Is it worth getting Redskins tickets to resell?

April 28, 2009 1:48 PM

I just got off the waiting list and am now eligible to buy Washington Redskins season tickets. I don't really want to go to the games. Is it worth buying them to resell them anyway?

There is a long wait list to get Washington Redskins season tickets. It took me eight years to make it through. When I signed up I was young and single and had time to go. Now I am old and married and have a little kid, and don't. I would buy them, though, if I could resell them easily enough to make it worth while. If I could cover my costs to go to just one game myself, it might be worthwhile.

Is anyone doing this? Do you know if I am likely to make any money from it? I have to give a $100 non-refundable deposit just to find out what seats I would get. How should I be considering the economics?

posted by procrastination to sports, hobbies, & recreation (15 comments total)

How much are they?

I'm a Skins fan myself, and I'm just curious. My brother's girlfriend paid 140 bucks each for some ok but not great seats for an end of the season game that didn't mean anything. I'm guessing that what you can get for the tickets varies with who they are playing and how good they are.
posted by jefeweiss at 1:53 PM on April 28

I don't get to know the cost of the tickets unless I pay the deposit and then wait until June, but they vary between $480 and $760 for the upper level tickets that are likely to be available.
posted by procrastination at 2:00 PM on April 28

Here is what I suggest. Go to StubHub. They are the largest online ticket reseller. Take a look at the Redskins tickets that they have for sale, that are the same quality as the seats you would be purchasing. From casual browsing it looks like there is no charge to list your tickets because they just charge a commission. So, based on what the average sales price is for your type of seats, how many games would you have to sell to make money. In my mind, it would be worth it if you were into profit after 4 or 5 games. Most games sell out, so you are pretty likely to sell at least that many tickets if you price them reasonably close to average levels. The amount of work seems quite minimal.
posted by bove at 2:05 PM on April 28

You might want to figure into your calculations the possibility of Washington adding a PSL onto your ticket price.
posted by Marky at 2:27 PM on April 28

Are these PSL's?
posted by Zambrano at 2:43 PM on April 28

A good friend of mine has Cincinnati Bengals tickets that are PSL-bound and he and his parents share four tickets to every single season game. I am speaking from his experience, and coming from a city that for some reason, despite how painfully horrible the Bengals are almost every. single. year. he never has a single problem getting rid of any tickets for games he is not interested in attending at the face-valus of the ticket if it were purchased at the box office. The ticket price for season ticket holders is obviously cheaper face value than the ticket office one-game cost.

I'm not sure about the devoted following of the Redskins, but I believe you will probably have no trouble getting people to buy your tickets if it took you eight years to get off the wait list for season tickets, there are obviously people who are very, very, very interested in going to the games.

Also, might it be an option for you to give your position in line to someone else?
posted by banannafish at 2:58 PM on April 28

Giving my position away doesn't seem to be a possibility, as I had to register my name and address to get on the wait list.

I don't know if these are PSL tickets. I saw a reference in the material I was sent about selling tickets on Stubhub. In fact, here it is. So they seem to be explicity condoning ticket resales.
posted by procrastination at 3:02 PM on April 28

The little kid won't be little that long. I have very fond memories from my childhood of going to Giants games on my uncle's season tickets.
posted by smackfu at 3:47 PM on April 28

[A few comments removed. Let's drop the "shame" derail, please.]
posted by cortex at 4:47 PM on April 28

You might ask what people think on the forums at ExtremeSkins.com. They'd prob have some great advice. I remember some people on there saying the season-tickets wait list isn't near as long as it used to be, and that a lot of folks were putting tickets up for sale..

Always wanted season tix myself but the Snyder era.. has me so disappointed, I don't even watch that many of their games & mostly worry about rooting for my AFC team. That contract for Haynesworth & not doing much about the Oline doesn't bode well IMHO..

I just can't see how you'd make money paying that much for your seats and needing to sell at a significant profit, maybe I'm crazy but I thought about going to that second Eagles game last season (yeah they won, but that "west coast offense," zzzzzzzz) & the tickets I saw available on the stubhub didn't get near $400 even on the upper level.
posted by citron at 5:02 PM on April 28

Wasn't there some talk a season or two back about the Redskins cracking on the secondary market for their tickets? It may just have been shithouse rumors on fan forums, but the word was they were tracking season ticket holders who continually sold their tickets and removing them from the renewal list.

And I wouldn't put much past Dan Snyder who protects his brand like a mother bear protecting her cubs.
posted by 543DoublePlay at 5:18 PM on April 28

When researching what you can get for them, make sure you're looking at the price they actually sell for, not the asking price
posted by winston at 7:12 PM on April 28

I am going to MeMail you as well, but here's the answer for everyone's benefit.

NO.

The last few years the Redskins waiting list underwent a big change. Like you, I signed up back when it was really a big deal to get called up for tickets. A year or so ago I started getting letters from them all but begging me to give them a deposit, non-refundable, for tickets in an unnamed location that might or not be an obstructed view.

I found two friends who would admit to forking over that deposit and then being shown the most obstructed and awful tickets possible, and then being subjected to an insane upsell pitch (if you buy Club or Suite tickets, every game you get the chance to buy extra tickets, good ones, that the team got back - this is true).

That said, my friends with Club and Loge tickets tell me that they can usually sell one or two games a year and make their money back for the whole season of tickets - but, those are the tickets to the games against teams you would probably actually want to see. Last year, they made a bunch on the Steelers game, and usually Eagles and Cowboys fetch a nice premium. According to them, it's just a nice perk to having the tickets - they said they wouldn't count on selling the tickets to those games, because sometimes you can barely get face value plus it can be a pain in the ass just to deal with the selling process.

You will get the letter again, probably every year now, and probably you will get the same calls "from Coach Zorn" that I started getting this year.
posted by KAS at 8:52 AM on April 29 [1 favorite]

After considering it, I would be taking the risk of paying hundreds of dollars for a deposit on unknown seats, then trying to sell the tickets for a little more than what I paid for them in order to see maybe one game a year. It just doesn't seem worth the hassle, as KAS pointed out. I can just buy other people's tickets for the times I want to go anyway. Plus, while I love the team, the owner makes me crazy. Why should I line his pockets?

Thanks, everyone.
posted by procrastination at 10:53 AM on April 29

As a followup to KAS, check out this story on deadspin (and the underlying article at the Washington Times). The gist:

"if the line for the exclusive club is so damn long, why is Washington sending direct mail offers of up to eight season tickets each to people who aren't even on the list? You even get a $25 dollar gift card when you send in your deposit. If so many people are so eager to buy them up, why even put on a sales job at all?"
posted by inigo2 at 7:51 AM on April 30