In 2008, U.S. Navy Veteran Mike Focareto and his friend were lucky enough to get tickets to the Super Bowl at University of Phoenix Stadium. On the field, Focareto’s friends were in uniform, performing the presentation of the colors ceremony as part of the color guard.
But Focareto’s friends did not get to sit and watch the game after the ceremony was over. Instead, as soon as the game started, they were escorted off the field because there was no room for them in the stadium, while the seat next to Focareto was left empty.
“I said to my friend ... ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if someone started a foundation where someone could just donate tickets, get a tax write-off and then we’d be able to keep one of those guys that were out on the field there to watch the game?’” he said.
Two weeks later, Focareto founded Veteran Tickets Foundation, or Vet Tix, a nonprofit organization that collects ticket donations and gives the tickets away, for almost no cost, to veterans and active service members.
The organization, started only a year and a half ago, is now operating in 23 states.
But for Focareto, turning his idea into a reality proved to be a difficult task. He turned to his fellow veterans and assembled a group of specialized employees to donate their time and talents to help his plan come to fruition.
At first, the organization’s goal was to get the many professional sports teams in the Phoenix area working with them, he said.
“We wanted to become the perfect middle man for all these organizations,” Focareto said. “When they need to get rid of tickets or they want to do something patriotic ... they’ve got one person that they need to contact.”
The idea of giving out tickets to veterans is not a completely original one. Other groups, such as Packages From Home and Wounded Warrior Project, were doing similar things, and Vet Tix had to find a way to not take their business away but make the ticket-gathering process more efficient.
In addition, the companies wanted to make sure that all the seats they were donating would be occupied during the event.
“People were requesting the tickets and then not picking them up,” he said.
To solve this problem, Vet Tix charges a small shipping fee for each group of tickets requested.
“There’s a little bit of a buy in there.” Focareto said.
To request tickets, both veterans and active military members can make an account on the group’s Web site, VetTix.org, with their military e-mail address for active members or their discharge papers for veterans.
The Web site is the medium most commonly used to distribute the tickets, but when they have leftovers, the organization hands them over to the bases.
“I’m going to have to say that a majority, if not 90 percent, of all the tickets that are being distributed by Veteran Tickets Foundation are going to active military and their families,” Focareto said.
Paul Aguirre, public information officer for the Arizona National Guard, has worked closely with Vet Tix and said the National Guard has benefitted greatly from their services.
“I have just given away over 1,500 to the NASCAR event this Sunday — all of those came from Vet Tix,” Aguirre said. “If you see the faces of the folks who come here and pick it up and say ‘We could not have otherwise afforded to go; I’m going to take my wife and kids, this is a great outing for us,’ it’s a tangible way for these guys and gals to feel appreciated.”
