You Have No Idea How Lucky You Are

No owner. No lawsuits. No invasion of opposing fans.

If going to Lambeau Field (even for just one game a year) and being a Packer fan seems like it is divine providence, you are probably right.

Welcome to my world.

Part 2 of the Washington Post expose on Dan Snyder's rock-em-sock-em business practices with our beloved football team, chronicles what it looks like to sue into bankruptcy a 72 year old woman who has a house full of Redskin trinkets.

Oh, the joy.

Once upon a time, Redskinland and RFK were a lot like Packerland and Lambeau. The stadium was small, but loud. You knew everybody who sat in the rows in front of you, and behind you. Getting a ticket was something to brag about.

And yeah, the waiting list really was just that. A list in which your number was somewhere in the 50,000 range, and you got a post card each year saying you had moved up 10 spots.

Hang in there. It was still faster than the Packer list.

Now you have ticket practices that are an ugly hybrid of the Russian mafia, and a Turkish baazaar. They make no sense. But they do make money for our beloved owner.

That being said.... I do have one friend from high school who finds the whole Post series to be a lot of whining about nothing. He writes...

Czabe,

In honor of your favorite "sports columnist" (douche-bag) Peter King, here I go:

Ten things I think I think:

1.Dan Snyder did not build Fedex Field – Why do we blame him?

2.EVERY team sells to scalpers.  If the average fan wanted to buy a bunch of club level suites they could also work a deal to get seats in other preferred areas of the stadium – It’s a business and as Americans we pride ourselves in living in a free market.

3.Where in the Constitution does it give us the right to buy tickets at the price We Choose in the Section We Want.  40 Million Americans live below the poverty level and can't afford $50 to go to a football game - should we require NFL Teams to allocate free tickets to accommodate these fans (I'm OK with it).

4.The 160,000 people on the waiting list are there because they only want to spend a certain amount on tickets and there are only a certain amount of those seats available – if they were willing to spend the money the tickets are available in premium sections.

5.The stadium seats 91,000 people.  Anyone who wants to get tickets to any game can buy them on the secondary market usually for less than face value.  There are literally thousands of tickets for sale by brokers for less than $100 – dare me and I’ll find them.

6.There are season tickets available on Stubhub for as low as $46.88 per game – look it up.

7.In less than 10 minutes I found over 10,000 tickets for the Cowboys home opener in their new stadium.

8.Tickets to Broadway Shows are hundreds of dollars – I choose not to buy them.

9.As a fan of the Redskins I am grateful that our owner spends enough money that EVERY YEAR our team has the potential to go to the playoffs and win – don’t you think that the millions of fans of Detroit, Cleveland, Arizona, Buffalo, NY Jets, Cincinnati, KC, Oakland and Houston (to name a few) would trade places in a second?

10.If you thought that Chase Daniels, Colt Brennan or Todd Collins should be the starting QB – you’re too stupid to watch football.

11-5 is the number . . . see you in the playoffs!

Lyle