Redskins Fans Waited While Brokers Got Tickets (Nice job, Snyder!)

[madinmaryland]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/01/AR2009090103984.html?hpid=topnews

One night last fall, thousands of fans walked into FedEx Field carrying gold towels. From the opening kickoff, it was clear that they were not part of the Washington Redskins burgundy-and-gold. The towel-waving throng cheered for the Pittsburgh Steelers, so loudly that on some downs the Redskins couldn't hear quarterback Jason Campbell call the signals.

Redskins players and many others were puzzled that Steelers fans were able to get their hands on so many coveted tickets. For more than 70 years, the Washington Redskins have boasted that they have sold out every game. Seats are so scarce, the team says, that the waiting list for general admission season tickets has 160,000 names on it.

But the reality is that those who want tickets can often find them online through ticket resellers such as StubHub. And in recent years, the Redskins ticket office itself has sold tickets into this secondary market, making it easier for fans of opposing teams to invade FedEx.

Thousands of general admission tickets were sold to brokers, who resold them on the secondary market, often at higher-than-retail prices, according to interviews and internal Redskin documents. These were often tickets to the very seats that Redskins fans have waited years to get.

The Redskins acknowledged that the sales were made but said they were against team policy.

Redskins General Counsel David Donovan said the prohibited sales were discovered in the spring during an internal audit of last season's ticket contracts and involved about 15 ticket brokering companies. He said the ticket sales employees involved were disciplined. He declined to name the employees or specify the discipline because it was a personnel matter.

..snip

:rofl:

Great PR move, Snyder!!1!!

[TZ]

1. According to the Redskins

This was done WITHOUT MANAGEMENT APPROVAL AND AGAISNT TEAM POLICY by some enterprising employees. I would hope they would be either disciplined or fired.

[joeybee12]

2. If it was done for years without management apporoval and team policy...

...someone was looking the other way, probably deliberately.

[Kingofalldems]

3. This would never have happened if the Squire (Jack Kent Cooke)

ran the show.

[LisaM]

4. This is happening in Seattle, too. Probably everywhere.

The Seahawks have some ridiculous amount of season tickets sold, with almost no tickets available to the general public. We are trying to get tickets for the Lions game for a group of about 20 for our UofMichigan club. We can't get them through the Seahawks. But we CAN get them through brokers - for a fee, of course. This is for a game between two teams that had a combination of 3 (or was it 4) wins between them last season. In fact, we could have gotten them for a slight markup ($3) over season tickets but waited several days, and now it's $10.

I blame this on a few things: 1) the city of Seattle made it legal to scalp (their hands were a little tied on this, because it was legal in nearby Bellevue), and 2) the NFL's arcane television/sellout rules.

The brokers can make enough money on the games that people want to see that they can afford to carry tickets for the rest. In the meantime, the Seahawks get their so-called sellout (even if you can see 5,000 empty seats in the stands), so that they can get on TV.

It's not just happening in Washington and the NFL needs to do something about it. A group of 20 fans like us should be able to get 20 tickets several months ahead of time (we started in July, game is in November). Make no mistake, this is completely driven by the sellout rules.

[TZ]

5. but they didn't do it to get sellouts necessarily, at least not here

There are 160,000 people on a WAITING LIST here for seasons tickets. Its about price gouging.

[LisaM]

6. Yeah, you're probably right.

I think scalping is a dirty business and I don't really know how people justify it. The one time I had scalpable tickets (floor level seats for the Final Four), did I sell them for a profit and sit in nosebleed seats? I did not; I called my college roommate and sold them to her at face. And we had a good time.

[madinmaryland]

7. Ironically, the only time I ever bought scalped tickets was to see the Ohio State vs.

Michigan game in 83. We waited until the game was starting and paid pretty much face value for the tickets. A half an hour before the game, they were twice that price.

[LisaM]

8. That seems to be the way it often is.

Of course, now if you acquire a student ticket you have to pay some fee on top of it (at least as I understand it) - you can buy a ticket from a student, but I think you have to pay a surcharge or something to use it.

[Zech Marquis The 2nd]

9. another reason to hate the Deadskins

This says a whole lot about the current people running the Deadskins--they'd rather sell tickets to fans of the opposing teams, than to the very people who wait years to even sniff a chance at getting in Fedex Field.

[mix]

10. .

:rofl:

[MrSlayer]

11. It's done here too but Eagle fans buy them from the scumbag brokers.

Very few fans from other teams want to venture into our house. My advice? Make FedEx very unpleasant for enemies.

[underpants]

12. Snyder must have been busy playing fantasy football with his NFL franchise

What a maroon