I’m viewing this from a business angle. Sponsors give free tickets to certain people with hopes that their attendance will create publicity for the event which will then cause even more people to purchase tickets which will then increase profits. It happens every day. When you see Hollywood celebrities wearing FREE designer clothes it’s not because the designer is generous and wants to dress for free someone that can already afford to buy his clothes. It’s because of the publicity and advertising of the product with hopes of him making more money.
Well, if it’s about publicity, then who is going garner more attention? A bunch of no-name Utah state legislators, or the 9/11 families, just a few short months after the most devastating attack on U.S. soil since Pearl Harbor.
So, from a business perspective, the 9/11 families would have garnered *far* more publicity than those unknown backwater pols.