Written by my friend Britt McHenry. Make sure you give it a read
COLUMN: Stereotypes still exist against women across sports landscape | WJLA.com
Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sports. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Monday, January 28, 2013
The Digital Age Takes a Bite Out of Sports Tickets
The day of the souvenir ticket stub may be a thing of the past. One thing that can be a cherished reminder of an experience one had at a sporting event is being pushed by the wayside by many a sports team and soon ticket stubs may be no more. Why this is being done can be argued but should it be done isn't even up for debate in my opinion.
For many years I used to keep the tickets from games that I went to in great condition. I'll admit over the past few years I've just jammed most of them into my pocket only to be disappointed when its all crumpled up by the time I get home. This last happened with the Nationals first home playoff game in team history, I still kick myself for not keeping that ticket in as mint condition as possible. It was a historic game for the franchise and while some may see it as less significant if not totally insignificant others share the same belief I do. Now while that ticket may not be in the best of condition it and the painful memories of that game will be something I'll still cherish for years to come.
You see a ticket stub is more than the cost of the ticket or the location of where one sat or even the two teams or certain players out there doing battle. Ticket stubs hold memories that one can share with their children and grandchildren down the line. For some its the first game a father takes a son to, for others its the first date a couple went on and for others its a historical moment in sports history. Stories decades old have been told of a young boy that went to a game with their father and at that game they saw Jackie Robinson become the 1st African American to play in Major League Baseball; of grandpa taking in the game where Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game; Roger Maris hitting his 61st Home Run; The Ice Bowl; Gretzky's first game, Cal's 2161; whatever the case may be. Many of those stories are accompanied with the ticket stub from that game. Either its been kept in a safety box, in a top loader, a book, been signed or even framed. All those games are a piece of history. And while tickets can be bought after the fact on the secondary market it doesn't make them any less special to he who bought it, at least if they're a collector, because that game holds a special or significant meaning to that person or someone they know.
In fact my boss told me a story earlier this month about his son giving him a Christmas gift. That gift was a framed picture of the two of them at a Baltimore Ravens game and next to the picture was one of their tickets from the game. That is what a ticket stub means to some people. I myself purchased a ticket from the 2002 NCAA Championship Basketball game because Juan Dixon and the Maryland Terrapins not only played in that game but they won it. Its an item I've added to my collection and the closest I'll ever come to having attended the game. The ticket also looks better than some shitty black and white or color 8x10 sheet of paper with details of the game and ad that isn't as easy to store or as nice looking as that little rectangular one.
The decline in the original ticket began a few years back as more people went electronic and "green." You could order tickets online and have the option of having them mailed to you at your home or you could print them off from your computer. Sure that was an easy option and you didn't run the risk of them being lost or stolen by the postal service. My first time dealing with the "print it yourself" option not only was there a service charge for handling of like $18 but you also had to pay $3 to print your tickets. Yes that's right. Not only was I using my ink and paper which I had paid for but I also had to pay $3 for a "convenience fee." Any way for a company like TicketMaster to make a buck. Then when you printed the ticket there would be extra stuff on it, like an ad or offer that would eat up that ink and helped to take up the whole page.
Earlier this year my work received our package for our Georgetown Hoyas season tickets but all that was inside was a card, much like a savings or debit card. With the card you have the option of using it at the stadium to get in and take your seats or you can print them off from the Hoyas ticket site. Luckily printing them off or emailing them to someone else was a free option with these but I'm not so sure that's the case if you bought single game tickets.
A few months later the same thing happened with our Washington Wizards tickets, and then our Washington Capitals ticket. Monumental Sports and Entertainment was moving full fledged into this new and cheaper way of doing tickets, any why not they were the ones running or part owners of the TicketMaster company when the previous situation happened, at least I believe they still were at the time. Plus Ted Leonsis is a mogul and technology guy so he's going to go for online and cheap the best he can so as to continue to grow his empire. That's not to say there hasn't been a lot of bumps along the way. Fans are complaining about it taking longer to get into Caps games and the cards taking longer to get people in. I went to one game and did not see the cards being the problem as much as the security measures but I also got there 30 minutes prior to the game and had a paper printed ticket in hand.
Today comes word that the Washington Nationals will also be going the online route with their tickets and this just saddens me. I knew it would most likely be a reality at some point but there are just so many people, especially baseball fans, that love the thicker stock ticket over a card or the personal computer printed ticket. I loved seeing the special ticket that the teams would use for the team's first home game and then seeing different players for each of the next 4 or 5 games that would then recycle over however many pages the ticket book went. Now that's going to be gone.
