Brewers promised a ticket to any future game for $1,000. Some fans unhappy with World Series seats

MILWAUKEE (AP) — The Milwaukee Brewers ran a promotion over a decade ago offering fans a “Timeless Ticket” granting them admission to any game in the future if they paid $1,000.

Now that the Brewers are in the World Series for the first time since 1982, fans who took that deal are eager to redeem those tickets they bought in 2015. That has led to some complications.

Brewers president of business operations Rick Schlesinger said Tuesday that several hundred fans had indicated they wanted to redeem their Timeless Tickets for a World Series game. Schlesinger acknowledged that “we subsequently erred in our internal communications on the logistics of fulfilling the requests.”

“While we were able to accommodate all with seats, we received feedback from some that they were unhappy with their seat locations,” Schlesinger said. “Clearly, even with extraordinary limitations on available seats, we did not live up to the spirit of the program, and we have been working through a resolution.”

Danny Fochesato of Milwaukee bought a Timeless Ticket on his 27th birthday, planning all along to redeem it whenever the Brewers reached the World Series.

The promotion enabled a Timeless Ticket holder to redeem that ticket and become eligible to buy three additional tickets to that game for the full retail price. The offer said the tickets “may be redeemed for the best available seat locations, subject to ticket availability at the time of redemption.”

“Back in 2015, that was a big selling point from the sales people about this,” Fochesato said. “They really touted, ‘Hey, this is going to be the best available seats. You’re getting the priority just behind season ticket holders. Anything the season ticket holders don’t have, you’ll have dibs at it for the World Series.’ That’s kind of the story they sold.”

That would have worked out fine when Fochesato tried redeeming his Timeless Ticket for a potential World Series game in 2018, when the Brewers reached the NL Championship Series.

Fochesato said he got four tickets in the 100 level behind home plate that he could have used if the Brewers had made the World Series that year, when they ended up losing to the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 7 of the NLCS.

This time, he wasn’t as fortunate.

“We had a form, and it only had 400-level or standing-room options,” Fochesato said. “We couldn’t even know what game we had. We just had to put a preference of which ones we wanted, and then we had to submit the form and just sit and wait for them what we got. I immediately was like, ‘No, that's bogus.’”

Fochesato said he bargained his way to three 400-level seats for Saturday's Game 2 with the Tampa Bay Rays and one lower-level seat in the right-field corner for Friday's Game 1.

He said he was in line for the public sale of tickets and saw better seats were available than those that were offered to him under the Timeless Ticket program.

The Brewers are trying to make amends.

Schlesinger said any Timeless Ticket holder who applied for World Series tickets before the deadline will now get to keep those World Series tickets while also being able to retain their Timeless Ticket to redeem for another game in any future season.

“We regret our mistake and look forward to welcoming them to American Family Field for their World Series experience,” Schlesinger said.

See AP’s full MLB coverage here

Fall colors are seen outside American Family Field prior to Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

The Milwaukee Brewers stand for the anthem prior to Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Milwaukee Brewers players return to the dugout during the sixth inning of Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Abner Uribe leaves the game during the eighth inning of Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

Milwaukee Brewers players and fans cheer during the eighth inning of Game 2 of baseball's National League Championship Series between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Kayla Wolf)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Dr. Amy Acton, the Democratic candidate for Ohio governor who has made no secret of a difficult childhood that included homelessness and sexual abuse, pushed back forcefully Tuesday against an unattributed ad circulating online in which her long-estranged mother calls her “a liar” and insinuates she has mental health issues.

The ad began circulating overnight, just two weeks before Election Day. Acton, Ohio's former public health director, is in a tight race with Republican billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, a 2024 presidential candidate who has benefited from spending on his behalf that has exceeded $120 million.

The online ad, which first surfaced in a post by an Ohio political blogger, spread quickly across social media platforms. It does not include the “paid for” tag that is legally required to air on TV so viewers can know who produced and paid for it. D.J. Brynes, who blogs as “The Rooster,” told CNN he got the video from a voter who viewed it as part of a poll and recorded it.

It was not clear if Acton's mother was paid for the one-minute spot. Her last known telephone number has been disconnected.

Acton suggested Ramaswamy was behind the ad.

“I won’t normalize somebody who has said that my childhood is just something I’m complaining about, who today just released an ad using my birth mother, who I was removed from at the age of 12 for severe abuse and neglect, and sexual abuse," she told Spectrum News, a cable news outlet in Ohio.

She said Ramaswamy was accused of similar personal attacks during his run for the GOP presidential nomination: “This is a lifelong pattern with my opponent.”

Ramaswamy’s campaign issued a statement that did not address if he was responsible for the ad or knew who produced it. In the statement, campaign spokeswoman Connie Luck said Acton “has some serious problems with the truth that the public needs to be aware of.”

In a statement released by Acton's campaign, her brother, Philip Stearns, said the two were removed from their mother Donna Arthur's custody as children after their stepfather, Arthur's husband, was indicted for raping Acton as a child. Acton has not seen Arthur, whose last known address was in Pennsylvania, since they were in a courtroom together in 1978.

Later Tuesday, the Acton campaign released a response ad featuring Stearns, who recalls his older sister taking “the worst” of the abuse they faced as children in order to protect him and disparages Ramaswamy and his allies for exploiting the situation.

According to police and court documents obtained by The Associated Press, Cledith Arthur was arrested and charged with the rape of his stepdaughter, then 12, in July 1978, after Acton's biological father reported his alleged conduct to authorities. The abuse allegedly happened from December 1976 to April 1978.

Cledith Arthur pleaded not guilty. He was indicted by a grand jury that September, but failed to show at a court hearing and remained a fugitive until at least 1981. He has since died.

High-profile Republicans who back Ramaswamy — including Donald Trump Jr. and influencer Laura Loomer — elevated the video in online posts.

But other Republicans joined Democrats in condemning the ad. Meghan McCain called it “dastardly” and Dan Hauser, a strategist for Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, said he deleted his retweet of the ad once he realized “the very serious accusations that caused their issues.”

The Democrat running for U.S. Senate in Ohio, Sherrod Brown, described the spot as “disgusting” and said everyone — including his opponent, Sen. Jon Husted — should be willing to condemn it. A spokesperson for Husted's campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Acton's mother does not mention Ramaswamy's name in the ad, but she suggests that Acton has misrepresented her opponent and the time her family was homeless and living in a tent when she was a child — an experience Stearns corroborates.

Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump listens as gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy speaks at a campaign rally at the Covelli Centre, in Youngstown, Ohio, Monday, Oct. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)