MLS Cup ticketing controversy reaches boiling point with latest "public" release

Real Salt Lake fans seem likely to find MLS Cup tickets hard to come by, with the "public release" of tickets restricted to Kansas and Missouri residents.

You haven't had to go far to see ticketing problems for the final, with Real Salt Lake fans streaming into a publicly available pre-sale intended for Sporting Kansas City season ticket holders to purchase seats in excess of their season ticket allocation, prompting Ticketmaster to revoke and refund every ticket purchased with the offer code used for such -- an event they account for in their terms of service.

The latest will only intensify the controversy around the event's ticketing, particularly as the MLS Cup is looked at as one of the league's premier events. But with publicly released tickets available to a small region of the nation -- one of the smaller markets in the nation, but slightly ahead of Salt Lake City and the surrounding metropolitan area -- the controversy is reaching a boiling point.