It's not clear to me which is the bigger travesty: Vinny Cerrato keeping his job so long after running the Redskins into the ground, or Dan Snyder staying atop Six Flags despite making all the wrong moves since taking over the now-bankrupt theme park chain in 2005.

Six Flags' reorganization is nowhere near complete, and god only knows what's beneath the surface of this debacle. But from the sound of things, when all's said and done Snyder will still be chairman of Six Flags board of directors when that company comes out of bankruptcy.

How can this be? In Snyder's world, what do you have to do to lose your job?

One small aspect of the fiasco: Would somebody PLEASE explain to me how Snyder was allowed to pay a whopping $175 million for Dick Clark Productions using private equity money from Red Zone Capital, a fund he controls, then turn around and sell 40 percent of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags, using public equity money, which he also controlled? And Snyder did this deal, remember, in 2007, while Six Flags was on the way to the bottom and he was already blaming the company's woes on its billions of dollars of debt.

Snyder made the Dick Clark Productions sale around the time he made a licensing deal between Johnny Rockets, another Red Zone-owned company and controlled by Snyder, and Six Flags. Again, would SOMEBODY please explain to me how that's allowed?

I mean, I make a lot of fun of Lindsay Czarniak and Dan Hellie working for Snyder's Redskins Broadcast Network and WRC News at the same time. And that really does bug me. But Czarniak and Hellie's conflict of interest ain't a hair off the ass of the conflict of interest Dan Snyder had in dealing with himself during Red Zone's sale of a huge chunk of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags. Let alone the Johnny Rockets deals.

How hard a bargain do you think private-money Dan Snyder drove with public-money Dan Snyder in making these deals?

(AFTER THE JUMP: More on Dan Snyder, Red Zone and Dick Clark? DeMatha sends more jocks to college? Remember Harvey Grant? The DC Armor are gonna just disappear? Somebody's still kvetching about the El Al/FedExField comparison?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Hey, Dan Snyder: How’d That Dick Clark Deal Work Out for Six Flags Stockholders?" »

Hate to stomp on the weather beat that others at City Desk are already covering with gusto. But I'll stick to forecasts, and stay away from the retrocasting favored by the boss.

So, Sunday in Landover at kickoff: 47 degrees, rainy, winds 13 miles an hour from the north and 100 percent cloud cover. That used to be called "Redskins Weather!" around here. Now, it's called "You Can Get a Redskins Ticket for 17 Cents Weather!"

On a related note...

Redskins Ticket Watch: More than a thousand ads for Skins/Chiefs tickets on Craigslist this morning. Asking prices in just the first few listings I found went from "Way below face value!" to "Half Price!" to "75 percent off!" to "Make an offer!"

Face value's a pipe dream. Come to think of it, with 47 degrees and wet on the horizon, 17 cents might look like a windfall by kickoff. In any case, folks who intend to show up at FedExField might need to bring something to cover their heads from all the precipitation.

Like, bags or plates, maybe?

(AFTER THE JUMP: Vinny Cerrato is told it's the talent, stupid? Snyderatto = Rosie Ruiz? Snyder changed the copy in the cheerleader car wash contest AGAIN? Will the Great Dan Steinberg fall for the not-actual-cheerleaders picture bait AGAIN? Ronnie Mervis and Dan Snyder use the same advertising firm?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Remember When This Was Called ‘Redskins Weather’?" »

Dan Snyder's Six Flags debacle has taken a turn toward the contentious.

We couldn't be happier!

The bankrupt company's creditors are asking the courts to hold up proceedings until they can investigate the relationship between Six Flags and Red Zone LLC, an investment group Snyder formed with a lot of Redskins Park, including team bigwigs Vincent "Vinny" Cerrato and Karl Swanson. Snyder used the group's Six Flags stock holdings take over the amusement park chain via a stockholder coup in 2005. Snyder anointed Mark Shapiro, also a Red Zone member, as made CEO of Six Flags.

The Wall Street Journal is now reporting that in recent filings with the court, attorneys for the firms holding notes for Six Flags, which is now more than $2 billion-plus in debt, singled out as questionable several actions made under Snyder's tenure that involve Red Zone.

Among the dubiousest: Red Zone's sale of a chunk of Dick Clark Productions to Six Flags, a deal that took place shortly after Snyder acquired the production company.

