Pretendinitis in the NFL?

I’ve been on this topic a lot lately, but this is too important to ignore.  (As a refresher, go back and look at what I mean by Pretendinitis here and here.)

The Washington Redskins claim to have sold out every game for the last 70 years, and all you have to do is look at the stadium on game day to verify that the place does indeed look pretty full.

The crux of this story is that last year, the Washington Redskins sold thousands of tickets (a small, small fraction of overall tickets sold by the team) to several brokers, who re-sold them in the secondary market.

Big deal.  You may have gripes with the secondary market, but this practice is out there, and who cares if the Redskins happened to do it?

Well, for a starter, the 160,000 people on the Redskins waiting list for tickets.  According to the story:

“The Redskins say that demand is so great for tickets that people spend five to seven years on the waiting list, which is only for those seeking season tickets for general admission seating. Generally, ticket holders who make it through the list are offered seats in the stadium’s upper deck. At that point, they are considered off the list and have to negotiate with the ticket office to get better seats as they become available.”

So how does that square with putting tickets into the secondary market rather than just selling them to the legion of fans waiting for years to buy them?  Well, here’s where the trouble really starts:

One of the things that gives the Redskins prestige is the team’s waiting list, which goes back decades.

“The general admission waiting list, which famously included Snyder before he bought the team a decade ago, is considered one of the Redskins’ most valuable assets. It is held up by the team as a symbol of unwavering demand for Redskins tickets. The team has the highest season ticket-renewal rate in the NFL.”

In other words, the Redskins believe that your belief that they are sold out will make you want the tickets more.  And yet…

“Bloggers, fans in online chat rooms and others have often expressed doubt that the list is as long as advertised… In recent months, numerous people have contacted The Post and said they have been repeatedly solicited to buy Redskins season tickets, even though they did not sign up to be on the waiting list.

“Redskins are sold out — in theory,” said ASC’s Greenberg. “This year, they sent letters to everybody on the lower level to add more tickets to their account. The Redskins have done a great job of keeping that aura that they’re sold out.”

Why would anyone get an unsolicited offer to buy Redskins tickets when there’s a massive waiting list? Partly, it seems that it’s because the Redskins, while selling more or less regular tickets very well, are struggling to sell the more expensive tickets, including the $500 “dream ticket.”

The sales to brokers last year seem to have been an aberration, with the team claiming it was done against team policy and had been “dealt with.”

That’s probably the case.  We’re talking about a small number of tickets, given the size of demand for Redskins game.  As a big money making scheme, what was done last year with the brokers would be pretty small stuff.

But despite actually having decades of very strong sales, the Redskins have opened the door to doubt, and perhaps deservedly so.  In trying to game the system they set up, in which you get on a waiting list, wait your turn, and then cherish your tickets for life (or even beyond), they’ve created the impression that perhaps that’s not really how it works.

And so Isay to them and everyone else: stay on the straight and narrow.  Don’t mess around with the facts about sales.  This whole business of trying to make people think you’re sold in a way that you’re not is a destructive and pointless game.  My guess is that somebody got dollar signs in their eyes about the so-called big money to be had in the secondary market, and the inadvertent result is that the Redskins’ credibility is slightly tarnished when it comes to talking about the waiting list, selling out, the importance of their “true fans” and everything else they’ve worked to build for the last century.

Worth it?  I really don’t think so.

Remember: only you can stop Pretendinitis.