Washington Commanders can't do anything right

[toolg]

Snyder screwed over visiting teams; held back ticket revenue. 

 

[VaBeach_Eagle]

So, they've announced their new name. When do they announce their new owner?

[Wallyhorse]

2 hours ago, VaBeach_Eagle said:

So, they've announced their new name. When do they announce their new owner?

I suspect the NFL may actually have to "do the right thing" here and buy the Commanders from Snyder for whatever it took to force him out and then given the team back to whom many still think should be the rightful owners (along with FedEx Field), the Cooke Family, encoring ALL expenses in doing so.  Many believe the Cookes were swindled out of the then-Redskins by Snyder in 1999 during an auction that was supposed to be to officially give the team to John Kent Cooke (son of late owner Jack Kent Cooke) without the estate taxes that would have otherwise been involved while raising money for charity.  Jack Kent Cooke never envisioned a scenario where someone else would swipe the team from them (I believe what Snyder paid for the then-Redskins was an all-time record at the time) and many felt Snyder's hands were not clean on this.  That is why I think the league is desperate for things not to come out out of fear the NFL might actually have to wind up GIVING the now-Commanders and FedEx Field back to the Cooke Family AND pay Sndyer billions for him to leave at a huge loss the league would have to absorb itself.  

[paco]

On 4/3/2022 at 3:02 PM, Wallyhorse said:

I suspect the NFL may actually have to "do the right thing" here and buy the Commanders from Snyder for whatever it took to force him out and then given the team back to whom many still think should be the rightful owners (along with FedEx Field), the Cooke Family, encoring ALL expenses in doing so.  Many believe the Cookes were swindled out of the then-Redskins by Snyder in 1999 during an auction that was supposed to be to officially give the team to John Kent Cooke (son of late owner Jack Kent Cooke) without the estate taxes that would have otherwise been involved while raising money for charity.  Jack Kent Cooke never envisioned a scenario where someone else would swipe the team from them (I believe what Snyder paid for the then-Redskins was an all-time record at the time) and many felt Snyder's hands were not clean on this.  That is why I think the league is desperate for things not to come out out of fear the NFL might actually have to wind up GIVING the now-Commanders and FedEx Field back to the Cooke Family AND pay Sndyer billions for him to leave at a huge loss the league would have to absorb itself.  

Yeah, none of that is happening.  

[EricAllenPick6]

Snyder is not going to voluntarily sell the team.  The NFL is not going to force him to sell the team.  He is going nowhere.  He's best buds with Jerry Jones, and his pal Jerry can force the league to do pretty much whatever he wants.  My prediction is that all of this controversy is going to go away, and somebody is going to get paid very well to be quiet and that's that.  

 

[Wallyhorse]

On 4/5/2022 at 9:11 AM, EricAllenPick6 said:

Snyder is not going to voluntarily sell the team.  The NFL is not going to force him to sell the team.  He is going nowhere.  He's best buds with Jerry Jones, and his pal Jerry can force the league to do pretty much whatever he wants.  My prediction is that all of this controversy is going to go away, and somebody is going to get paid very well to be quiet and that's that.  

Even Jerry may not be able to save Snyder on this one, especially if some elected officials get their way.  

[paco]

Quote

Congress says Washington Commanders appear to have broken financial laws, owe money to visiting teams, season-ticket holders

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. House Oversight Committee sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission saying it found evidence the NFL's Washington Commanders engaged in unlawful financial conduct.

In the letter obtained by The Associated Press, the committee said the team withheld ticket revenue from visiting teams and refundable ticket deposits from season-ticket holders.

The committee said emails, documents and statements made by former employees indicate team executives and owner Dan Snyder engaged in "a troubling, long-running, and potentially unlawful pattern of financial conduct."

The committee is sharing documents with the FTC while requesting the commission take any action necessary to make sure the money is returned to its rightful owners.

Congress launched an investigation into the team's workplace misconduct after the league did not release a report detailing the findings of an independent probe into the matter. After testimony from former employees, that investigation expanded to the organization's finances.

Lawyers Lisa Banks and Debra Katz, who represent more than 40 former employees, including some who testified, called the letter "damning."

"It's clear that the team's misconduct goes well beyond the sexual harassment and abuse of employees already documented and has also impacted the bottom line of the NFL, other NFL owners, and the team's fans," they said in a statement. "We are proud of our many clients who have come forward at great personal risk to reveal the truth and bring us closer to total transparency about the full extent of the dysfunction at the Washington Commanders."

