I agree with you. I was completely disgusted looking at the sea of black and yellow on ESPN. It’s a far cry from the old Mile High…

I could clearly hear the, “IN-COM-PLETE!!!” chant, and it warmed my heart even when there wasn’t anything else worth cheering happening for Broncos fans!

The fans have to show up and cheer, but the team has to do something worth cheering about too. As many Steelers fans as were there, they weren’t cheering when their QB was fumbling or when the Broncos were scoring….

Where I sit, many season ticket seats are resold EVERY game of the season. The seat holders never attend; they are just making a profit (this is a great location, so the seats are worth a lot more than “list”). More often than not, and almost always at Steelers games, those seats go to fans of the opponents.

The Broncos should enforce the policy, but clearly they are not doing so. This hurts the Bronco fan base, who are unable to upgrade their seat location, and also those on the waiting list who can not get season tickets. It hurts the Broncos too because many of the best seats get filled by opponents fans.

just keep winning, that will take care of a lot of the problem.

I go to all of the home Broncos games and I have never seen one so full of visiting fans as last night. It was sick to see. I have been to numerous away Broncos games and I have never seen a stadium so full of visiting fans. We went to the Oakland game recently and were one of maybe 20 Broncos fans in the seats.
I have to wonder if the stadium staff has something to do with it. We have season tickets at Mile High and have been treated so poorly by the stadium staff this season. They seem to be striving for a neutral territory. I’m sorry, but a home game should feel like a home game. Visiting fans should have to behave in a different manner than home team fans. When we were in Oakland, we kept our eyes down and our mouths shut. Even when we won! That’s how I want visiting fans to behave at our home stadium.
Visiting fans should be able to buy tickets, but they should be so scared to come to our stadium that it’s only the true fans who show up and they behave respectfully in our house.

I love this post and I do respect any fan of the opposing team when they win with honor & not the type to be disrespectful…I know this because I was well behaved at the MNF game in San Diego. But I do agree with the fact that those season ticket holders should be looked at more with more scrutiny because they may not wanna lose their Ticket Rights but if you can’t go to the game & don’t care who your tickets go to, they have a moral obligation to the Denver Broncos Organization to make sure those of us who can’t wait 15-20 years for season tickets get the opportunity to support our team. It’s only fair since we are willing to Travel farther than you to attend a game on a consistent basis but also pay the price to carry these tickets in our name. As for some of the posts above it’s true, Denver is not the only team that this occurs too, yes even you can get front row seats in Pittsburgh.

…by what I saw. I was in California earlier this season and went to the Miami @ San Diego game, and it was easily 25% Fins fans, so I don’t know if this happens everywhere or not.

The Pitt fans I was around were getting pretty obnoxious by game’s end. Shouting “Go home, beat the traffic!” etc.

I agree with some of the posts here, that we need to police our own stadium. We demand excellence from our franchise. We should demand excellence from ourselves as fans.

I could have probably got $150 a piece on ebay but no way would I want to sell to a Steelers fan.

I went to the AFC Championship Game in 2005 on my own as I could only get one ticket. During the game I was SURROUNDED by Steelers fans. It was horrible.

Sunlight is best antiseptic….

The contempt of your fellow citizens is a powerful motivator….

While the team may be prevented from having folks resell their tickets (some state law or something), true (and vidictive!) fans can take action.

We have digital cameras, seat maps and the fabulous interweb (e.g., twitter, youtube, MHR). We also have ways (direct and indirect) to find out who owns the seats.

Let’s create a website whose driving purpose is to mock and embarass the people (and corporations) who let their season tickets foolishly get sold to visitng fans.

[as an aside, we should also convince the Broncos to let us start a website where season ticket holders can resell their tickets with a greater certainty that the tickets were being used by broncomaniacs. sure there may be some complexity, but great minds like those here should be able to figure it out!]

Due to the economy, quite a few season ticket holders gave up their rights this season. I am happy they did!

Having read every post from the home page of MHR over the last seven months or so, let me first say thank you. Thank you for all your hard work, unique perspectives, and thoughtful insight. Thank you also to the fans of MHR and to the REAL Broncos devotees.

I’m a Colorado native and life long fan of the Denver Broncos. As a child I watched with a heavy heart as Denver limped tail-between-our-legs from Super Bowls and as a young man I celebrated in the streets with our victories in XXXII and XXXIII.

At the age of 22 I signed up to become a season ticket holder, hoping that by the time my number was called I would be able to afford them. Eight years later I got the call and have entered my second season as a resident of Thunder, Colorado.

I’ve dealt with a torrent of emotions as a fan but last night was the first time that I felt ashamed.

There were only a few minutes left on the clock. The Broncos were two touchdowns away from victory, a very achievable feat, but hordes of blue and orange jerseys were sulking out of the stands. My fiancee and I stood, nearly alone, in what was becoming a sea of black and yellow. I cheered “Let’s-Go-Broncos” until I almost lost my voice but I could barely hear myself over the taunts of the Steelers Nation.

