Super Bowl Seat Fiasco: 10 Biggest Blunders by Major Sports Leagues

For the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, fans and the media alike were awaiting the game and festivities taking place in Dallas. 

For one, North Texas is usually a nice place to be weather-wise this time of year. That was far from the case during the week leading up to the Super Bowl. 

However, the seat fiasco that ensued on gameday is the black eye that will stick with Dallas' Super Bowl. There is simply no excuse for what happened to a few certain fans before that game.

In light of the NFL's mess-up in Dallas, I took a look at 10 of the major sports' biggest blunders.

10. MLB: 2002 All-Star Game

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MILWAUKEE, WI - JULY 9: American League All Stars Johnny Damon #18, Ugueth Urbina #41 and Nomar Garciaparra #5 of the Boston Red Sox stand on the field before unveiling a tribute to Hall of Fame left fielder Ted Williams during pre-game ceremony at the M

The 2002 MLB All-Star game will always be remembered as the only baseball game in history that ended in a tie. 

Although just an exhibition, fans in Milwaukee uniformly booed the decision of commissioner Bud Selig to end the game if the 11th inning ended in a tie. 

After Freddy Garcia retired the National League in order in the bottom of the 11th, the game ended in a 7-7 tie and no MVP was awarded. 

The next season, MLB decided that the winner of the All-Star game would be awarded home field advantage in the World Series, eliminating the chance of a tie and heightening the stakes of the mid-summer classic.

9. NFL: Protecting and Covering Current And Former Players

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ATLANTA, GA - SEPTEMBER 7: detail view of the midfield sign commerating Hall of Fame lineman Gene Upshaw #63 of the Oakland Raiders as the Atlanta Falcons host the Detroit Lions at the Georgia Dome on September 7, 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Al M

Football, on almost any level, is a violent and dangerous sport. That's most evident every week of the NFL season just by looking at most team's injury reports. 

However, the NFL has only recently begun caring about the protection and long term health of both current and former players. 

By now, the damage has already been done.

There is too many players to even list who have had their lives after football crippled by concussions, leg injuries and chronic pain.

Of course, some of those things are unavoidable. But the NFL only covers former players' health insurance for five years, which is far from long enough. 

The new rules and concussion awareness are good first steps, but the NFL has a long ways to go (and really, may never get there) before it truly protects both current and former players.

8. All Sports: All-Star Games

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HONOLULU - JANUARY 30: Devin McCourty, #32 of the New England Patriots, tackles Roddy White, #84 of the Atlanta Falcons, during the 2011 NFL Pro Bowl at Aloha Stadium on January 30, 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

As a fan of sports, I love the idea of being an All-Star much more than I like the game itself. 

Having the distinction of being an All-Star or Pro Bowler is important for fans in terms of arguments and judging individual performance, but once the actual game starts, no one seems to care. 

The NFL's Pro Bowl was a total disgrace this season, with no tackling and seemingly no effort whatsoever. If that's what the NFL wants to show from it's "best players," then don't even have the Pro Bowl. 

The NBA All-Star game is fun because of the Slam Dunk competition and 3 point shootout, but the game itself is a dunk fest. Fun for some to watch, but not a good showing for supposedly the world's best players. 

We've already been over MLB's All-Star game, and the NHL's isn't much better. There's no hitting and no fighting, two of the biggest reasons people like hockey. 

Overall, the execution of all four of the major sports' All-Star games is not done well.

7. NFL: Super Bowl 2011

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ARLINGTON, TX - FEBRUARY 06: The Green Bay Packers celebrate defeating the Pittsburgh Steelers 31 to 25 in Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium on February 6, 2011 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

While the NFL and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones were worried about setting the Super Bowl attendance record, nearly 1,250 fans with tickets to the big game were either displaced or completely turned back.

Some temporary seating sections were somehow uncompleted by game time, meaning around 850 fans were moved to different seats, and 400 more were unable to watch the game they had purchased tickets for. 

The NFL initially offered $2,400—or three times the face value of the tickets—and tickets to next year's Super Bowl to the fans who were turned back at the gates.

They then offered those fans the option of tickets to any future Super Bowl with paid accommodations and travel, but without the $2,400. 

Either way, the NFL made a mockery of their biggest event of the season.

6. NBA: Referee Scandal

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LOS ANGELES - FEBRUARY 12: Michael Jordan #23 of the Washington Wizards talks with referee Tim Donaghy during the game against the Los Angeles Clippers on February 12, 2003 at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The Wizards won 108-104. NOTE TO

As employers of referees, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has a duty to ensure their employees know the game and officiate it correctly. 

