**UPDATE** Generational Season Ticket Holders are Being Forced to Relocate

Posting for a friend who is not on Reddit. For context it is the same guy who owns the viral jersey collection: https://imgur.com/gallery/washington-fans-mental-illness-7bUoelm

Original Post: https://www.reddit.com/r/Commanders/comments/1gxe8gb/generational_season_ticket_holders_are_being/

EDIT TO ADD TLDR: Buddy got moved but Josh Harris, personally, got the ticket department to work with him and they found an equitable solution. This ownership group is different than the last.

First, let's start off with some backstory.

I first got season tickets back in 2009. (I've had season tickets since 2005. One year, my buddy Rony got them off of Ebay (lol) and THEN we started using my parent's neighbor's tickets through their account. They were too old to go and knew I had become a huge fan). In 2009 they were able to claim I was a nephew of theirs (and previous to this, you HAD to be a direct family member, but because the team was in full free fall mode, they allowed other family members. Or, you know. Didn't even care to check. So this "nephew" inherited season tickets in 2009.

Then in 2011 (and this plays into the story later), my OWN name comes up on the season ticket waiting list (which my parents had put me on YEARS prior). I decide to take 4 more tickets as an investment (and JOKE WOULD BE ON ME) in case the Redskins ever became great. Those 4 tickets were supposed to pay for my season tickets and then some, but instead they tried to eat my bank account for MANY years to come.

My 2009 tickets we sat upstairs. My 2011 tickets would remain lower level in the corner. Rony and I would sit everywhere upstairs. We started where any good fan would start. Upper level corner nosebleeds. A few seasons pass and with every year, we would move closer towards the aisle. A few rows down. As we do this, we decide we're ready to pay for the primo tickets. Downstairs on the sideline.

So in 2011 I call my ticket rep. I ask if there's any chance if we can sit between the 40 yard lines. He just laughs at me. "Do you have generational tickets? Like, do your grandparents own seats down there?" Well, no. "Sorry, those seats haven't been available since the 40's".

No dice. So we keep moving in the uppers. Over. Lower. Aisle. We FINALLY get over to midfield. And that's when we decide, if we can;t move lower, we can move to Club.

Club section is nice. It has access to the a/c and heat. Better bathrooms, concessions, bars. Much more space. Seats are in the PERFECT viewpoint. But you have to sell kidneys and shit to sit there. It is VERY expensive. And you have to sign a contract to sit there. To lock people in for 3 years minimum. So we did that. And then the organization fell apart.

The team had just fumbled on Kirk Cousins. We just took our most consistent team and dismantled them because of ineptitude. The stadium was falling apart. The experience was just…bad. And we were paying a LOT of money to see this year after year.

So I called my ticket rep back up. 2018. I told him, "I'm out". He asked what I meant. I said, I am not renewing my club seats (that were in the system through my neighbors since Griffith Stadium). I am also getting rid of my OTHER 4 seats. Done.

He asked what he could do to keep me in that stadium. I told him he already knew. He said he would call me back.

About 10 minutes passed and I received a call. It was his boss. He asked the same thing. I responded the same way. It goes silent. He just tells me to hold on and I hear some click-clacking. He says, "what if I told you I could get you on the 50 downstairs". I asked what row. He said 28.

"Then I would tell you I'm back in."

Those have been my dream seats since I was a kid. Lower. 50 yard line. But not too low (too low = terrible sightline. Row 28 was the top of the section. No one behind us. (Seats 3 and 4 at the time, which I would end up moving to 1 and 2 AND moving my good friend John right next to us). So now on the aisle. SItting next to my friends. Just perfect.

And we've been there ever since. Until last season.

Without warning, we got our invoice like normal. But things had changed. Two tickets and parking had been costing us $5000 total. And last year, I open my invoice to no previous announcement to see a total of $15000.

I'll just cut to the chase. (And this is what affected us this year as well). The PREVIOUS ownership moved a lot of people into these seats knowing they had to fill them, but couldn't get anybody to pay these prices. So they decided….not to tell anyone about the prices. They just lowered them for some while others had been paying the crazy high prices. Our seats are in a section called the Touchdown Club. Nobody was informed of this. So, the good news is I got to sit in those seats for 1/3rd the price. The bad is that when the new ownership took over, they were like, "why are some people sitting there for next to nothing compared to others?". Last season I was told they made a mistake and that we were grandfathered into the original price. This year I was told, that was not true.

Ok, still with me? Because here is where the story gets a little cuckoo.

FAST FORWARD TO ABOUT TWO MONTHS AGO.

I get my invoice. The price is still the same! But the SEATS ARE MOVED. I call my ticket rep (who I DO not like). She is a young, twenty-something, who has done me zero favors, and has made life pretty difficult for me as a season ticket holder. That's neither here nor there. But I call her pretty upset, and she's like CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE BETTER SEATS. They ended up MOVING all of us in those seats. Because they just assumed (correctly) that nobody was going to pay those prices. We were moved 20 rows up (sightline). Away from the aisle. Split from my friend John. Everything I had worked 20 years on….just…gone.

