Furlong owned season tickets for three years. He had two in the club level the first year. The second year, he received two more in the lower level stands after being on a waiting list — so he had four. The third season, they reduced the size of the club level, including a portion where his seats were located, which were on the aisle.
He said he wanted to keep those two seats, add two club-level seats and asked that two seats he had in the stands be combined with his seats from the club level that were moved to the stands. The Lions agreed. It gave him six season tickets.
But when he went to sit in his old seats, somebody else was sitting in them. He asked them to leave, but when he looked at his tickets, he noticed his seats had been moved.
"It was an embarrassing and awkward moment," Furlong said. "I was stunned."
When he contacted the Lions, he was told nothing could be done about it during the 2007 season, but he was promised aisle seats for 2008.
Yet, when Furlong received his season ticket invoice for 2008, it was for the same seats he had in 2007.
It was then that Furlong canceled his season tickets in an e-mail to Schul. Powser then e-mailed Furlong with an offer for more desirable seats, but Furlong said it was a matter of principle — and he wouldn't accept the offer.
Then Furlong received the inadvertent e-mail from Schul.
The entire e-mail reads, "Lance...he is not talking about you here. Mark was asked to speak to these people and he said no. F... 'em until next year."
"Mark" is Lions ticket director Mark Graham.
Once he heard of the e-mail, Lewand called Furlong and invited him to a game.
"I did so before I heard from any media on this," he said.
Lewand offered no excuses for the incident, but absolved Graham from blame, although the e-mail in question indicates Graham refused to discuss the issue with season ticketholders such as Furlong, who had their seats unexpectedly moved for the 2007 season.
"It was an inaccurate characterization of a conversation held in 2007, not this year,'' Lewand said of Schul's e-mail.
Lewand said he was, "deeply disappointed with the e-mail and light it portrayed, and I have addressed it."
"There are a number of different levels this could have been avoided and we realize that," Lewand said. "One, with the invoice we sent out for this year. If it had been correct, none of this would have happened. We never condone our fans being discussed in that manner, whether it be in an e-mail or any type of discussion among members of our organization."
The Lions really dont have any PR capital to spend here to make this OK. They suck, everybody knows they suck, everybody knows the management is horrible, and this just adds to it. If the Fords had any hair whatsoever, they would fire everybody involved. But they'll probably just give everybody raises and extensions.
Idiots.
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