He and three others attended what turned into the most bizarre sporting event in memory from a paying customer's perspective - a game that began Monday night and was delayed 2 days by rain. And when the four returned Wednesday to attend the conclusion, only two of the tickets were accepted.

"The other two tickets, whoever had originally bought them, apparently called in [to the Phillies] and reported them stolen and got two new tickets for themselves," the Medford, N.J., resident said.

And resold them in the secondary market, Blanchard asserted, voiding the tickets and leaving him stranded. Dissatisfied with how the Phillies responded, Blanchard has taken out an ad that began running in the Inquirer on Sunday and is in today's Daily News on Page 55. He is seeking other people who had the same experience. The ad includes his phone number.

Blanchard said he read a story published on the day after the World Series championship quoting John Weber, the team's VP for ticket operations, who said the Phillies had duplicated about 200 tickets for people who had called in and said they had been lost.

"I tend to think it was more than that," Blanchard said. "Because we were at the will call area that night and it was packed. There were people freaking out, women crying and dudes hitting the windows."

Bonnie Clark, the Phillies' director of communications, said in an e-mail yesterday that "the postponed completion of World Series Game 5 presented the Phillies with a unique set of ticket challenges. Happily, we were able to creatively resolve almost all of them, usually by issuing some additional standing-room tickets."

She acknowledged that there was a problem with one set of three tickets that the Phillies reprinted, "denying the repurchaser admittance to Game 5B [Wednesday's conclusion]."

Contacted yesterday, a StubHub spokesman said he would look into the matter. "Let me once again be sure we have closed all the cases. Or the cases that pertain to us," wrote Sean Pate, director of communications, in an e-mail.

As of Tuesday evening, Blanchard said he had received "nine to 10 calls" from others who said they had their tickets invalidated and weren't able to get into the ballpark. He said at this point he just wants to contact the original owner, the person who called in and voided his tickets. The team won't provide that, he said. *