Super advice for those seeking tickets

The National Association of Ticket Brokers, a trade group founded in the mid-1990s to repair the reputation and improve the standards of the industry, offers this advice for would-be participants in the secondary market for tickets to Super Bowl XL:

• Ask if the seller is a licensed broker and to see the license. There are three NATB members in Washington: Alliance Tickets in Bellevue, Pacific Northwest Ticket Service on Mercer Island and Total Ticket Service in Kenmore.

• If you buy a package including travel and accommodations, make sure there's a ticket to the game with it.

• Pay with credit card or other secure payment.

• Verify the location of seats you're buying on a seating chart. Check out www.fordfield.com, or call the ticket office at 313-262-2003.

• Read the fine print. Some brokers promise only to attempt to get a ticket. If they fail on game day, they may be required to refund the agreed-upon purchase price. Meanwhile, you're stuck in Detroit, watching the game in the lobby of Motel 6.

• If an NATB member fails to deliver a ticket, the purchaser gets the greater of twice the agreed price or the price plus $1,000.

• Report a counterfeit ticket to the NATB hotline, 630-510-4594, and the NFL, 212-450-2000.

Benjamin J. Romano