Another blemish in Dan Snyder's ownership

http://dcprosportsreport.com/2009/09/another-blemish-in-dan-snyders-ownership.html

Some faithful out there will defend Daniel Snyder to the ends of the earth.  They are faithful fans.  I applaud them.  BUT, they also need to learn to separate the owner from the franchise.  The Snyder ownership has not been all positive and after nearly a decade, has not led the franchise to success.  That's the bottom line.

Now comes another embarrassing and problematic issue for the Snyder regime.  A Ticket Scandal.  Ticketgate.  Call it whatever you wish.  It is what it is.  It is called GREED at the maximum. 

The Washington Post ran two significant stories today.  One deals with the hardball tactics of the Snyder regime toward the fan base;  the other is the tickets to broker mess. 

Let's deal with one at a time. 

The Post ran a story today on the tactic of the Washington Redskins sales office. 

Hill is one of 125 season ticket holders who asked to be released from multiyear contracts and were sued by the Redskins in the past five years. The Washington Post interviewed about two dozen of them. Most said that they were victims of the economic downturn, having lost a job or experiencing some other financial hardship.

Redskins General Counsel David Donovan said the lawsuits are a last resort that involve a small percentage of the team's 20,000 annual premium seat contracts. He added that the team has accommodated people in hard-luck circumstances hundreds of times. He said he was unaware of Pat Hill's case.

Excuse the language, because we normally do not use the type of language here at DC Pro Sports Report, but this is pretty, well, shitty.  Ummm, hey Dan, these people you are suing, are ummm, FANS!  Hello?  The Redskins front office response? 

Donovan said other teams sue their fans. "I don't know of any pro football team that doesn't," he said.

Whoa!  Good come back.  Others do it, why can't I?  Fact is, like the Post found, no Dan, not all teams attack their fans.  

But spokesmen for the following National Football League teams said they do not sue their fans over season ticket contracts: Baltimore Ravens, Cincinnati Bengals, Green Bay Packers, Houston Texans, Jacksonville Jaguars, New York Giants and Jets, Seattle Seahawks and Tennessee Titans. 

Officials of most Washington area sports franchises that have multiyear contracts said they generally avoid such lawsuits. Nate Ewell, spokesman for the National Hockey League's Washington Capitals, said he could not think of a reason to sue a ticket holder. When a season ticket holder fails to make payments, the team cancels the tickets and resells them.

Not hard or difficult to see the difference.  The Washington Capitals, led by majority owner Ted Leonsis, decided to, well, respect fans. He also decided to step out of personnel decisions and roster building too.  In other words, he decided to turn the team over to hockey professionals and cultivate a fan base by respecting fans, putting a great product on ice, and using fore thinking to build a new fan base.  It's worked.  Ted Leonsis is amiss in success with an exciting and energetic team that may be good for years to come.  Something Dan Snyder could never dream up.  It's the difference between good ownership and poor ownership. 

So the economy takes a serious downturn, the most serious in multiple decades, with hundreds of thousands of people losing jobs, watching their homes foreclosed and their credit dry up.  So what does their favorite franchise do?  Pursue legal action in hard economic times against people who could once afford the luxury of Redskins ticket, but now face monumental economic difficulties.  Really classy Dan Snyder, really classy.  

Finally, why go after people down on their luck.  Why force people to remortgage or even lose their homes over tickets?  Tickets people.  You know, something suppose to be enjoyable.  Why do it when their is a famous 5 to 7 year waiting list for season tickets?   Easy.  The waiting list is bogus and Snyder is feeling the financial pain.  There is no long waiting list.  It's bull crap and always was.   If there were, this would not be an issue.  I have heard too many times of people signing up for season tickets and getting contacted the very next year.  I have heard from people who never signed up that got solicited for season tickets.  The Redskins are full of crap. 

Snyder is facing something he isn't use to --- people are turning in their Redskins tickets, not renewing season ticket packages.  There are several reasons.  One, the economy, many just can't afford the high cost right now.  Two, people move because jobs move.  Three, well, Snyder's ownership has not been successful, and some fans are just plain sick and tired of mediocrity and losing, especially at the prices Snyder charges for a franchise that has not won the NFC Conference or the NFC East under Snyder's reign.  Finally, some just refuse to give this owner another dime.  Can you blame them? 

Then there is the ticket broker sales issue.  

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.

Isn't that what Dan Snyder did not want season ticket holders to do?  Isn't that the exact practice Snyder threatened to yank season tickets from purchasers?  Yes.  But at that time, Snyder said it was more about controlling tickets so they stay in the hands of Redskins fans.  Wrong.  Never was the issue.  The issue was simple.  Snyder did not want fans to make money off tickets, only he can do that. 

