Redskins in bed with ticket scalpers?

[irish]

The redskins will squeeze every last cent they can out of whoever they think has cash. If the redskins were half as successful on the filed as they have been at making money there would be a whole lot more Lombardi trophies at redskin park.

[MTK]

I understand the simplicity of supply and demand.

Maybe it's just the hippie in me, but just because the Skins and sports teams in general can charge such high prices, does it make it right?

The common man has been left behind in all of this. There's no way a family of four can afford to go to a ball game on consistent basis anymore.

I guess that's just the corporatization of America at work. We can debate something like this into the ground if we want to. Sorry to get off topic it just ticks me off to see the rich getting even more rich.

[724Skinsfan]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

There's no way a family of four can afford to go to a ball game on consistent basis anymore.

You said it. Now to take a family to a professional sporting event cost nearly as much as going on a vacation. Family of four from out of town: at least $500 if you go cheap. Closer to $1,000 if you're trying to be comfortable.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

I understand the simplicity of supply and demand.

Maybe it's just the hippie in me, but just because the Skins and sports teams in general can charge such high prices, does it make it right?

The common man has been left behind in all of this. There's no way a family of four can afford to go to a ball game on consistent basis anymore.

I guess that's just the corporatization of America at work. We can debate something like this into the ground if we want to. Sorry to get off topic it just ticks me off to see the rich getting even more rich.

Yeah I can see us going down a political road on this one, because there is no hippie side of the Schneed, and while I'm pretty politically moderate, I tend to lean very right wing when it comes to free markets. And that argument would just perpetuate itself and get dumb.

I will say that a part of me laments the fact that tickets are getting so expensive. The end result is that the fans who can afford to go are more often the corporate types who attend under their best behavior. If you want a good 12th man, you have to be willing to AT LEAST be loud and obnoxious, and AT BEST be downright venomous and evil. And with corporate types taking up all the seats, I think that's a pretty significant cause of the recent decline in the Skins' homefield advantage. At RFK, the average fan could afford to go, and the average fan was passionate. And the average fan made that place downright scary - it was the average fan that was shaking the bleachers. FedEx will have a hard time regaining that as long as ticket prices keep going up. Winning helps the homefield advantage, but some more average joes like us would help too.

But my concern over the situation is completely limited to the negative impact on the team's homefield advantage. I could care less if people are whining because they can't afford it or whatever. That's just life in my eyes. But I'll leave the political leanings out of it.

[irish]

And keep in mind that these outrageous redskin ticket prices are for a team that has not won squat in a long time. Image what will happen to ticket prices if they get good.

Sports teams in general better watch because there will be an upper limit on what fans will pay. These season ticket packages have automatic escalation written into the contract and fans must sign up for multi year deals so the price just keeps going up. I heard in sportstalk 980 today fans calling in about redskin season tix and one guy said he has 7 club level seats, this is the last year of his contract, the redskins want him to sign a 10 year deal which at the end will have his seats costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $30,000 for the season. He told the redskins no thanks.

[Hail2theskins]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Maybe it's just the hippie in me, but just because the Skins and sports teams in general can charge such high prices, does it make it right?

i agree with you completley, I dont think professional sports should be treated like business because pro sports got started in the first place because people found this amazing thing that could be done on the weekends away from their business lives, something to get your mind off the workweek, and i understand that debts need to be paid and so do the players but i also think it comes down to the ridiculous amount of money we pay our professional athletes/actor/actress types

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Hail2theskins

i agree with you completley, I dont think professional sports should be treated like business because pro sports got started in the first place because people found this amazing thing that could be done on the weekends away from their business lives, something to get your mind off the workweek, and i understand that debts need to be paid and so do the players but i also think it comes down to the ridiculous amount of money we pay our professional athletes/actor/actress types

Seems like a pleasant picture you have painted in your head about what professional sports should be like. Unfortunately it's not grounded in anything remotely resembling reality.

It's a business, like it or not. Players cost money, putting it on TV costs money, building nice stadiums costs money, serving concessions costs money, I could go on and on.

If you like football free of impact from big business, go check out some high school football games. But if you like the NFL, deal with reality. We pay our athletes/actor/actress types so much money because there are so many of us who are willing to pay dearly to see them. That's life.

