Sports fans with season tickets may want their families to enjoy the tickets after they are gone, but passing on these tickets may not be simple.  

Getting season tickets to your favorite sport is not always an easy task. Season tickets for some teams can cost a lot of money and require time on a waitlist. It makes sense that you may want family or friends to be able to take advantage of tickets that are still usable after you pass away. However, most teams place limits on how you can transfer the tickets both before and after death. 

A season ticket is a contract between the purchaser and the team, so the team can put any restrictions it wishes in the contract. This includes setting limits on when and how the tickets can be transferred to someone else. Teams may explicitly state that the tickets cannot be transferred by will or trust, allow transfers only to a spouse or close family members, or require that ticket holders follow certain procedures in order to transfer the tickets.  

For example, some teams have a form that you will need to fill out, designating a beneficiary to inherit your tickets. Other teams state that only a spouse can use a deceased fan’s season tickets. Still others allow transfers only to a parent, spouse, child, or sibling. If there is no surviving family member who can take over the tickets, the tickets go back to the team. 

Note that some teams require fans to purchase a seat license before buying season tickets. This means the fan pays a large fee to buy a license for particular seats and then has the right to buy season tickets for those seats. A seat license, unlike season tickets, is transferable via a will or trust. 

If you own season tickets, be sure to include them in your estate planning. Your attorney can determine the best way to transfer the tickets. 

You can schedule an appointment with the Law Office of Antoinette Bone in our Euless, Texas office by clicking the button below, or by calling us at (817) 462-5454.

To comply with the U.S. Treasury regulations, we must inform you that (i) any U.S. federal tax advice contained in this newsletter was not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used, by any person for the purpose of avoiding U.S. federal tax penalties that may be imposed on such person and (ii) each taxpayer should seek advice from their tax advisor based on the taxpayer’s particular circumstances.

Nothing in this message is intended to provide legal advice.  This message is for educational purposes only.