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.

Andray Blatche Will Be Amnestied By the Wizards

A reliable source told me that they expect the Wizards to amnesty Andray Blatche, perhaps at the start of free agency. Not that this comes as a surprise to anyone and Andray has worn out his welcome in DC, which is a shame because if he wasn't such a stubborn bonehead he had the potential to be a solid part of this franchise. Despite his off-court issues Blatche was very solid when filling in for Antawn Jamison 3 season ago...but in three seasons the fans have quickly gone from supporting Blatche, who was finally living up to his potential, to running him out of town because he became the next coming of Kwame Brown (or Juwan Howard in his last days as a Wizard).

If the team can convince some other team to absorb his contract for some floor wax and a case of Gatorade (flavor to be named later) they'd gladly ship him out, preferably at the NBA Draft tomorrow night.

The Washington Wizards Make a Good Deal for Once?

Anyone that has followed this downtrodden franchise for the last 30 years knows that when it comes to making trades for players that Wizards haven't exactly been on the winning end of deals. Granted most of  the ones I remember were those under Wes Unseld's watch but anyone that thought trading Chris Webber, who was entering his prime, for an aging Mitch Richmond needed to have their head examined. Some would say trading Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland was a terrible deal but that was a move that fit a need, I guess the question would be could the team have gotten more value based on Rasheed's potential but he was so volatile and had so many red flags would it have been worth passing on the deal. Besides when you have Webber, Juwan Howard and Gheorghe Muresan its not going to be easy to find room for a powder keg like Wallace who could take a team that has its bigs in foul trouble and make them even thinner by getting tossed from a game.

The next trade I can think that the team made was the Ben Wallace for Ike Austin trade...MORONS! Or how about Richard Hamilton for Jerry Stackhouse? IMBECILES...I only remember one positive from Stackhouse as a Wizard and that was his last second tip-in alley-oop to beat the Lakers. 

The best trade I can think of was moving the albatross contract of Howard, Calvin Booth (who I liked) and Obinna Ekezie (Terp love) for Christian Laettner, Courtney Alexander, Loy Vaught (totally forgot about him), Hubert Davis, Etan Thomas (who in the end became the center piece of the deal) and $3 million. That trade, executed by Michael Jordan, was probably one of the best trades I'd ever seen the team make, even if it looks insignificant 11 years later. The two teams did another deal 3 years later when Laettner and Stackhouse, along with Washington's 1st Round Pick (Devin Harris) were traded to Dallas for Antawn Jamison. While it would have been nice to have Harris, Jamison was a solid veteran addition, stand-up player on and off the court and brought leadership to a team sorely needing it. Unfortuantely for the NBA good guy his time in Washington didn't end as pleasant as it started.

This brings us to yesterday's trade.  The Wizards traded Rashard Lewis, he of constant knee or back or ego injuries and due $23 million  this upcoming season, and a 2nd Round Pick for Emeka Okafor and Trevor Ariza. Many, myself included, expected the Wizards to just buyout Lewis for nearly $14 million but GM Ernie Grunfeld had said he would be available if the right deal came along.

Apparently that right deal did come along as the Wizards added an All-Star caliber C who had averaged 13 points and 10 rebounds over his career and a SF who can play defense and get hot from beyond the arc.  I'm not a big fan of Ariza but he's an upgrade over Mo Evans and both players bring quality leadership to a young team. Also a front-court of the defensive minded Okafor and Nene can be intimidating to opposing teams and be helpful to a team that has lacked on defense. While the offense may suffer some they will also be good mentors to Trevor Booker and Kevin Seraphin which should help both players grow. Both young guys shined last year and showed their potential when healthy and given minutes. One concern is both veteran bigs are injury prone.

I honestly haven't been this excited for a move in a long time and had even read a few weeks ago how it would take a lot (multiple 1ist round picks being one thing) to get Okafor. Apparently freeing up $30 million in cap room was more important to the NBA and its new owners and while the cap room would have been nice for the Wizards lets be honest no big name player outside of Gilbert Arenas has come to Washington as a free agent and after the guns in the locker room incident and the immature attitudes of the players who would want to? So a deal was the way to get big name players and while Okafor may not be along the lines of Chris Bosh and more a poor man's version of Andrew Bogut he is a NCAA Champion and former NBA Rookie of the Year, and the #2 pick from the 2004-05 draft.

Now the team will have to learn to play fundamental basketball under Coach Whittman, who I felt deserved the contract he got since the team responded to him. They are still a team without an identity. John Wall, Jordan Crawford, and Trevor Booker thrive in an up-tempo offense. Okafor and Nene are a bit better in a slower scheme and will need to avoid foul trouble for this team to really make strides. While this move doesn't put the team in playoff position, they still have to move Andray Blatche, they have the 3rd pick in the NBA draft and I would guess they have another trade (not Blatche) that they'll make, this is a move that puts the team in the right direction and brings in the right group of character guys.  I seriously doubt you'll hear about Okafor getting shot at 3am or involved with ladies of the night or whining over playing time.

