(League of Fans' Washington Post letter to the editor)

The City's Verizon Center Perk

Washington Post, Letter to the Editor
Monday, March 21, 2007; Page A12

Regarding "Wizards Owner's $50 Million Request Gets Initial Approval" [Metro, April 4]:

If public investment in pressing city needs were to guarantee the District's elected leaders free luxury suites at sports venues, maybe such problems would actually get some attention.

More teams scalping their own tickets. In a column titled "Yankees Show Contempt for Their Most-Loyal Fans," Scott Soshnick of Bloomberg News explains how the Yankees are policing ticket resale websites and revoking season tickets from fans who have sold their unused seats online.

At the same time, the Yankees are planning an operation called Pinstripe Marketplace, which the Yankees describe as "a new and exciting feature which will create a forum through which full season ticket licensees will be permitted to resell their tickets."

George M. Steinbrenner III
Owner, New York Yankees

Dear Mr. Steinbrenner:

So you want to be the man who tears down "the House That Ruth Built." And for what? More profit.

Neither you, nor the city government you pressured, nor anyone else should ever do this to a place so rich in history and tradition as Yankee Stadium. Would the city ever tear down Carnegie Hall? Adding wasteful insult to senseless injury, you command hundreds of millions of dollars in public subsidies and primary neighborhood parkland to support a new impostor stadium.

Imagine the following scenario:

Your favorite team is very popular and sells out most of its games. The owners of the team like to take advantage by finding ways to collect additional revenue. They dislike ticket scalpers making money off of their team's popularity and getting away with it.