Back to us: SIX Flagging pegged that sale as fishy long ago. In a July 2008 post in this space, we called it "a bizarre transaction that essentially amounted to one of Snyder’s private equity outfits (Red Zone) making a $40 million sale to one of Snyder’s public equity outfits (Six Flags)."

Think the Private Snyder, playing with his own money, would strike a fair bargain with the Public Snyder, who was spending stockholders' loot?

Sure he would....IN OPPOSITE LAND!

Read More "Update: SIX Flagging" »

The Washington Post reports that Dubai has gone to hell.

On a related note: Dan Snyder's Six Flags announces that despite its bankruptcy, plans to build a park in Dubai will "proceed as planned."

Keep the dial right here for all the breaking news in Dan Snyder's Six Flags soap opera.

The Arena Football League ain't ever coming to DC after all.

Sports leagues, like romantic relationships, can't survive taking a break. Last year AFL owners thought they were different, announcing that while they'd be spending the 2009 season apart, they weren't breaking up.

Again: Just need some space. Just taking some time off from each other before getting back together.

Well, this week, several AFL owners leaked to the press the date that they'll be getting back together: The 12th....OF NEVER!

The AFL is dead.

The disbanding means, alas, Dan Snyder won't ever bring us the AFL team he promised back in 1999.

(AFTER THE JUMP: MMA is the next arena football? How many Redskins blogs are out there? Dan Steinberg marvels at whose muscles? The Washington Times toasts Bruce Smith? Michael Vick is partying where? The Nats are still playing?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Washington Warriors Won’t Ever Play in the AFL?" »

I'm getting the feeling that maybe Six Flags HASN'T REALLY TURNED IT AROUND?

Team Snydiro -- Chairman Dan Snyder and CEO Mark Shapiro -- have now been telling the world for almost four years that Six Flags has gotten things together.

Today, more proof that Six Flags hasn't gotten things together.

Read More "Update: SIX Flagging" »

Where art thou, Mark Shapiro?

Dan Snyder's business partner and protege was named CEO of Six Flags when Snyder took over the amusement park chain by leading a stockholder coup in 2005. And for a long time, Shapiro was front and center whenever the company was in the news. Shapiro generally came off like Leonardo DiCaprio in "Titanic," hanging off the bow of the big boat and boasting that he was on top of the world; for as long as Shapiro talked Six Flags up, everybody knew his ship was eventually gonna sink.

Read More "Update: SIX Flagging" »

Cheap Seats Daily has learned...that new Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman's boyhood fight song was STOLEN!

From GIRLS!

As reported in this space the other day, Riggleman's baseball team at Richard Montgomery High School used a special cheer to get fired up before games:

Thunder, Thunder, Thunderation
We’re the Rockets Delegation
When we fight with determination
We create a soul sensation!

Well, I'm saddened to report that the schoolboy jocks filched the tune from...the Girl Scouts?

(AFTER THE JUMP: Original lyrics to the tune Riggleman et al stole? Should the Nats steal the same fight song? Snyder's own cheerleaders used against him? RIP, Six Flags Cheerleaders? Don MacLean used steroids? Slow news day?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Riggleman’s Fight Song Stolen From Young Girls!" »

After decades a couple weeks of rumors, this afternoon at the Verizon Center WJFK-FM brass will officially announce the station's flip from man talk to sports talk.

All the highlights of the new lineup -- eight hours a day of Mike Wise and LaVar Arrington --  and the date of the switch, July 20, have already been leaked.

***

On the team's downest day of the season, the Wall Street Journal kicked the poor Nats in the nads. Here's the lede of the paper's coverage of the Sonia Sotomayor coverage, a story titled "Hearings Reflect Broader Struggle":

Much like the Washington Nationals baseball team, which has known since springtime that it has no realistic chance of winning a pennant this year, Republicans in the Senate knew before they took the field Monday that they had no realistic hope of defeating Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor.

So GOP senators, like the Nationals, are left to ask themselves: What are we playing for here anyway?

"What are we playing for here anyway?"

They're really asking themselves that? Well, if the GOP Senators are at all like the Nats, specifically .196 hitter Austin Kearns, then they could answer themselves: "We're playing here for $8 million a year!"