The team and league did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

 

[Procus]

This is terrible news.  If events keep progressing at their current pace, Snyder will be ousted and a player like Jeff Bezos will buy the team.  That's all we need.

[Captain F]

Id take Bezos over Snyder. That isnt saying much but... Snyder is a Dbag. 

[FranklinFldEBUpper]

As an Eagles fan, I certainly want Snyder to remain in control.  Their best seasons are average, and most years they’re bad. That’s cool with me.

[EricAllenPick6]

On 4/13/2022 at 11:01 AM, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

As an Eagles fan, I certainly want Snyder to remain in control.  Their best seasons are average, and most years they’re bad. That’s cool with me.

As an NFL fan, it's scary if you look at what Snyder did to that franchise.  Washington used to be pretty passionate about football, but that's just not the case anymore.  People just don't care about the Commanders or whatever they are anymore.  I'm in the NoVa suburbs of DC and I think there may be more Eagles fans down here than anything else.  I've actually never seen anybody wearing 'Commanders' hats, t-shirts, whatever.  Honestly hardly anybody wore 'Washington Football Team' stuff, too.  This bit about cheating season ticket holders might be the last straw, you're gonna end up losing whatever tiny amount of fans you actually had left.  

[toolg]

Decades ago Washington actually sold out football games and they really had a long waiting list to get in. For the last several years, Snyder asserted this was still the case. But anybody could tell it was a charade since the stadium sat half empty most of the time. It's no surprise to find out Snyder was cooking the books this whole time. 

[VaBeach_Eagle]

I saw the title of this thread "Washington Football Team Can't do anything right" and thought of this...

 

 

[Vee]

On 4/14/2022 at 11:31 AM, EricAllenPick6 said:

As an NFL fan, it's scary if you look at what Snyder did to that franchise.  Washington used to be pretty passionate about football, but that's just not the case anymore.  People just don't care about the Commanders or whatever they are anymore.  I'm in the NoVa suburbs of DC and I think there may be more Eagles fans down here than anything else.  I've actually never seen anybody wearing 'Commanders' hats, t-shirts, whatever.  Honestly hardly anybody wore 'Washington Football Team' stuff, too.  This bit about cheating season ticket holders might be the last straw, you're gonna end up losing whatever tiny amount of fans you actually had left.  

I live here too, but in their defense, who's gonna buy merch that you know will be outdated in a season?  You either got WFT merch gifted to you by a relative or you just hung on to your old Redskins gear.

The Commanders is too new.  They don't even know who the QB will be and which players will be traded.

That being said, you are spot on with every other point.  Passionate fan base, but they finally got tired of getting nickel and dimed for a crummy product.  It took the better part of 20 years for Snyder to have accomplished that.  It'll be interesting to see how quickly it comes back if they get good...which isn't on the horizon.

I think what Snyder did is successfully separate the old fans from the new ones....making it difficult to grow back a loyal fan base.  No one here can really remember the last time they were any good.

[VaBeach_Eagle]

On 4/14/2022 at 11:31 AM, EricAllenPick6 said:

As an NFL fan, it's scary if you look at what Snyder did to that franchise.  Washington used to be pretty passionate about football, but that's just not the case anymore.  People just don't care about the Commanders or whatever they are anymore.  I'm in the NoVa suburbs of DC and I think there may be more Eagles fans down here than anything else.  I've actually never seen anybody wearing 'Commanders' hats, t-shirts, whatever.  Honestly hardly anybody wore 'Washington Football Team' stuff, too.  This bit about cheating season ticket holders might be the last straw, you're gonna end up losing whatever tiny amount of fans you actually had left.  

I grew up about 5 miles away from RFK Stadium. Two of my brothers and my father were Redskins fans. I say 'were' because my father passed away in 2004 and my brothers don't give a crap about the Redskins anymore (no matter what name they go by now). That's 100% due to how Snyder has run them into the ground. 

If they became a Super Bowl contender again, they likely still wouldn't care about them. They haven't followed the NFL for more than 10 years now. The closest they came to following the NFL was 2017 and only because the Eagles were on a roll and they wanted me to finally have a Super Bowl to enjoy. 

[FranklinFldEBUpper]

14 minutes ago, VaBeach_Eagle said:

The closest they came to following the NFL was 2017 and only because the Eagles were on a roll and they wanted me to finally have a Super Bowl to enjoy. 

Speaking of which...

