Note within this story that the Pittsburgh Penguins are NOT accepting orders for playoff tickets from people from the Detroit area code and zip codes. The intention is to lock out visiting fans and keep the arena stocked full of local fans. This is what I implemented in our first playoff series against the Penguins and we were raked over the coals in the Pittsburgh media for our efforts. Furthermore, a Department of Justice attorney called me. He hailed from Pittsburgh and threatened a lawsuit against us for discriminatory business practices. We, of course, heeded the warnings and stopped this practice. This is situational ethics at is finest and the ultimate in irony from my standpoint.
Ted's Take
seriously? You’re not going to approve a message pointing to the facts?
It wasn’t even an attack on your character.
Ted,
I have been a Capitals fan since day one of the franchise, I learned the game over the radio and through the newspaper. Believe me, the early days were tough to go through night after night wishing, hoping and praying for even a tie. I am so glad that my loyalty runs deep and i am not a bandwagoner.
With that said, I would like to commend you on your vision for this teams present and future as well. I have long wished that this team would be a consistent winner and become one of the first teams that hockey fans would think of and not Detroit, Pittsburgh, or anyone else for that matter. It seems as we are on that road, and for someone like myself that has been with the Capitals through it all, how sweet is that?
One other thing I would like to say, thank you for interacting with us fans. I’m sure that I speak for many who appreciate someone who seems to actually care what we think as fans. In my book, you are first rate. Congratulations on an outstanding season, and good luck in the upcoming seasons as well!
Sincerely,
William J. Rice
redskin777us@yahoo.com
I hate seeing opposing fans in our building. We shouldn’t sell tickets to opposing fans in other cities, only a pre-determined number to the opposing team’s fan club. And if we could track which folks in the DC metro area come to root for out of town teams we should shut them out too. Wishful thinking, I know.
Not selling tix to pens fans that year was genius, but there is another way to avoid having opposing fans at the Phone Booth. Buy season tickets and pack the house with Caps fans! Out of towners can’t buy tickets to a sold out game. I was proud of how few Flyers fans were at Verizon for this year’s playoff run, because Caps fans bought up the tickets before our opponent was determined.
Uncle Ted has done his part, Caps fans, now it’s time we do ours!
lets do this for the regular season and playoffs! If they go through with this, than so can we. . .I am sick of them treating Verison like its a home game for them! Hell Im a STH, and Ill but extra seats if we do this just to keep them out!
Ted,
What do you expect from them. Surprised they didn’t do that to for the philly series.
The bigger question is, how do they have tickets available for the FINALS?
This just makes me love the pittsburgh penguins that much more.
Suggest calling that Justice Department lawyer who yanked your chain and ask when he will be doing the same to his Pens…
Ironic indeed!!! If it were any other team representing the East I’d be cheering for them, but for the Pens all I can say is SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP, SWEEP. Wouldn’t that be great? Please Ted, please jack up the cost of single game tickets by double for next season’s visits by the Pens, and make them regular price in the six packs you cleverly offered last year.
It would seem, to use George Orwell’s phrase that some NHL clubs are more equal than others. (I still think that what you tried to do back in the 2001 playoffs was bloody brilliant.)
That policy has been in place from day 1 this year, so it’s not specifically about Detroit. It was more about shutting out long distance scalpers
Have you contacted the DOJ attorney back? Ask him what he plans to do to rectify the situtation as a public servant. This is an outrage!
Maybe the NHL should have some sort of system whereby fans from visiting teams sit together in one / more sections. I think they do this in English soccer (football), but since I’ve never been to a game over there, I’m not sure.
I think you should offer seats to fans from other teams, but in a limited/focused fashion. You play in the regular season for home ice advantage…that’s what it should be – home ice advantage.
Ted, you made the right decision back then and I can’t criticize the Pens for doing it now (although someone in Pittsburgh owes you a big apology). Nothing wrong with a sports team trying to make sure that its local fans have access to seats. Of course, I’m astonished that the Pens didn’t see all of the seats for the Finals to season tix holders (who presumably have first dibs on tix in addition to their regular allotment).
As I understand it, the Washington Capitals are a privately held company as is Washington Sports and Entertainment. I’m not sure where the discriminatory business practices come from as you’re not restricting someone on the basis of race, religion, or belief (unless you count sports team support as a belief). If it happens again, I would take the name of the DOJ attorney and refer him to the US Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility. http://www.usdoj.gov/opr/index.html If anyone were to make a call to the Capitals organization, it should have been a member of the US Attorney’s office in Washington DC, not a staff attorney at DOJ.
At least the Caps scored against Detroit when we played them in our last Stanley Cup final…
You should call that DoJ Attorney back and demand he take action against the Penguins or you will file an ethics complaint…
I’ll bet at least 3,000 Red Wings fans are in the Igloo. They just find a way to get in. Some of the most dedicated fans I ever met and I met a *lot* at MCI Center (as it was known then) during game 4 of the ’98 Finals….
Why don’t we sue them?
Thats crazy. If I was a Detroit fan I would get a bunch of other fans to road trip anyways, and just fill the bars in Pittsburgh or that outside area they watch the game on the big screen. Hahaha. But thats messed up they are doing that after complaining we did. Oh well. Ahh this summer cant go faster. Come on October!!!
Ted,
this is exactly what you should do in the regular season against them, especially when we face them in the playoffs next time!!!caps nation hates the pens!
How is it ok for the Penguins to do that and not for the Caps? Then again, when the Caps played the Wings in the finals, the team management sold 3000+ tickets for the finals to a Mickey Redmond’s travel agency in Detroit…really!
Ted: did you consult your attorneys or just back off with the DOJ lawyer’s phone call? I mean, come on, he’s a blowhard. You gave up way to easily, it appears. I hope you will take this approach again. Not just with Pittsburgh, either.
Glad to see Bettman is right on top of this, as usual. I suppose having Red Wing fans in Mellon Arena might slow the sale of Crosby sweaters, and The League can’t have that, so block away. If the series gets back to Detroit, The League will put the Pens up at a hotel in Windsor, ON to avoid more late-night fire alarm incidents. It’ll only be a short walk for Sidney across the Detroit River to the Joe, where prior to the game, he will meet the concessionaires in the commissary and turn all the Dasani bottles into Kendal-Jackson Cabernet.
I was wondering when you would say something about this. I almost fell out of my chair when I read it. So I hope we go back to implementing it next year. Not that it seemed we needed it in the playoffs. And you should call that DoJ attorney back, and ask him when he’s going to file a lawsuit against the Pens. Then tell him to stop using his Government title and office to achieve private means.
Ted,
You should call Mario Lemieux and ask him why he is doing this. You should also put a call into the Post-Gazette and see what they are saying about it….