CALIFORNIA, USA — There's been some back-and-forth between the Los Angeles Rams ticket office and basically everyone else.
The Rams will face the 49ers for the third time this season in the NFC Championship Game on Sunday, January 30th. The winner heads to the Super Bowl.
David Lombardi, a writer for The Athletic, tweeted a photo showing the notification that warned those trying to purchase a ticket, "Public sales to the game at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA will be restricted to residents of the Greater Los Angeles region. Residency will be based on credit card billing address at checkout.”
Initially, Ticketmaster had this information pop up as soon as their website loaded. However, it has now been deleted.
ABC10 reached out to Ticketmaster and we have not received a response back.
However, once Ticketmaster was connected with the Rams, the team told SFGATE that the policy was lifted after all available tickets were purchased during a presale over the weekend.
ABC10 also reached out to SoFi Stadium and we have not received a response back either.
In direct response to the ticket sale uproar, the Niners' Corporate Communications team sent a statement on behalf of the 49ers, saying, "The 49ers are very appreciative of how much support the Faithful bring when the team is on the road, especially in L.A. NFC Championship tickets are available to 49ers fans, no matter where they live, on a number of ticketing sites and we can't wait to see them in SoFi Stadium on Sunday.”
Niners fans were vocal on their social media fan accounts about this, wondering if teams could do this or if it's even legal.
We have an answer.
We talked to Professor Leslie Jacobs, an Executive Director at the Capital Center for Law & Policy at the University of Pacific's McGeorge School of Law.
Professor Jacobs said, "The LA Rams are saying they're only going to sell to people whose credit card zip code is within the LA area, right? The reason they're doing that is they want home-field advantage, and they want their fans there. There are no legal limits to them doing that. It would be a policy limit, in their own mind and they've decided they want to do it."
You can purchase tickets for the NFC Championship Game - San Francisco 49ers versus Los Angeles Rams at SoFi Stadium now on Ticketmaster, StubHub, VividSeats, SeatGeek, and others.
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