(After the jump: Six Flags goes with mayo substitute? Jim Riggleman's high school cheer? DC Divas back on top?)

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Six Flags Recommends a Condiment to Go With Your Mattress!" »

With your talent, that is, not with fireworks. Unless your talent is singing and dancing with explosives.

To promote the remake/redo/reimagining of 1980's Fame (out Sept. '09), MGM is hosting a virtual competition for U.S. residents 14 and older to show off their stuff. (Tastefully.)

It apparently doesn't matter what you do -- a flier claims that possibilities include "singing, dancing, acting, or surprise us!" -- nor how many folks you do it with. (Again, tasteful, people.) Read More "Light Up the Sky Like a Flame!" »

Every now and then a story comes along that's too good to be true. Usually,  those stories involve Dan Snyder.

Yesterday, Snyder's theme park chain, Six Flags, announced yet another sponsorship deal. This one makes some bedding company called Anatomic Global the "Official Mattress" of Six Flags. And you can buy the official mattress straight from Six Flags for $1,299 in queen size.

Why would a theme park chain need an "official mattress," let alone start selling them, did you ask?

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: Dan Snyder Will Sell You a Mattress to Hide Your Money Under" »

You just knew Dan Snyder would get his hands on some stimulus money!

Six Flags has just signed a new sponsorship deal with Chrysler. According to a press release issued by Snyder's theme park chain earlier today, this means cars produced by Chrysler will remain "the Official Vehicles of Six Flags." Also under the new deal, the littlest of what was once the Big Three automakers will subsidize Fourth of July celebrations at Snyder's theme parks.

Birds of a feather, you could say: Six Flags filed for bankruptcy protections about two weeks ago. Chrysler filed for bankruptcy protections in late April, but only after getting about $12 buh-buh-buh-billion in handouts from the federal government.

Now Snyder's getting a taste.

What's wrong with this country?

Keep the dial right here for all the breaking news in Snyder's Six Flags soap opera.

The typists' gathering spot sportsjournalists.com has been rumoring that the Washington Post will hire a former Baltimore Sun columnist, Rick Maese, to replace Vinny Cerrato nemesis Jason La Canfora on the Redskins beat.

As predicted in this space, the beat wasn't big enough for the Skins' GM/racquetball partner/DJ and the Post's writer/blogger/agitator.

La Canfora left the paper to work the NFL Network.

Read More "Cheap Seats Daily: La Canfora Replacement from RavensLand? Mike ‘Biggest Loser’ Williams Not Big Enough for Madden? Brunell’s Band to Play Six Flags?" »

Good to see Michelle Rhee getting some ink these days. It's been two years since she started as chancellor of the D.C. public schools, a time the Washington Post figures is as good as any to go long on her performance.

The catchy lede, on why Rhee appeared on the cover of Time mag holding a broom---a cliched pose for a reformer of any institution. Here's the Post's Bill Turque, reporting Rhee's account to D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray of why she allowed this photo to go get shot:

Read More "Weekend In Review: Two Years for Rhee" »

In the end, the news is less surprising than Brett Favre coming out of retirement or Adam Lambert just plain coming out: Dan Snyder's theme park chain, Six Flags, is bankrupt.

Snyder's company filed for Chapter 11 earlier today. Who knew bankruptcy courts are open on weekends?

Snyder took over Six Flags more than three years ago through an ugly stockholder coup. Looking back, the funniest part of the takeover came on Oct. 24, 2005, when Snyder sent a letter to investors saying the stock price was being stifled by the then-chairman of the board, and told stockholders they'd "have been better off hiding their money under a mattress" than investing in the company.

Snyder, who according to SEC filings got Redskins Park employees including Vinny Cerrato and Karl Swanson to go in with him on the theme park investment, controlled 10,921,300 shares of Six Flags stock at the time of his mattress comments. Stock in the company hit $11.93 a share shortly after the takeover, according to the database of MSN Money.

That puts Snyder and his Redskins Park posse's Six Flags holdings at $130,291,109.

With the bankruptcy filing, common stock in Six Flags is likely worthless. That $130,291,109 is gone.

Looks like Vinny and Karl would have been better off hiding their money under a mattress than trusting the boss.

Keep the dial right here for all the breaking news in Dan Snyder's Six Flags soap opera.