I will say the card can make it a tad more convenient if you have one per ticket compared to one per account as Washington Monumental has done. It is also something you can just keep in your wallet at all times but what if you lose your card or it breaks? Isn't it more of a hassle to have to report it stolen and have the tickets reassigned electronically? Also this is a real cost cutting measure. While programming the cards could cost a pretty penny, and I'd assume their is a computer program that is a huge time saver, its a lot cheaper for the sports teams to purchase the cards in bulk than it was to print season tickets in mass as they have for many years and then send them via FedEx, UPS or DHL to the season ticket holder. Now that the teams are saving money on the printing don't you think some of that savings should trickle down to the people who are buying the tickets? I mean depending on the sport and where one is sitting you're paying at minimum of $50 and up to a few hundred for every game. Sure a giveaway at a game is nice but just as the owners would like to save money so would Joe Schmo who makes a less in a month or even year than some players make in a game.
I'm sure another reason the ticket industry is changing is to cut down on scalpers outside of the stadium. Knowing that someone can print the tickets off of a computer like you can with these, the buyer will be more suspect to trust someone outside the stadium than they would if they had the rectangular ticket so more people are likely to go to the box office to try and purchase tickets than go to the homely looking dude shouting "TICKETS! TICKETS! WHICH ONE OF YOU CRAZY MOTHER F-KERS NEED A TICKET?"
What's even sadder is that the sports teams know that they can exploit the fans even further. Say you go to a game and see a perfect game thrown or someone breaks Kareem's all-time scoring record, or whatever other notable achievement that will cause resale of a used ticket to sell for more than a ticket normally would after the event. After the accomplishment has taken place you have to figure that the teams will see it as a perfect opportunity to capitalize on the fans that want to have a better looking piece of history by printing out 17,000 tickets that resemble the soon to be old school style and sell them for like $20-$50 per ticket. They know people will pay and those poor saps that already paid $50 to see the game may be paying another $50 on top of it. Don't believe me? They know we're all suckers and owners are all about the dollar. After all they need to have a profitable company or they'll just tell you that you're going to have to pay more while they still fail to improve their roster or upgrade the facility.
I really hope that fans voice their frustrations enough that the owners reconsider it but this reminds me of growing up and listening to Sony and Nintendo tell the consumers that the cartridge games cost more because of what they have to do in terms of making them and that once the games go to a disc the prices will drop. Well as the years have gone on and the systems have switched to the disc games the prices are still $50-$60 for most games. And why not...they know that we're addicts and we're going to pay exactly what they tell us to. Maybe not all of us but the majority.
For many years I used to keep the tickets from games that I went to in great condition. I'll admit over the past few years I've just jammed most of them into my pocket only to be disappointed when its all crumpled up by the time I get home. This last happened with the Nationals first home playoff game in team history, I still kick myself for not keeping that ticket in as mint condition as possible. It was a historic game for the franchise and while some may see it as less significant if not totally insignificant others share the same belief I do. Now while that ticket may not be in the best of condition it and the painful memories of that game will be something I'll still cherish for years to come.
You see a ticket stub is more than the cost of the ticket or the location of where one sat or even the two teams or certain players out there doing battle. Ticket stubs hold memories that one can share with their children and grandchildren down the line. For some its the first game a father takes a son to, for others its the first date a couple went on and for others its a historical moment in sports history. Stories decades old have been told of a young boy that went to a game with their father and at that game they saw Jackie Robinson become the 1st African American to play in Major League Baseball; of grandpa taking in the game where Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points in a single game; Roger Maris hitting his 61st Home Run; The Ice Bowl; Gretzky's first game, Cal's 2161; whatever the case may be. Many of those stories are accompanied with the ticket stub from that game. Either its been kept in a safety box, in a top loader, a book, been signed or even framed. All those games are a piece of history. And while tickets can be bought after the fact on the secondary market it doesn't make them any less special to he who bought it, at least if they're a collector, because that game holds a special or significant meaning to that person or someone they know.
In fact my boss told me a story earlier this month about his son giving him a Christmas gift. That gift was a framed picture of the two of them at a Baltimore Ravens game and next to the picture was one of their tickets from the game. That is what a ticket stub means to some people. I myself purchased a ticket from the 2002 NCAA Championship Basketball game because Juan Dixon and the Maryland Terrapins not only played in that game but they won it. Its an item I've added to my collection and the closest I'll ever come to having attended the game. The ticket also looks better than some shitty black and white or color 8x10 sheet of paper with details of the game and ad that isn't as easy to store or as nice looking as that little rectangular one.
