The Washington Times obtained a copy of the standardized letter from the Redskins sent to those whose tickets were revoked. The four-paragraph letter from Matthew B. King, senior director of ticket operations, simply stated the team's resale policy as the basis for its action.The Washington Redskins ticket policy is as follows:
Mara Bralove of the District last month had six of her 12 season tickets revoked after a relative sold four of them on EBay. Miss Bralove said the tickets had been in her family since the 1940s.
Redskins policy states that the account holder ultimately is responsible for the actions of whoever uses the tickets.
Miss Bralove said she thinks the policy penalizes too harshly for the actions of another person.
"The family is devastated," she said. "The tickets could have been given to anyone and passed on 12 times. How can we be responsible? It's so wrong."
The reselling of tickets has been a fan tradition since the Redskins first began selling out then-D.C. Stadium, later RFK, in 1966. However, bar coding and computerization have made such sales easier to track, especially when seat locations for each ticket are shown on EBay.
Club officials can discover who owns the tickets by comparing those seat locations with their records.
Resale of TicketsBeating up on ticket scalpers is a popular activity, but let me explain why an NFL team might take such drastic action in curbing after market ticket sales.
The sale of Redskins tickets in excess of its cost is against season ticket policy and may result in the revocation of season ticket privileges. The resale of tickets at any price on FedExField grounds is prohibited and may result in fine and/or arrest. To avoid problems with counterfeit, stolen, or invalid tickets, please refrain from purchasing tickets from an unknown source. Tickets obtained from sources other than the Redskins Ticket Office may not be honored if found to be counterfeit, stolen, or invalid.
By limiting the number of possible markets for the ticket buyer to the club itself, the club has control of the market. As a result, they have an easier time selling less desirable tickets (obstructed view and upper deck) than they would if the ticket buyer had the option of buying better seats even at the higher price.
The club can also offer their own premium packages, without fear of competition, such as the Touchdown Club and the Tailgate Club. So much for the Redskins looking out for the little guy.
Then there's the special "relationships" that the Redskins can have with, oh say, "the official luxury hometown builder". Desperate for season tickets? Buy a luxury home with a corporate sponsor of the team and the team makes even more money from the limited ticket market.
But this is only squeezing around the edges. The next step for the Redskins, as well as the other teams of the NFL, is to have an exclusive ticket exchange partnership with a ticket brokerage. Sound unlikely? Tell that to the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, Houston Texans, Indianapolis Colts, San Diego Chargers, Chicago Bears and Detroit Lions, all of whom have entered into a partnership with the ticket broker StubHub.com.
You may remember the Chicago Cubs went a step further in setting up their own ticket brokerage operation which ran afoul of the rules of Major League Baseball. Will it be long before the Denver Broncos, the Green Bay Packers and the Washington Redskins do the same?
If you're worried about the ticket re-seller pricing the little guy out of going to see the NFL, wait until the NFL has a monopoly on tickets.
