The Milwaukee Brewers of Major League Baseball (MLB), who have reached the World Series stage for the first time in 44 years, are facing criticism for failing to keep a promise they made to fans 11 years ago.

According to the Associated Press on the 21st (Korean time), the Milwaukee ballclub sold "Timeless Tickets" in 2015 for 1,000 dollars (approx. 1.32 million won), which allowed buyers to attend any game of their choice hosted by the club in the future.

At the time, the club heavily promoted that it would grant purchasers priority right behind season ticket holders to provide "the best available seats at the time of reservation," along with the eligibility to purchase up to three additional tickets at face value.

When Milwaukee advanced to the World Series this year for the first time since 1982, hundreds of fans who had carefully kept their tickets for 11 years all applied to use them at once.

However, controversy erupted after the club restricted them to choosing only upper-deck seats or standing-room-only tickets.

Milwaukee fan Danny Pochesato bought the ticket in 2015 on his 27th birthday, dreaming of watching the World Series in person.

Back in 2018, when Milwaukee advanced to Game 7 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), he had been pre-assigned prime seats in the 100 level behind home plate to use if they reached the World Series.

But things were different this year, when the World Series actually took place.

Pochesato expressed his anger, saying, "The application form only had options for the 400 level and standing room, and we couldn't even choose which game. When I checked the regular ticketing portal, there were much better seats openly available than the ones they offered us."

After bickering with the club, he barely managed to secure one lower-level seat in the outfield corner for Game 1 of the World Series against the Tampa Bay Rays and three 400-level seats for Game 2.

As complaints poured in from fans, Rick Schlesinger, president of business operations for Milwaukee, admitted fault, saying, "There was an internal communication error in the process of handling the requests. Although available seats were limited, we failed to live up to the original intent of the program."

To handle the fallout, the Milwaukee club offered compensation by allowing fans who applied for exchanges within the deadline to keep their assigned World Series seats as is, while also letting them retain their "Timeless Ticket" rights to use once more in a future season.
(Photo: Getty Images)