LOVERRO: Josh Harris will lose more by raising prices than he stands to gain

The Washington Commanders are going to raise season ticket prices for next season.

This, of course, will come as bad news for all the fans of the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, Dallas Cowboys and other visiting teams who filled FedEx Field this year and in years past.

When Dan Snyder owned this football team, nearly every item of business the franchise got involved with came with a surgeon general’s type of warning that this would be bad business, hateful business, poisonous business. So it’s not surprising that the new owner who paid Snyder $6 billion to sail away gets the benefit of the doubt and some breathing room.

Just the simple fact that Josh Harris is not Dan Snyder gives the new owner a pass — a pass that isn’t likely to expire anytime soon.

But the smell of the team raising ticket prices a few months after Harris took over has too much of the scent of Snyder to ignore — specifically when it comes to one of the team’s justifications for the higher prices: Ticket demand.

Seriously.

“Our new ownership group, led by Managing Partner Josh Harris, has been overwhelmed by the renewed enthusiasm you’ve shown since they acquired the team last summer,” Commanders chief blunder officer Jason Wright wrote in a letter to season-ticket holders. “That passion and intensity has been everywhere, from the tailgate parties before sold-out games, to the energy inside our stadium to seeing burgundy and gold worn proudly in communities across the DMV. We can’t say thank you enough.”

This is so disingenuous that I have a hard time believing new ownership signed off on this letter. It smacks of the bad times supposedly in the rear-view mirror.

Sold-out games?

Energy?

Nearly every home game to date – save for the opener against the woeful Arizona Cardinals – has been dominated by the visiting team’s fans. There may have been a return of sponsors to the team, but this whole notion of renewed enthusiasm – at least among the fans in the stands – is built on a false premise, and it’s insulting to pretend otherwise.

FedEx Field was filled with so many Miami Dolphins fans for the Dec. 3 game – a game the Commanders lost by an embarrassing 45-15 margin – that Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa was overwhelmed by the scene.

“I can’t remember an away game where we had that much support, that much love from our fans,” he said. “I mean none of that goes unnoticed and we really appreciate that as players.”

To send out a letter to season-ticket holders days after suffering through that debacle is a bit tone-deaf, to be kind. What it also is, to be painfully truthful, is Snyderesque.

They would have been better off saying that Snyder left such a foul smell behind that they would have to impose a Dan Snyder Sour Milk charge on season ticket holders to get the stink out.

Let me acknowledge that raising ticket prices is the kind of owner problem that fans of normal sports franchises see all the time.

It’s not having an owner walk into the draft room and tell your personnel guys to pick your son’s quarterback buddy with your first-round selection. It’s not watching videos of topless cheerleaders edited into a highlight film. It’s not being subpoenaed by Congress.

Raising ticket prices is part of the business of sports that typically is upsetting for fans, but it is just business.

Still, when you bought this team from Snyder, you inherited all the bad and poisonous business that came with it – just like coaches and players who come here embracing the three Super Bowl trophies and expressed shock when they must absorb the anger of the decades of fan abuse.

When Harris and company paid $6 billion for this team, they bought that as well, and a festive training camp won’t come close to working those bad feelings out of the bloodstream. Certainly, a 4-9 record won’t.

While there is a need for more revenue (“There are no shortcuts to the top. It’s why we will continue to invest in your experience at FedEx Field”), the greater need is still repairing the damage done for decades to a once-proud fan base. Messages count.

I know this is just the second increase in ticket prices in the last 21 years. I know not all seats will see a charge hike. But raising ticket prices while your product remains an embarrassment on the field is not the right message.

I’m not a billionaire, but it would seem there is value in winning over this damaged fan base by more than just not being Dan Snyder.

Think of your customers as one giant open wound. They need balm, not salt. 

You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.