"Somebody in the ticket office was doing something they shouldn't have been doing, and when it was discovered, it was all dealt with," Redskins Senior Vice President Karl Swanson said. "If the story is, this is a scandal, uncovered by Redskins, verified by The Post, or whatever, yeah, we're telling you: People got tickets who shouldn't have gotten tickets, and they were dealt with." 

Donovan said Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder was unaware of sales to brokers. When he found out, Donovan said, "he was livid" and tried to have the accounts canceled immediately.

Sorry Mr. Swanson.  I know you are doing your job.  However, there is simply no way I can possibly believe the fact someone sold over 1,000 tickets to ONE person, and Dan Snyder did not know.  Snyder runs Redskins Park under fear with an iron fist.  There is no way in hell a huge transaction like this occurs without knowledge from above.  Nice spin.  Nice try.  Explanation not bought.   

ASC owner Jeff Greenberg, one of the brokers who bought tickets from the Redskins, told The Post that he was offered the lower bowl seats on the condition that he also buy club seats.

Teams have sold directly to brokers for years -- just not publicly, said Don Vaccaro, chief executive of Ticket Network, one of the larger online firms in the $2 billion secondary market. He has been a broker for more than two decades in the New York area.

So these sales have been going on for years, not just one season?  Kind of defeats the whole argument that Snyder did not know.  Thousands of tickets are being sold to brokers, thousands, and Snyder was clueless.  I think not.  Snyder spent time threatening season ticket holders with cancellation if they put their tickets on eBay, yet he had no idea thousands were being sold to brokers.  And we are suppose to buy that?  Not bought here. 

The 2007 arrangement that Greenberg had with the Redskins covered 1,360 individual tickets that he bought for about $60,000, team records show. Most of them were general admission tickets -- 710 in the upper deck and 366 in the lower bowl.

Yet more proof.  $60,000 of revenue comes into Snyder's coffers, and we are expected to believe that that never raised an eye brow, and that Snyder never saw that large transaction.  Ummm, ok.  Not to mention the fact that the ticket brokers had to sign contracts.  SIGN CONTRACTS.  This wasn't an individual sales agent doing this.  There were CONTRACTS DRAFTED for these transactions.  

Was Snyder embarrassed at the amount of Steeler fans at FEDEX last season?  Probably.  But his practices of cashing in and gaining as much cash as he can, even at the expense of average Redskins fans, was a significant contributing factor.  He has no one to blame but himself.  Perhaps a way to save money would be to save legal costs of suing people that have nothing, and put that money into making a better game day experience. 

So you wonder why Dan Snyder hates the media, especially the Washington Post?  These stories are why.  They call Snyder out for who he is and how he operates.  He buys the team and fires dozens of employees to bring in his own minions. He has spent millions trying to consolidate media sources by buying radio stations, papers, and message boards, all to try and funnel his spin, his publicity, his control, directly to fans, while he sues them on the side.  The Post has been criticized from fans for negative coverage.  Maybe this will wake those fans up.  The Post coverage is NOT negative, it is reality.  That's what Dan Snyder doesn't want you to see. The Post reports the good and the bad, Snyder's problem is, he just wants you to see the good, and well, in his reign, there simply has not been much of that.

Dan Snyder wants us to believe his ownership strives to provide the fans a winning franchise, to provide the fans a proud franchise.  Yet his actions are completely different.  His meddling in personnel, his suing of the fans he supposedly covets, his front office mess, and his greed have hurt the franchise more than helped.  The first few years of mistakes get a free pass from me.  He was a young, new, energetic owner that had to learn how to own a franchise.  problem is, he isn't new anymore.  He has owned the team for a DECADE and the Redskins as a franchise have very little, if anything to show for it.  A once consistently proud and winning franchise has turned into a consistent 7-9 to 9-7 franchise that mostly misses the playoffs or on the rarity the make it, are mostly one and done.             

So many fans will defend Dan Snyder even now.  But they judge head coaches within 2 to 3 years.  A quarterback within 3 to 4 years.  They judge players even on single season performance.  Yet their owner is ten years in and not accountable for the lack of success.  I don't get it. 

So once again, I ask, just here the hell is Ted Leonsis and why has he not made Dan Snyder an offer he can't refuse!!!  Oh and to you Caps fans who have small gripes against Leonsis, count your blessings, Dan Snyder could won your Caps.