Making sure those same referees aren't betting on the same games they are officiating might come in handy as well.

On July 9, 2007, referee Tim Donaghy resigned from his position amid reports that he bet on his games and influenced the point spread of those games. 

Basketball referees were already among the most criticized officials in sports, given their questionable judgment calls in a fast-paced game.

Removing the integrity of the officials, however, was a black eye the NBA has yet to recover from.

5. NHL: Expansion

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SUNRISE, FL - OCTOBER 16: Martin St Louis #26 of the Tampa Bay Lightning and Mike Weaver #43 of the Florida Panthers fight for control of the puck on October 16, 2010 at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise, Florida. The Panthers defeated the Lightning 6-0.

In all fairness, it's hard to blame NHL commissioner Gary Bettman for his attempt to "Americanize" hockey.

By expanding the NHL to markets in Florida, California, and Arizona, you'd think the popularity of the game would increase across the United States.

And by some counts, he has succeeded.

League revenue during his tenure has tripled to nearly $2.2 billion in 2007.

However, hockey will never be America's game. It's popularity was and remains in Canada and the American northeast and midwest.

By expanding to the American south, instead of Canada and the northern half of the U.S., Bettman has diluted the popularity of hockey and kept the NHL as the clear basement dweller in terms of big American sports.

4. MLB: Canceling The World Series

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CHICAGO - SEPTEMBER 15: View of closed ticket windows at Wrigley Field as Baseball for the first time in modern history cancelled a World Series because of a labor dispute in which the players, having failed to reach an agreement with the owners, staged

For ninety straight years, every season in baseball history had finished with a champion. That changed in 1994-1995.

The 232-day MLB strike during that season cancelled the entire postseason and World Series. 

The strike marked the eighth work stoppage for Major League Baseball, and the first time the World Series had been cancelled since 1904. 

The very next season, attendance at games plummeted, and it was unsure whether or not the sport would ever recover from such a disastrous work stoppage. 

Only the meteoric rise of home runs, as discussed in the next slide, saved baseball from a very uncertain fate.

3. College Football: BCS

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SCOTTSDALE, AZ - JANUARY 11: Head coach Gene Chizik of the Auburn Tigers poses with the Coaches trophys during a press conference for the Tostitos BCS National Championship Game at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn on January 11, 2011 in Scottsdale, Arizona.

While the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) seemed like an obvious upgrade in 1998, the system seems arcane and idiotic 12 years later. 

Don't get me wrong; the college bowls are a special tradition. The Rose Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Orange Bowl, etc. all have long and storied histories. 

However, college football can do much better than deciding who goes to what bowl by virtue of computer numbers. There are ways for a playoff-type system to be implemented, in which the bowls are not eliminated. 

With Mark Cuban's dollars spearheading the playoff movement, the BCS hopefully already has one foot out the door.

2. MLB: Steroids Testing

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SAN FRANCISCO - OCTOBER 27: Barry Bonds gestures attends Game One of the 2010 MLB World Series at AT&T Park on October 27, 2010 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)

Baseball is still "America's pastime," but the Steroids era has put a major strain on the sport and Major League Baseball. 

It's tough to pinpoint exactly when the cheating started, but that comes with a caveat: steroids were legal enhancers in MLB until 2002. 

Barry Bonds might be the face of the scandal. He broke both the single season home run record (73) and the career home run record (762), but his accomplishments will forever be tied to the BALCO steroids investigation. 

Several other prominent players, including Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Alex Rodriguez are all tied to steroids. 

However, you can't forget; steroids were not a banned substance in Major League Baseball until 2002. If you could make millions and millions of dollars by doing something legal, wouldn't you?

The fact that was even an option puts MLB at the center of the blame.

1. All Sports: Labor Stoppages

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ARLINGTON, TX - FEBRUARY 06: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (R) speaks with Head Referee Walk Anderson during Super Bowl XLV at Cowboys Stadium on February 6, 2011 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)

Fans of nearly any sport can weather the storm of a bad All-Star game, a bad referee or even a bad championship system. 

One thing fans cannot forgive sports leagues for is the stoppage of their games. 

All four of the major professional sporting leagues have had a work stoppage in the past 25 years:

NFL (1982, 1987), NBA (1999), MLB (1994-1995, no World Series) and NHL (1994-1995, 2004-2005).

Both the NFL and NBA may be on the verge of lockouts in the next two seasons as well. 

If there is any single thing a professional sports league can do to antagonize it's fans, it's stopping the games we love so much.