Redskins Waiting List Totally Gone to Hell? Are Blackouts Coming to a TV Near You?
I wrote this week about the history of the Redskins waiting list and its apparent descent into bogosity.
I sensed things were bad over at the team's ticket office.
Turns out they're worse.
Dan Snyder claims in interviews there are "over 200,000" folks waiting for season tickets.
Oh, really?
CITY PAPER HAS OBTAINED a piece of direct mail (available after the jump, click graphic to view full size) that the Redskins sent out a few days ago. The document offers recipients the chance to buy "up to eight (8)" season tickets and parking passes for the 2009 season.
"I have no idea why we got this," said a recipient of the offer, which was addressed to a generic official of the organization he works for. "Nobody here ever signed up for the waiting list. They even misspelled our name."
(The recipient requested anonymity for him and his organization. I checked to see that the account name and password provided on the mailer do in fact work on the Redskins' Web site, meaning barring some hacking or an elaborate scam the offer to buy tickets is legitimate.)
And the seats being hawked here aren't the silly-priced club or suite seats at FedExField, which have never sold out since the stadium opened, despite the Redskins' claims otherwise.
No, this mailer is for the run-of-the-mill general admission tickets. The tickets Snyder, who made his money in direct mail before buying the Skins, tells us "over 200,000" people are waiting for.
In other words: This looks like the most desperate measure the team has ever made to dump tickets, and sure makes it look like whatever waiting list there once was has been reduced to nothing. (If even one person was still on the list who actually wanted to buy Redskins tickets, why would the team bother offering tickets to random folks not on it?)
The desperation is such that anybody who buys tickets "by May 15, 2009" also gets "a $25 Redskins Retail Store Gift Card."
The letter is jam-packed with laugh-out-loud lines.
Among them:
---"Resell your tickets at a profit via StubHub for any game you are unable to attend!"
---"Quantities are limited." And,
---"Don't miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity!"
So, NFL: Are you going to enforce the ballyhooed blackout rule if Snyder's latest direct mail campaign doesn't fill his stadium?
2:48 pm
I've gotten the same mailing a couple of time now, the last being Monday, I thought it was a general mailing since I have never been on the waiting list and only went to two Redskins games in my life, both time on comp'd tickets.
3:22 pm
Does the offer include free round trip limo service from DC overland to Landover?
6:56 pm
Figures that Snyder lied about the Skins waiting list! Danny Boy and Vinny destroyed what was once a proud franchise. What a bunch of lying liars!
11:39 am
I have received the same mass mailing for the past three seasons. I always thought it was truly remarkable that 200,000 people could process through the waitlist every season (sarcasm included).
12:58 pm
I've been on the waiting list for 6 years and have received nothing like that.
2:20 pm
Not only did i get the offer from the Redskins for season tickets, but after i ignored it, the same letter was sent to each of my (divorced) parents' house. Last month i got married and moved in with my wife, and when i used the USPS change of address service, a season ticket offer showed up at my new address.
i signed up for the waitlist many years ago, and each of the past 3 seasons i have gotten offers, but never with this vigor.
Insert joke about the team working this hard here.
2:23 pm
I was on the list for 6 years and was shocked when I got my chance for season tickets. Knowing the history of the tickets, I never thought I'd get them. I'm waiting for my most likely sucky seats and a big bill. Being a lifelong Skins fanatic, I was very excited. Now I feel sad and used and am considering giving up my $200 deposit. This season's schedule stinks anyway. I still love my Redskins and I still can't stand Snyder. What's next -- will I find out there's no Santa Claus???
8:48 am
I was on the "old" waiting list when you once received a postcard, yes postcard, with your updated position number on the waiting list. When JKC stadium opened, I was @7k range on the waiting list. The expansion went from @57k to @90k, I should have clearly fallen inside the nearly 30k seat/ticket expansion. Never heard a word. Contacted the tix office with every card I had recieved including my most recent waiting list #, I was awarded with a new starting #. YEA RIGHT1