Law enforcement and NFL officials say that fans can tell if their Super Bowl tickets are authentic by checking the heat sensitive logo.
The NRG stadium image and the HTX logo will fade when heat is applied and will reappear when the source of heat is removed. On the front of each real Super Bowl ticket is a raised polymer graphic and the on back there’s a true color security label with the Super Bowl logo and the Houston’s skyline. There is also a graphic on lower part on the back of the ticket printed with thermochromic ink.
“Every year we see fans arrive at the stadium on game day only to be turned away at the gate having bought counterfeit tickets,” NFL senior counsel Michael Buchwald said Thursday. “The quality of counterfeit tickets can be quite sophisticated but no matter how real the tickets may look a fake ticket will not get you into the game on Sunday. That’s why we strongly discourage fans from buying tickets from any suspicious sources.”
The league and law enforcement officials urge football fans to watch out for people passing off fake tickets the we get closer to Super Bowl Sunday. So far an effort called Operation Team Player has collected over 260,000 counterfeit sports items worth about $20 million.
Buchwald encouraged all fans to only buy tickets from trust worthy sources and described multiple security features they can check for to make sure the tickets they are buying are authentic.
“The message should be pretty clear to the public, if you are buying something from the NFL that you want to give to your child as a keepsake long-term, buy an NFL product,” said Houston precinct one constable Alan Rosen. “Because the garbage that you see up here is going to fall apart and it’s not going to be worth anything either.”
Houston law enforcement officials have already confiscated around $500,000 in counterfeit Super Bowl merchandise and will continue to work undercover with NFL brand experts to stop the sale of other fake items. Some of the merchandise collected so far includes Super Bowl T-shirts and baseball caps, a powder blue Earl Campbell jersey, a couple of Houston Texans receiver DeAndre Hopkins, and a jersey of Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.
“The message should be pretty clear to the public, if you are buying something from the NFL that you want to give to your child as a keepsake long-term, buy an NFL product,” said Houston precinct one constable Alan Rosen. “Because the garbage that you see up here is going to fall apart and it’s not going to be worth anything either.”
Rosen warned that the quality of counterfeit tickets are getting increasingly better therefore fans will have a harder time figuring out if they’re real.
“If you’re not trained on it I would say it would be very difficult for you to do that,” Rosen said. “So that’s why it’s so important to buy it from a reputable source because you could be spending money for nothing.”
