If you've got a PSL in Soldier Field, a piece of $10 million may be coming your way.

If you’re a Chicago Bears Personal Seat License (PSL) holder, you are in a lawsuit against the City of Chicago.  Surprise!

The lawsuit is not trying to recover money from the city for the horrible conditions of the turf or the less-than-stellar play on the field.  Instead, the suit seeks to recover $10 million in amusement taxes the city charged PSL holders.  For a better explanation, check this out from Chicago Breaking Sports (more after the jump): (more…)

“They’re flipping it,” Daley said of the owners who sold the licenses that give fans the right to then purchase season tickets.

“They start selling these licenses. . . . In other words, I bought it for $1,000. I sold it for $5,000. That’s all they’re doing. So, we caught ’em. . . . Some of ’em are just trying not to pay the tax.”

Hey Mr. Mayor, if you’re going to go after people for “flipping” tickets, how about you go after all of the ticket brokers that buy up tickets and then sell them for HUGE profits???

Bears fans are not taking this sitting down.  Five fans have already jumped on a class action lawsuit.  Attorney Keith Hunt seems to make perfect sense to me:

“You only get to enter once. You only buy one ticket. They should only be able to collect one tax — not two. They don’t get to tax you on the way in and on the way out.”

Hunt noted that the amusement tax ordinance specifically describes the tax as a 9 percent fee on “charges paid for the privilege to enter” an entertainment event.

“A PSL does not give you the right to enter. It only gives you the right to buy tickets. If you go up to Soldier Field with your PSL agreement in your hand, they won’t let you in unless you also have a ticket,” he said.

The class action suit also seeks to recoup about $10 million in amusement taxes that were originally collected.  Letters seeking back taxes were sent out to some 2700 season ticket holders which purchased their PSL’s secondhand.  Stay tuned for more details to see how this pans out.

Robert Shelist, a Chicago resident and longtime season ticket-holder, said he received a certified letter from the city on Wednesday. He said he purchased a license for two seats five years ago from the Bears for a total of $7,500. The letter asks him to fill out an affidavit that explains when, from whom and for how much he bought the license to “assist us in determining the amount to bill for this transaction. … You will be contacted by one of our representatives and notified of the amusement tax balance due.” The letter requires the affidavit be returned within 45 days and payment made within 30 days of billing. Otherwise, interest of 12 percent will be charged for each year since the tickets were purchased.

Shelist said he pays amusement taxes for each ticket he buys. Each ticket is at least $100. The tax initially was 7 percent but has since risen to 9 percent.

If he now has to pay an amusement tax on the license, as the letter appears to indicate, he would have to pay an additional $525.

“We’ve been paying the amusement tax on the season tickets for years, and now we’re being asked to pay the tax on the cost of the license to buy the tickets,” he said. “That doesn’t seem to make sense.”

The city of Chicago is strapped for cash and seeks to take advantage of a group that won’t get any sympathy with the public, but it’s flat out wrong to seek taxes years after the fact.  The city already bumped the Amusement Tax from 7% up to 9% a few years back.  Not to mention that when season ticket holders actually buy the tickets, they already pay the Amusement Tax.  Give Alderman Robert Fioretti credit.  He seems to have a clue.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd), contacted by the Tribune, said the city should not be able to collect amusement taxes on the licenses.

“How could you do that?” he asked, when told of the letters. “The PSL is the licensing right to the seat. That’s separate and distinct from the entertainment value of the ticket, per se, so there’s no way they should be doing that.”

Hey Mayor Daley and the rest of you crooks in City Hall, here’s a novel idea: how about the city goes after all of the deadbeat politicians and other cronies that owe back taxes, like  Cook County President Todd Stroger before you go after the honest, hardworking Bears fans in the middle of the worst recession in a generation!

BOOM!!!!