As a Wizards fan you have to feel better about this move and this team than you did going into the draft lottery. By the way has there ever been two players named Trevor on the same NBA team during one season? Of course these are the Wizards, Okafor is injury prone and the Curse of Les Boulez always looms.

The Washington Wizards...A Franchise Going Nowhere Fast

For years I have been a Bullets/Wizards fan. Mind you in my early years I suffered through rooting for teams that had  Mitchell Butler, Ladell Eckles, Tom Hammonds, Harvey Grant (the lesser of twins), Larry Stewart, Michael Adams, and Pervis Ellison, who I couldn't stand, so yeah not house hold names but that was the roster we had. Then in 1993-94 I started really getting into basketball and by the following season I was sold on a team that had added Chris Webber to go with Juwan Howard and also had my favorite player at the time...Big Ghitza...Gheorghe Muresan. Add Rod Strickland and the outside shooting of Tim Legler and this team had playoff potential for years to come but, much like the Wizards teams of the mid to late 2000s, they managed to underachieve.

Those early 2000s teams saw the Wizards get THE Michael Jordan, first as an executive, then as a player, then as neither. The executive drafted Kwame Brown, in an overall underwhelming draft, and pulled a trade Wes Unseld would be proud of by sending young Richard Hamilton to the Detroit Pistons for Jerry Stackhouse. Not the Jerry Stackhouse that lit the league up when he entered with the 76ers tho. Of course this trade would work out, why not they always do when the Wizards trade youth for veteran leadership. Ben Wallace for Ike Austin..oh um...Chris Webber for Mitch Richmond...darn um...Rasheed Wallace for Rod Strickland..yeah not so much when you look at the end results for all those players after the deals.

Jordan did make one great move as an executive though, and its probably the only one he's made as a GM or owner, which was to unload Juwan Howard's seemingly unmovable contract to the Dallas Mavs and bringing back Etan Thomas and Courtney Alexander...veteran for youth and Thomas was actually a serviceable and reliable big man..when he wasn't hurt.

The early early/mid 2000s I loved if only because they team drafted my all-time favorite player, Juan Dixon, and Steve Blake, and even brought in Lonny Baxter, he of one semester at Springbrook High School..go Blue Devils. Unfortunately for me and him, despite Juan Dixon being a key member of the Wizards bench and winning a game for them in the playoffs against the Chicago Bulls he was not long for the team, despite two stints with the team. The mid/late 2000 teams were built around Gilbert Arenas, Antawn Jamison, and Larry Hughes (one year) then Caron Butler. Each year that they made the playoffs they had the look of a team that could go pretty deep yet they always seemed to lose to LeBron James and the refs Cleveland Cavaliers.

Significant injuries to Arenas pretty much crippled this team's playoff hopes and he never got back to being the same player, his alter-ego Agent Zero, then was involved in a terrible turn of events involving guns in the locker room and eventually, miraculously given his contract, traded. This trade taking place after Jamison and Butler had been moved by the trade deadline the year prior and so ended the Big 3 era and ushered in the John Wall era which has essentially just been a run into a wall.

The season started off terribly and I constantly referred to the team as the Izards, because they had no W's, or the Lizards, because they kept racking up losses. Coach Flip Saunders had named Andray Blatche a team captain, ballsy considering his work ethic and lack of maturity over the years, but Blatche had been trying during the lockout to get all the players to come to DC and practice so that they'd build some chemistry. Only a few players showed up and that may have hurt the team.

There's no doubt John Wall is talented. Before the Wizards received the 1st pick in the 2010 NBA draft I wasn't a big fan of his but once we got it I started checking some videos and was quickly sold on the kid. The problem now is he's not progressing. The lockout last off-season and the ridiculous schedule this year surely isn't helping his growth but it would have been nice if instead of running around the country in pick-up and charity games, though I can't blame him there, he had spent more time working on his jumper. The face of the franchise has about as consistent of a jumper as Rajon Rondo but can't compile stats nearly as identical regardless of the difference in talent each roster has. Add to it that while he's quick he's also very out of control on the break and will miss lay-ups regularly and can lose his composure which can completely take him out of a game mentally. Hopefully this off-season the team can get him to stay close to DC and work with whoever the coaching staff will be to work on his game.

Jordan Crawford stated he wanted to be better than Jordan. The kid has a big pair to make that statement, too bad he's going to be nothing but a role player for his career much like Damon Jones, Mike Miller, Jamaal Crawford and Quentin Richardson. JC is a streaky wing shooter, we had that in Nick Young, but he also has a weird jerky jump shot and take some awful shots at the worst opportunities. Until the coaches reign him in he's going to keep going that route...then again the coach is an interim one so he won't be listened to much.