 

[Wallyhorse]

On 4/12/2022 at 5:28 PM, Procus said:

This is terrible news.  If events keep progressing at their current pace, Snyder will be ousted and a player like Jeff Bezos will buy the team.  That's all we need.

If anything, as said, what I REALLY think the NFL fears is THEY wind up having to buy the team and FedEx Field from Snyder for whatever it took AND THEN give the team and FedEx Field at minimal or no cost back to whom many believe should have all along been the rightful owners, the Cooke Family.

The Cookes owned the Redskins/now-Commanders until in the eyes of many Snyder swindled the team from them in an auction following the death of Jack Kent Cooke that was meant to raise money for charity and officially make John Kent Cooke (Jack's son) the actual owner without the estate taxes that would have otherwise hit, with when the elder Cooke designed the auction never anticipating someone like Daniel Snyder swooping in and taking the team (for what at the time was an all-time record as I remember).  The have always been those who felt the NFL should have stepped in and blocked Snyder from buying the then-Redskins that way and I suspect the NFL now fears there will be pressure from elected officials for them to eat a ton of money they have to give to Snyder to first buy the team and FedEx Field and give the team back to the Cookes citing the circumstances of how Snyder got the team.  

[Procus]

30 minutes ago, Wallyhorse said:

If anything, as said, what I REALLY think the NFL fears is THEY wind up having to buy the team and FedEx Field from Snyder for whatever it took AND THEN give the team and FedEx Field at minimal or no cost back to whom many believe should have all along been the rightful owners, the Cooke Family.

The Cookes owned the Redskins/now-Commanders until in the eyes of many Snyder swindled the team from them in an auction following the death of Jack Kent Cooke that was meant to raise money for charity and officially make John Kent Cooke (Jack's son) the actual owner without the estate taxes that would have otherwise hit, with when the elder Cooke designed the auction never anticipating someone like Daniel Snyder swooping in and taking the team (for what at the time was an all-time record as I remember).  The have always been those who felt the NFL should have stepped in and blocked Snyder from buying the then-Redskins that way and I suspect the NFL now fears there will be pressure from elected officials for them to eat a ton of money they have to give to Snyder to first buy the team and FedEx Field and give the team back to the Cookes citing the circumstances of how Snyder got the team.  

Can't put that Cooke genie back in the bottle.   The NFL can force a sale.  Happened with the Panthers.

[Wallyhorse]

On 4/16/2022 at 2:40 PM, Procus said:

Can't put that Cooke genie back in the bottle.   The NFL can force a sale.  Happened with the Panthers.

Yeah, but this could wind up being a potential case where the Cooke's could actually sue to force the NFL to give THEM back the team no matter what because it was in the eyes of many swindled from them (albeit for a then-record price) in 1999 during a process that was supposed to make money for charity and give the team to John Kent Cooke for tax purposes, NOT to actually sell the team. 

[Procus]

5 hours ago, Wallyhorse said:

Yeah, but this could wind up being a potential case where the Cooke's could actually sue to force the NFL to give THEM back the team no matter what because it was in the eyes of many swindled from them (albeit for a then-record price) in 1999 during a process that was supposed to make money for charity and give the team to John Kent Cooke for tax purposes, NOT to actually sell the team. 

Anybody can sue anyone for anything at anytime.  Doesn't mean there's a good case.  This is over 20 years ago.  The time to exercise a civil remedy has long expired.

[paco]

On 4/22/2022 at 8:19 PM, Wallyhorse said:

Yeah, but this could wind up being a potential case where the Cooke's could actually sue to force the NFL to give THEM back the team no matter what because it was in the eyes of many swindled from them (albeit for a then-record price) in 1999 during a process that was supposed to make money for charity and give the team to John Kent Cooke for tax purposes, NOT to actually sell the team. 

 

On 4/5/2022 at 1:50 PM, paco said:

Yeah, none of that is happening.  

 

[toolg]

Think the owners might do something this time?

 

[Procus]

4 hours ago, toolg said:

Think the owners might do something this time?

 

I sure hope not.

[VaBeach_Eagle]

15 hours ago, Procus said:

I sure hope not.

10 or maybe 15 years ago, it would have made two of my brothers very happy. They're 100% done with the NFL at this point, though. So he could be forced to sell the team and they likely wouldn't even know it happened unless I told them. Nor would they care, and they used to be 100% diehard Redskins fans, lifelong diehard fans. Until Snyder, that is. 

[Vee]

If the NFL did do something amazing like this, it might just be enough for them to check back in with this franchise.... but I believe it's so very unlikely to happen.