ARLINGTON, Tex.  Jim Rouleau of Hudson, Wis., a season-ticket holder for Packers games at Lambeau Field, spent $3,900 for each of his two Super Bowl tickets. When he found his seat, with a face value of $900, he was told that his section was closed, and that he could not sit there.

“We got all the way to our seats,” Rouleau said. “They just turned us away.”

More than 1,000 ticket holders had similar experiences Sunday, as the latest public-relations nightmare for Super Bowl organizers and the Cowboys owner Jerry Jones unfolded just as kickoff approached.

Sections of temporary bleachers erected inside Cowboys Stadium were not completed in time for the game, leaving about 1,250 people holding tickets for seats declared unusable.

The N.F.L. said that about 850 of those ticket holders were relocated to other seats in the stadium. But long after the game started, hundreds were still outside, in line at the ticket window, awaiting a resolution that few imagined could satisfy them.