So she tells me I should be happy. I tell her, absolutely not, I need to talk to somebody above her that can actually help me. I come to find out that everybody we sit around has been moved. All over the place. She just kept telling me to be happy with my new seats and I told her that this conversation was over.

Cut to that Sunday. The picture seen around the world (or between my 28 Facebook friends).

Picture Here: https://imgur.com/a/Xaa3aQ9

Sorry, a LITTLE more backstory. So, since last season, Josh Harris has been our owner. He is VERY present at games. Always sitting front and center. Always interacting with fans. And since game 1 of his first game, he has known who I am. I yell at him (nice yell) every game. It started with me just yelling his name and starting a Josh Harris chant. It grew into him pointing at me after touchdowns. It expanded to us doing the FIRST DOWN hand signal TOGETHER. And into this season, before every game, he made sure to find me (I am like literally 50 feet from him) and yell at me or I would yell at him. He didn't know my name. He just knew me as a huge supporter of his and the team.

Until this particular Sunday. This situation was really eating at me. And all of our fans being affected. The mood was NOT good for this game. There were a good couple hundred fans being affected and they were NOT happy. I had the feeling that Josh Harris had no idea that these fans (all of the fans in that section have had generational tickets. There are two ladies that sit next to us who have had these seats since 1941. These are your most loyal fans who never miss a game.) And there was a break in the action early on. And I went for it. Turned around to Josh. He does his point. But this time, I look at him, put my hand to my ear like a phone, and mouth "Can I talk to you?". He waves me up. Holy SHIT I was not expecting that. So I run up there. He leans over the suite. And I just go into it. Don't even remember what I said, but it was along the lines of, "Mr. Harris, we really do love you but what is going on with our tickets. We all were moved from our seats and the prices have been jacked up over 300% and these are some of your most loyal fans." He looks at me, and sincerely tells me he has no idea, since ticketing isn't anything he handles. He THEN tells me to write down my name and number. I was like….umm…hold on please, and I run to guest services, grab a piece of paper and pen, write down my name and number, and run back. At this point, I fully expect him to take it, give me that business laugh, and just put the paper down and continue about his day. INSTEAD, he takes it, whips his phone out, and takes a picture of it. I thank him, and we move on. Until we score the next touchdown, and I look to the box, only to see Josh Harris literally seek me out to cheer with me. That was a good sign he didn't think of me as just an insane person with a complaint.

THE NEXT DAY I get a phone call. From the President of Ticket Sales. "So….have fun at the game yesterday?" haha yes? "Heard you talked to somebody". Oh god, what have I done. "Josh told me about everything. And we're going to work with you to make sure you, and everybody else affected, are happy". Yeah ok, but…WAIT WHAT?!?!

So, at this point we have been going back and forth. This guy, Andrew, tells me that unfortunately, no, we are not getting those seats at the same price. But because I previously mentioned, the past regime messed up and should have never sold those seats for that price. Even though I tell him that's not MY fault, he says that is why he will find us seats I AM happy with. or as happy as I can be. In the last two months he has been working with me, to find all available options.

And since that time he has, through Josh Harris who has been keeping up with the situation:

Moved us 10 rows back up (to row 18)
Moved John right in front of us (to row 17)
Moved BOTH of us to the aisle
Kept us DIRECTLY on the 50.

How? Josh Harris (and the ownership group) has seats they use and sell for friends and family. Josh personally moved 4 people out of their seats (albeit probably to better seats), so that we can have ours. For the same price we're paying now.

Even though the seats I sit in are, in my opinion, the best seats in the entire house, these aren't THAT far off. Yes, I am still unhappy this had to happen in the first place. But a billionaire and a billion dollar company, that usually never even give the average person the time of day, worked directly with me, just to make me happy. Any other company/sports team/organization would tell a fan in my situation to kick rocks. They DID offer me another seat. There WERE other options. But they actually listened. And more importantly they compromised.

At the last game, I ran back up to Josh Harris. A VERY LARGE security man got right in my path. And as soon as that happened, I hear a voice from above like it was Football Jesus. "He's good, you can move." It was Josh Harris. And he extended his hand and shook mine for a solid 30 full seconds as we talked. And I thanked him for everything and what he has done for us (including giving us that suite for free last week for all of the headache this has caused). He then thanked ME for being such a loyal fan. I ended our meeting with, "More important than all of this. Let's win this fucking football game." And as the best owner in sports woudl say, he simply responded with, "let's fucking win this football game" right back.

It's been 30 years since this team has made me truly happy. It's about damn time. And we're doing it in the best way imaginable.

Hail to the Commanders.

HAIL VICTORY.