The decline in the original ticket began a few years back as more people went electronic and "green." You could order tickets online and have the option of having them mailed to you at your home or you could print them off from your computer. Sure that was an easy option and you didn't run the risk of them being lost or stolen by the postal service. My first time dealing with the "print it yourself" option not only was there a service charge for handling of like $18 but you also had to pay $3 to print your tickets. Yes that's right. Not only was I using my ink and paper which I had paid for but I also had to pay $3 for a "convenience fee." Any way for a company like TicketMaster to make a buck. Then when you printed the ticket there would be extra stuff on it, like an ad or offer that would eat up that ink and helped to take up the whole page.
Earlier this year my work received our package for our Georgetown Hoyas season tickets but all that was inside was a card, much like a savings or debit card. With the card you have the option of using it at the stadium to get in and take your seats or you can print them off from the Hoyas ticket site. Luckily printing them off or emailing them to someone else was a free option with these but I'm not so sure that's the case if you bought single game tickets.
A few months later the same thing happened with our Washington Wizards tickets, and then our Washington Capitals ticket. Monumental Sports and Entertainment was moving full fledged into this new and cheaper way of doing tickets, any why not they were the ones running or part owners of the TicketMaster company when the previous situation happened, at least I believe they still were at the time. Plus Ted Leonsis is a mogul and technology guy so he's going to go for online and cheap the best he can so as to continue to grow his empire. That's not to say there hasn't been a lot of bumps along the way. Fans are complaining about it taking longer to get into Caps games and the cards taking longer to get people in. I went to one game and did not see the cards being the problem as much as the security measures but I also got there 30 minutes prior to the game and had a paper printed ticket in hand.
Today comes word that the Washington Nationals will also be going the online route with their tickets and this just saddens me. I knew it would most likely be a reality at some point but there are just so many people, especially baseball fans, that love the thicker stock ticket over a card or the personal computer printed ticket. I loved seeing the special ticket that the teams would use for the team's first home game and then seeing different players for each of the next 4 or 5 games that would then recycle over however many pages the ticket book went. Now that's going to be gone.
I will say the card can make it a tad more convenient if you have one per ticket compared to one per account as Washington Monumental has done. It is also something you can just keep in your wallet at all times but what if you lose your card or it breaks? Isn't it more of a hassle to have to report it stolen and have the tickets reassigned electronically? Also this is a real cost cutting measure. While programming the cards could cost a pretty penny, and I'd assume their is a computer program that is a huge time saver, its a lot cheaper for the sports teams to purchase the cards in bulk than it was to print season tickets in mass as they have for many years and then send them via FedEx, UPS or DHL to the season ticket holder. Now that the teams are saving money on the printing don't you think some of that savings should trickle down to the people who are buying the tickets? I mean depending on the sport and where one is sitting you're paying at minimum of $50 and up to a few hundred for every game. Sure a giveaway at a game is nice but just as the owners would like to save money so would Joe Schmo who makes a less in a month or even year than some players make in a game.
I'm sure another reason the ticket industry is changing is to cut down on scalpers outside of the stadium. Knowing that someone can print the tickets off of a computer like you can with these, the buyer will be more suspect to trust someone outside the stadium than they would if they had the rectangular ticket so more people are likely to go to the box office to try and purchase tickets than go to the homely looking dude shouting "TICKETS! TICKETS! WHICH ONE OF YOU CRAZY MOTHER F-KERS NEED A TICKET?"
What's even sadder is that the sports teams know that they can exploit the fans even further. Say you go to a game and see a perfect game thrown or someone breaks Kareem's all-time scoring record, or whatever other notable achievement that will cause resale of a used ticket to sell for more than a ticket normally would after the event. After the accomplishment has taken place you have to figure that the teams will see it as a perfect opportunity to capitalize on the fans that want to have a better looking piece of history by printing out 17,000 tickets that resemble the soon to be old school style and sell them for like $20-$50 per ticket. They know people will pay and those poor saps that already paid $50 to see the game may be paying another $50 on top of it. Don't believe me? They know we're all suckers and owners are all about the dollar. After all they need to have a profitable company or they'll just tell you that you're going to have to pay more while they still fail to improve their roster or upgrade the facility.