[irish]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Seems like a pleasant picture you have painted in your head about what professional sports should be like. Unfortunately it's not grounded in anything remotely resembling reality.

It's a business, like it or not. Players cost money, putting it on TV costs money, building nice stadiums costs money, serving concessions costs money, I could go on and on.

If you like football free of impact from big business, go check out some high school football games. But if you like the NFL, deal with reality. We pay our athletes/actor/actress types so much money because there are so many of us who are willing to pay dearly to see them. That's life.

TV networks pay the NFL to put it on so that does not cost the team anything. Same with concessions. As for stadiums they cost the taxpayer money, not the teams.

[That Guy]

Originally Posted by irish

TV networks pay the NFL to put it on so that does not cost the team anything. Same with concessions. As for stadiums they cost the taxpayer money, not the teams.

sorry, wrong. synder/cook paid for this stadium in full. In fact, synder still owes about 350$million on it... how the **** is that free? concessions definately cost the team money, the fact that they make it back doesn't mean otherwise.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Seems like a pleasant picture you have painted in your head about what professional sports should be like. Unfortunately it's not grounded in anything remotely resembling reality.

It's a business, like it or not. Players cost money, putting it on TV costs money, building nice stadiums costs money, serving concessions costs money, I could go on and on.

If you like football free of impact from big business, go check out some high school football games. But if you like the NFL, deal with reality. We pay our athletes/actor/actress types so much money because there are so many of us who are willing to pay dearly to see them. That's life.

That is life, unfortunate as it may be.

[Hail2theskins]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Seems like a pleasant picture you have painted in your head about what professional sports should be like. Unfortunately it's not grounded in anything remotely resembling reality.

It's a business, like it or not. Players cost money, putting it on TV costs money, building nice stadiums costs money, serving concessions costs money, I could go on and on.

If you like football free of impact from big business, go check out some high school football games. But if you like the NFL, deal with reality. We pay our athletes/actor/actress types so much money because there are so many of us who are willing to pay dearly to see them. That's life.

i realize all of this i was just saying i wish it was different which goes into where our values have gone to in this country, such as someone catching a football is paid more than the leader of the free worldbut im really not going to get into all that, i understand how business works in our economy, i was simply saying that i believe professional athletes are tremondously overpaid for what they do, and i dont buy the "they can only play for so long" crap so many of them dish out because everyone of them could have obtained a college degree virtually free of charge due to their athletic ability and still come out better off than a lot of people in the world...

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Hail2theskins

i realize all of this i was just saying i wish it was different which goes into where our values have gone to in this country, such as someone catching a football is paid more than the leader of the free worldbut im really not going to get into all that, i understand how business works in our economy, i was simply saying that i believe professional athletes are tremondously overpaid for what they do, and i dont buy the "they can only play for so long" crap so many of them dish out because everyone of them could have obtained a college degree virtually free of charge due to their athletic ability and still come out better off than a lot of people in the world...

Well which would be the bigger injustice, Coach Gibbs getting $5 million a year and President Bush getting $400,000, or President Bush getting $5 million a year and Coach Gibbs getting $400,000?

I think everyone in this equation is paid pretty fairly, given what they contribute to our society.

LOL

[irish]

Originally Posted by Hail2theskins

i realize all of this i was just saying i wish it was different which goes into where our values have gone to in this country, such as someone catching a football is paid more than the leader of the free worldbut im really not going to get into all that, i understand how business works in our economy, i was simply saying that i believe professional athletes are tremondously overpaid for what they do, and i dont buy the "they can only play for so long" crap so many of them dish out because everyone of them could have obtained a college degree virtually free of charge due to their athletic ability and still come out better off than a lot of people in the world...

This has been true since the dawn of civilization. In Rome, a top gladiator was paid 15 times more than a typical Roman citizen. Screwed up then and still screwed up today.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Yeah, I was going to post something about the haves and have-nots. I mean there are people who are just as deserving to go as the rich.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

You could argue that this isn't even paying them, the ticket brokers are also regular Joes trying to get by in this world just like you and me.