Impastato defends ticket purchase
Restaurateur wants apology from official
By Josh Peter
Staff writer
Restaurateur Joe Impastato said Thursday he did nothing wrong in buying 1,600 tickets to the upcoming Nokia Sugar Bowl, and he said he has been buying roughly the same number of tickets to the game for more than 20 years.
Through his attorney, Robert Harvey, Impastato sought a public apology from Paul Hoolahan, executive director of the Sugar Bowl, who on Wednesday said Impastato had "unauthorized access" to the tickets, adding that he was "not happy" that the sale had occurred. Impastato countered that he has been buying tickets for the game for so long that Hoolahan had to know.
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"Of course he knew," Impastato said.
On Thursday, Hoolahan said he would "absolutely not" apologize to Impastato, and he reiterated that he never authorized the sale of tickets to Impastato for this year's game.
Hoolahan said the tickets set aside for the general public are sold through Ticketmaster -- although none were available for this year's high-demand game -- and that Impastato's allotment of tickets came from another source.
This year's matchup, with LSU playing in New Orleans against Oklahoma for the Bowl Championship Series national championship, has left fans scrambling for tickets. The face value for the tickets is $150, but brokers are asking several thousand dollars for the best seats and $500 for upper-level seats. At those rates, 1,600 tickets cost $240,000 to buy at face value and would have a market value of at least $800,000 and $1.6 million if the tickets were sold for $1,000 each.
Impastato said he bought his tickets through Colleen Landry, who left her job as Sugar Bowl ticket manager in October after working in the ticket office for more than 25 years. Landry said she left the position by mutual agreement with Sugar Bowl officials, and Hoolahan declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding her departure.
Impastato said he already has sold all of his tickets as part of packages, some of which included meals at his Metairie restaurant, Impastato's, and some of which he sold to tour operators. Impastato said the tour operators paid him face value for the tickets and that after the game he will share in the profits. He declined to say how much he'll get from the tour operators.
"I have no idea," he said. "I don't ask any questions. . . . I'm sure it's going to be substantial."
Packages avoid price limits
State law prohibits the resale of tickets above face value, but brokers and tour operators profit on the tickets by selling them as part of packages that often include meals, hotels and even airfare.
To prove he paid for the tickets, Impastato produced invoices, which listed the specific seats for which he paid. But he refused to make copies of the documents, saying that for security reasons he did not want to give out the specific seat numbers.
Impastato said he has been doing the same thing with Saints tickets for more than 20 years and is among the Saints' biggest season-ticket holders, with about 370. He said he gives some of the tickets to his best customers.
This year, Impastato said, he originally sent the Sugar Bowl checks for an additional 388 tickets. But, he said, the Sugar Bowl canceled his check for those tickets, leaving him with 1,600.
Harvey said Hoolahan did not return his phone messages when he called to find out why the Sugar Bowl had canceled Impastato's checks for the additional 388 tickets. But Harvey said he later spoke to the Sugar Bowl's attorney, who Harvey said told him Impastato shouldn't have gotten so many tickets but could keep the 1,600 for which he had already paid.
Restaurant meeting
About six years ago, Impastato said, the Sugar Bowl canceled his order for 700 to 800 prime Sugar Bowl tickets and instead gave him access to lesser seats. He said Hoolahan and another Sugar Bowl official came to his restaurant and explained the matter to him.
"I was mad, so they came to my restaurant and apologized," Impastato said. "They said the reason why they took the tickets was because they had to give it to the universities. So I said I understand.
"Then I turned around and bought the (same) tickets from somebody else."
Impastato declined to say who he bought the tickets from but said he doubted they ever were sent to the universities.
Harvey cited that story as evidence that Hoolahan knew Impastato had bought Sugar Bowl tickets in bulk and questioned why Hoolahan waited until this year before objecting.
"My client had the same access (to tickets) he's had for 25 years," Harvey said. "I'd like those facts to get out."
Hoolahan, who took over as the Sugar Bowl's executive director in 1996, confirmed Thursday that he canceled a ticket order from Impastato about six years ago. He declined to elaborate.
Different ballgame
Impastato isn't the only longtime ticket buyer who was denied tickets this year. Gus Piazza, a restaurant owner in Baton Rouge, said he has been buying 200 to 300 tickets a year for the Sugar Bowl through Landry, but this year his efforts came up empty. When he called for tickets, Piazza said, he was told Landry no longer worked for the Sugar Bowl. Piazza said Hoolahan has not returned his phone messages but that he has no hard feelings.
"When I first started buying Sugar Bowl tickets, they were begging me to buy my tickets," Piazza said. "They were begging me three years ago to buy tickets. But this year is a different story.
"They're getting bombarded with ticket requests from senators and legislators. It's just a different ballgame because LSU is in it."
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There's no getting around it. I HATE LSU!!! I'm so tired of all this talk that we should support a Louisiana school, especially if the Saints don't go to the playoffs because LSU is our only bright spot in state sports. I have never met a more arrogant bunch of fans and losers with no life! I now live in Little Rock and when people find out I'm from Louisiana, first thing they ask is how bout them Tigers! HELL NO! I was raised in New Orleans and I still hate the fact that if you're born in Louisiana, you are supposedly born bleeding purple and gold.
And to those of you who have trying to gain support for these people just becuase they've made the sugar bowl, you are FAIR WEATHER fans!!! "WE haven't followed them all season and we've talked all this trash, but I guess now that they're in the national title game, it's OK to back them." YOU GOT IT ALL WRONG! You're the ones that abandon the Saints in a bad year, but the minute they win a division championship, you're buying up those Duece jerseys.
Then an article like this. Funny how the people are able to buy tickets any other year, but the minute those FRICKEN tigers come to town, everything has to change. IMMATURITY is what it is. Is this kind of behavior expected if the home team were to play in the Superbowl? I think not.
And another thing that really pisses me of (oh there are so many) is that the administration had the gall several years ago to ask the state for LA residents to pay an extra tax for their damn pet. This was several years ago and I still despite the cat and its owners for even thinking that!
Any thoughts on all this?