As for Blatche? I've loved him since we drafted him, despite his stupidity and immaturity off the court and his self esteem issues on the court, thanks Eddie Jordan, he showed a couple year's ago when Jamison went down that he was on his way to reaching his potential. Alas it all slipped away. Every time he touched the ball at home this season the fans booed him and his performance warranted it or was a product of the fans reactions. Regardless he'd been out of shape, made comments speaking out against the coach in terms of getting the ball in the paint and then once he did he still settled or chose to take it out and take bad shots, and has since been shut down for the season. If the team can move him they'll be lucky but I fear his career won't end well and we're going to hear more about him with off-court issues once he is done.

Rashard Lewis. Overpaid, overrated, washed up, shut down, and soon to be amnestied. Yeah that pretty much sums up my thoughts on the forward that can't rebound, can't score and can no longer shoot.

Brian Cook and Mo Evans. Can't stand them, don't need them, next?

Roger Mason Jr came back after a few seasons away and hit some clutch shots in a few games this year. Now he's out having finger surgery, was released today and replaced by Morris Almond...Almond? Really? How about you bring Dixon back to at least put a few asses in the seats for these last few home games?

Chris Singleton has been as good as advertised on defense, better than expected on offense, but I fear he's settling for 3's he shouldn't be. Should be a viable option at SF in a role similar to Shane Battier.

Shelvin Mack has been a solid PG back-up. I haven't watched him much but he's played well when I have seen him. The same can be said for Jan Vesley. He's done some things right, some things wrong but he's still raw and hasn't had enough playing time for fair assesment.

Kevin Seraphin is a player that came in raw and while he still has a lot of room to grow he has been the best player on the team many nights, including that game against the Lakers which seemed to be his coming out party. I think he could be a very solid center option in a league lacking quality centers.

Nene is new to the team and injured and will probably get shut down for the year. I'll admit that I didn't care for the trade when we made it. Much like I did with the way fans felt about Arenas before he was traded, I was one of the few supporters of Nick Young and JaVale McGee. McGee is very talented but reckless. He tries to run fast breaks and makes stupid goaltending plays and has had a few other mental lapses but the potential outweighted them to me. This was a team that SUCKED and was usually getting killed every night and he at least brought some personality on the court. Young on the other hand was the same type of player as Crawford, a streaky shooter but more accurate, or so it seemed. He also could throw down some ridiculous dunks but much like many other players on the team he was very immature.

Finally there is Trevor Booker. He has been my loan bright spot for the team the past two years.The kid can jump out the gym, throw down some sick dunks, block shots and hustles. He just can't seem to stay healthy. I really hope the team doesn't decide to move him because it would just add to the mistake in the front office from over the years. If Wall can get taught, Booker stays healthy, and Seraphin continues to progress then those three players would make this team much easier to watch.

Right now they're just fucking awful though, I mean to the point I can barely watch any games. How many times has this team blown a 20+ point lead, usually in a half, this season? Its gotta be some kind of record. Every team gets lucky a few times a season and that's how you have to explain them beating the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Los Angeles Lakers earlier in the year. When the season started I thought the team could win 20-25 games. After they imploded in the opener against the New Jersey Nets I changed that to maybe 15 wins. After their first 5 games I thought they'd be lucky to win 5.

Of course not all the blame should be the players. In the mid-90s before the team played at the Verizon Center I read a story about how the players hated playing for Washington and how terrible the atmosphere was because Abe Pollin, then more like the Mr. Burns of the NBA, had training camp held at the gym at Bowie State University. The gym had no air conditioning, holes in the windows, broken showers and players were not happy. Once the Verizon Center opened I started hearing better things and when Arenas joined the team the free agent market at least had reason to look at coming here. Now the team is owned by Caps owner Ted Leonsis and we'll have to see what he does. His plan is to let his execs do their jobs since they have the basketball knowledge and he'll pay the money. The problem is he has the wrong guys in place but may not know it either because he's very loyal or not knowledgeable.

The front office has been a constant sore spot with Wizards fans. First it was former player Wes Unseld calling the shots in the 90s, then Jordan, now Grunfeld and he has lost a lot of player for comments he's made and for allowing Arenas to get away with a lot of the stuff he did during his time here, whether it was his call or Pollin's it happened. Fines and suspensions by the coach were overruled and that is just bad all around.

You also have to look at the quality of coaches we've had in DC since the mid 90s...Wes Unseld, Jim Lynam, Bob Staak, Bernie Bickerstaff, Jim Brovelli, Gar Heard, Darrell Walker, Leonard Hamilton, Doug Collins, Eddie Jordan, Ed Tapscott, Flip Saunders and now Randy Whittman. The only guys on their worth a damn is Doug Collins and Flip Saunders and Eddie Jordan isn't bad but his dog house killed so many players.

Maybe its poor management top to bottom, maybe its bad luck, maybe its the Curse O'Les Boulez. Whatever it is its still happening and it doesn't look like its leaving any time soon