I really hope that fans voice their frustrations enough that the owners reconsider it but this reminds me of growing up and listening to Sony and Nintendo tell the consumers that the cartridge games cost more because of what they have to do in terms of making them and that once the games go to a disc the prices will drop. Well as the years have gone on and the systems have switched to the disc games the prices are still $50-$60 for most games. And why not...they know that we're addicts and we're going to pay exactly what they tell us to. Maybe not all of us but the majority.
Monday, December 31, 2012
2013 Fearless Predictions
I started doing this last year on Twitter but didn't write down any of them so I could keep track of what did and didn't come true. I do remember some that did and figured I'd turn this into a yearly thing. While some of these I seriously believe will happen, many are to be taken as light-heartedly and as jokes...in case you couldn't figure that out. Hope you enjoy some of them. All of these were written before December 30, 2012.
Personal
(myself or friends)
- March 20th, the night of our Circus
event, will be my best day of the first half of year
- I will drop at least 40 lbs by Christmas
- I will drink soda
no more than 3 times in 2013
- I will play in the
2013 Bethesda Big Train Celebrity Game this year, not as a celebrity obviously
and I will hit a HR
- I will
average at least 1 blog post a week on www.laichitis.blogspot.com
(shameless plug)
- In turn if
I keep up the writing and improve with each post I will achieve some form of
validation, at least locally
- By
the end of the year my cousin John will come to the decision it is time to
retire but won’t do so until the end of 2014, right before closeout
- John will
also get a new dog, but not a foo-foo dog. Chocolate Lab seems to be the best
fit.
- Britt
McHenry will meet her future husband
- Britt McHenry will be staying in DC and will
ascend within ABC 7, taking over full-time for Tim Brant who will move on by
June 2014
- Britt McHenry will receive an overture to
co-host a DC Sports Talk radio show
- I will complete the year without
meeting my father…again though not necessarily by my choice
- My cousin Pam finally graduates college
- My cousin Kristin will get pregnant again.
This time with twins. One will be Hispanic, one black, her husband still
white
- Mark Cruz will finally get engaged.
50/50 shot that it will either be to his girlfriend or a transvestite masseuse
in the Philippines
- 4 of my friends on
Facebook will end up pregnant or getting someone pregnant during the year
-Tori Hill somehow
finds her way into the Nats clubhouse while at a game next year, possibly
sneaking in or flirting with Lombardozzi
- No matter how many
blog posts I have in 2013, all combined will not accumulate to the 2 I wrote on
Britt last spring (2600+)
- I will continue to
use Twitter but more for sports, jokes and networking than for bitching about
my job
Sports Cards &
Memorabilia
- I will add one
extremely rare Juan Dixon card to my collection, it will not be the triple
logoman from Exquisite
- HobbyKings.com and
Panini America will work on a basketball card set if JDC and some other HK guys
get their shit together
- Upper Deck will go
out of business
- Even when they do
things right Panini will not get the respect its due from many members on the
basketball side of the hobby
- I will open at
least 50 boxes of cards this year and the money would still have better been
spent on singles
- I will sell off
some of my collection this year once I get my shit in order
- I still won’t pull
a Michael Jordan autograph
Sports
- The Los Angeles
Clippers win the NBA Championship (I’ve had OKC since the end of last season)
- the NHL lockout
will finally end…but it won’t be until July - NHL ratings will fall on TV and arena’s will
be down at least 20%
- the Washington
Nationals will win the 2013 World Series
- Michael
Morse will hit 40 HRs as a member of the Washington Nationals or
Baltimore Orioles
- Angela Rypien will
lead the Baltimore Charm Lingerie Football Team to the Championship
- Despite their
offensive line and secondary woes the Redskins will not address the needs
noting their strong record
- the new women’s
soccer league will be a success
- the WNBA will
continue to falter despite Candace Parker leading the Sparks to the
championship
- Kevin Love, Josh
Smith, Amar’e Stoudamire, and Dwight Howard will all be involved in big trades
in the summer
- Chris Paul will
re-sign with the Clippers and the Clippers will go to the WCF & unseat the
Lakers as the team in LA
- Rex Ryan will be
fired, Tim Tebow will end up in Jacksonville, Mark Sanchez will remain in NY
- Despite becoming
favorites the Angels, Dodgers, and Blue Jays don’t make it out of the
Divisional Series, one won’t make playoffs
- The Orioles will