How could Denver allow Mile High to become Heinz West?

Then I realized, I was part of the problem. On a few occasions, once this year and twice last, I’ve sold my tickets to strangers. I’ve never charged more than face value, but I have not always known who would be sitting in my seats. In games past, there may have been New England, Miami, or Jacksonville fans tarnishing my estate. The New England game was unavoidable — a terrible incident left my dog in the ER for five hours of surgery — but the other two games could have been avoided.

How many times have other “fans” given their house keys to strangers? How many times have we invited a warring tribe into our village?

To many.

This must stop now. This must stop with us. This must stop with a willful decision that we, the gate keepers of Mile High, will no longer allow our sanctuary to be defiled!

Season Ticket Holders Unite and take this simple pledge:

I ____________________, of Broncos’ mind and of Broncos’ body, and with full understanding of discrimination laws, ethical guidelines, and regulations; will do my part to make Mile High, the Home of the Denver Broncos, a place FOR the Denver Broncos. With the best of my abilities I will do my part to ensure that the seats I am graced to safeguard are filled with the energy, strength, spirit, honor, and passion that are deserving of the greatest football organization in the world, the Denver Broncos.

Take refuge Denver, from this day forward, there are two seats that will remain orange and blue — until the day I slip the surly bonds of earth!

First off let me say that Bronco fans aren’t alone. Steeler fans invade and often times take over Stadiums across the NFL. I personally have been to Denver, Arizona, Miami, New York, Baltimore, Tampa (Super Bowl :), Cincy in the last 4 years alone. A few things to consider. The Steelers have a season ticket waiting list that is estimated to be around 32 years. If you live in PGH and you love the Steelers you are NOT going to a game unless you know someone with tix. Tix are passed down in wills like property. Of the thousands of names on the waiting list the team regularly takes TENS of people off the list every year and gives them a chance to buy tix. PGH is a Steelers town period. In addition the Steelers were the team of the 70’s and that just so happened to coincide with the rise of football on television. So in addition to the die hard locals there is a contingent of Steeler fans in almost every city in the US. If you like football in the 70’s and your local team was bad or you didn’t have a local team, then you are a Steeler town. I currently live in Virginia and there are no less than 5 Steeler bars just outside of DC. I have yet to visit ANY sports bar in the area that could be labeled a Redskins bar. Go to a game in Phoenix and you would be hard pressed to get 50% of the fans rooting for the Cards over the Steelers. I went to a game in Arizona two years ago and the crowd noise caused AZ to burn TWO time outs.

Not that you guys asked for my advice, but here it is…. You can’t legislate your way out of this. The NFL is one big business. All teams are in it equally. The Steelers have the #1 selling brand of merchandise in the NFL, however every Troy Polamalu jersey sold the Bowlens get the same exact cut as the Rooneys. I know for a fact that teams love to have the Steelers on their schedule for the simple fact that the Steelers have not played Home or Away in front of a non-sell out crowd in over 20 years. Understand that some teams ONLY have a sell out when the Steelers or Cowboys are in town. Things are so bad in Miami (We are going to the game this year) that they actually let you stand on the field for $200. Just wait until you tune in for that game. The only way you are going to get out of this is to motivate your OWN fan base to go to the game. If you think the Broncos are going to eat tickets instead of selling them to Steeler fans you are sorely mistaken. If you think corporations who bought all those tickets in the first place are not going to take the opportunity to sell one week’s worth of tickets to defray the costs for the entire year, then you are sorely mistaken.

I love Broncos fans. I love the passion. I have a great time every time the Steelers are in town.

As a season ticket holder for many years from northern WY, we are unable to attend all the games each year due to two main reasons 1) road closures (ie… this years New England game when I 25 was closed) ; 2) hunting season – I am still wearing orange and bleeding blue!.

However, when we do not use ours, our first priority is to give or sell them to family in or near Denver who are devout Bronco fans. Then if that fails we do sell them through the Broncos ticket manager, usually at or near face value.

I was at the game last night with my brother in law and while I personally found it offensive to have so many Steeler fans there, to charaterize all STH who sell some tickets as less than devout fans is simply wrong, as those of us from out of state make the trips hundreds of miles (and usually on snow packed roads at least once a season).

My advice is for those of you who are not STH but want to go to the games to check out the Broncos website and manuever to where you can buy others tickets (it is not real easy to find, but it is an good option).

For every ticket a Bronco fan buys, that is one less a Steeler fan (or any other oposing team) can buy.

The typical fan sees an opportunity to bankroll half the season by selling seats to one game and they make a logical choice. People from Pittsburgh say “the Steelers aren’t my #1 priority… they are my ONLY priority” & buy those tickets up. Then they put on a black and gold jersey and saunter into someone else’s house like they own it. Happens 8 times a season every year.