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Stuff you can rent out and do with as you wish

As I was cleaning up some links from last month I came across an interesting tidbit, it would seem Major League Soccer's DC United is going to play a friendly with Real Madrid in August, and the game will not be at RFK Stadium, former home of the Redskins and current home to DC United. Rather, the game will be at FedEx Field, current home of the Redskins and sole property of Redskins owner Dan Snyder.

I thought that made sense, Real Madrid is hugely popular around the world, in a way that the Redskins and NFL teams are not and cannot be. RFK is old and with few amenities and seats nearly 50 thousand fewer fans than FedEx Field.

Then I caught this line in the Washington Post piece:

Other factors [in selecting FedEx Field over RFK] were FedEx's private boxes and amenities and the Washington Redskins' involvement, including access to the NFL team's season ticket list.

Did you read that Redskins season ticket holders? Dan Snyder pimped you out as a negotiable asset, Dan will be getting fees for hosting the game and United also likely threw in some scratch to be able to sell to the season ticket holders. For your position of privilege as a Redskins season ticket holder getting unsolicited offers you get a whole ten dollars off the full ticket price.

If I were the Redskins front office I would take care how I treat my season ticket holders and selling them out is not a way I would choose to do that. Redskins and NFL season ticket holders are already perennially pissed off over having to pay for meaningless preseason games as part of their package, you figure two tickets times two games times 75 dollars is 300 dollars off the top minimum on top of the eight regular season games. More seats, a third game, parking passes, more expensive seats and any of the other amenities you get to pay extra for just makes it worse.

And now they want to offer you a chance to pay another fifty bucks plus parking for a game right smack in the middle of that stretch of meaningless games you have to pay for anyway. Eureka.

My guess is that down in the fine print of the season ticket holder agreement you agreed to permit the team to share your contact information with marketing partners, and my guess is also that if this is the case most of you do not know about this.

Who else is Dan Snyder selling the Redskins season ticket list to? I guess Six Flags offers, Johnny Rockets coupons and ESPravada 980 special offers would be no brainers, Dan Snyder owns these enterprises. Anyone getting unexpected fundraising mailers from Republican candidates for office? Erectile dysfunction meds? Your local Chrysler dealer?

Another brilliant move Mr. Marketing Genius.



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