not see the same success as last year
- FP Santangelo and
Bob Carpenter will be back next season for Nats broadcasts, just not on MASN
- LeBron James
suffers a serious injury and misses much of the 2013-14 season
- Strasburg wins NL
CY Young, Bryce Harper joins 40/40 Club
- the Washington
Wizards will continue to suck
- the Washington
Nationals will have more wins at the end of the NBA regular season than the
Wizards
- A wrestler
currently in WWE or TNA will die, possibly while performing
- Dwyane Wade misses
a week with an ingrown toe nail
- The Rock will end
CM Punk's title reign only to drop the title to Dolph Ziggler who cashes in his
Money in the Bank briefcase
- The New York
Yankees will finish 4th in the AL East
- Baseball finally
does something to protect pitchers from batted balls after a scary incident in
July
- Andray Blatche
will glue his finger up his nose
- Brett Favre will
attempt another NFL comeback, this time with the Oakland Raiders
- Speaking of the
Silver & Black...so will Donovan McNabb (black guy, silver hair)
- A fat person will
finally win the Nathan's hot dog eating contest..then will be disqualified when
its found out its a pregnant woman and it was technically two people competing
- Manny Ramirez
attempts a comeback in a Beer League Softball and is cut for being out of shape
and unable to hit the ball
- Joe Flacco will be
franchised by the Ravens and fans will call for him to be replaced by Tyron
Taylor by Week 6
- RG3 will remain amazing while Romo and the Cowboys will still suck
- Despite deserving
a chance, Juan Dixon will not be given one last shot to make it back into the
NBA
- Andy Reid and Rex
Ryan face off in a championship match...for pie eating
Movies/Music/Celebs
- John Travolta & Tom Cruise will finally admit they’re gay and are actually a couple (I think I did this one for 2012 too)
- John Travolta & Tom Cruise will finally admit they’re gay and are actually a couple (I think I did this one for 2012 too)
- Lindsay Lohan will
manage to stay sober….for 20 minutes
- I’ll see maybe 6
of the following movies at the theatre the first half of the year: Gangster
Squad, The Last Stand, Safe Haven, Snitch, The Heat, Jurassic Park 3D
(AMAZING), 42, Pain & Gain, Fast & Furious 6, Olympus Has Fallen,
Monsters University, White House Down
- the following movies
will underperform: Oz The Great & Powerful, A Good Day to Die Hard, G.I.
Joe: Retaliation, Hangover Part III, Fast & Furious 6
- Oblivion’s lack of success will again cause people to question why Tom Cruise is put in movies
- Oblivion’s lack of success will again cause people to question why Tom Cruise is put in movies
- Will Smith will
give M Night Shyamalan his highest grossing movie since The Sixth Sense with
After Earth tho we may not see another Will Smith movie or look at him the same
again for at least 5 years.
- Sleeper
Movies: Olympus Has Fallen, Now You See Me, Much Ado About Nothing, White House
Down
- Iron Man 3 and Man
of Steel will fail to impress me, though Amy Adams will help Superman
- A young blonde
actress and candyland pop starlet (names removed for my safety) will have a
photo scandals
- Blake Lively and
Ryan Reynolds will get divorced
- Kim Kardashian
will marry Kanye West and Kanye will put out a sex tape with Kris, Humphries
not Kardashian
- Justin Beiber will
hit a girlfriend and get busted for drugs
- Andy Roddick
knocks up Brooklyn Decker
- Taylor Swift will
get pregnant..it will not be Daren Hayes’
- Rihanna won't
learn her lesson and will get smacked around by Chris Brown again
- Gabriel Iglesias
will be recognized as the funniest comedian alive
- Katt Williams will
continue his downward spiral until he kills himself at a Home Depot
- Psy will quickly
be forgotten about but will end up going on a tour with MC Hammer and later
joined by Vanilla Ice
- Gangnam Style will
go the way of the Macarena and Tubthumping only being heard at sporting events
- Christine Lakin
will make a (don't call it a) comeback with a new TV show
- Betty White and
Zsa Zsa Gabor last another year
- While men would prefer a scandal involving Carrie Underwood we'll only get the announcement that she is with child
- While men would prefer a scandal involving Carrie Underwood we'll only get the announcement that she is with child
Politics/World News
- We will know less
about what happened in Benghazi by December 31, 2013 than we do now
- Two former US
Presidents will pass away..George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter
- someone will die
in the penguin exhibit at a zoo and people will demand penguins be sent back to
Antarctica and banned from zoos and aquariums across the US
- There will be at
least one news story of someone going to the hospital because they got their
penis stuck in one of those Chinese finger locks
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