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BGO.C.D.: The Best Little Whorehouse in Ashburn

Boone

The Commissioner
Staff member
BGO Ownership Group
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Apr 11, 2009
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Location
Greensboro, NC
Military Branch
Marine Corps
Alma Mater
Virginia
As fans argued about whether Lavar Arrington was God or the Devil, as we bitched about the latest precious draft picks tossed carelessly away to rent Jason Taylor for a year, or mourned the latest departure of Joe Jackson Gibbs, over a decade of fan distraction something's happened to our franchise. It stopped being about football.

Dan Snyder’s turned us into Walmart.



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Not Walmart, a reincarnation of Steinbrenner's Yankees of the 1980's who signed bums like Danny Tartabull to outsized contracts and left the decade with nothing to show for the money except a bad hangover.
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There are so many bad analogies...lets not limit ourselves to just 1 or 2 :)
 
I don't think there's really room to disagree on the issues you raise John--this is "beyond a reasonable doubt" territory.

Let's take your Haynesworth analogy a little farther--

Not only does hiring big name free agents solve the "small gaps preventing us from getting to the next level," they provide very clear revenue sources as people will flock to buy the new Haynesworth jersey (in authentic, replica and/or t-shirt--don't forget the game worn ones at $1000 a pop) and the bundle of other Haynesworth paraphernalia.

Now compare this to the merchandise sales that would be made by signing good back-up offensive lineman, a good nickel back or back-up SS or FS. The volume of sales would be peanuts in comparison to the revenue derived from a Haynesworth-like acquisition.

So yes, I'll agree that Snyder is willing to spend money on free agents--but I think he does it with a very conscious eye toward what these players will return not only on the field but what they'll return from vendor, online, etc. sales of merchandise.

Which really comes back to the fundamental problem--the big difference between Snyder and other owners (aside from the Jerry Joneses of the NFL) is that Snyder looks for return on investment not just from good play on the field but return on investment in spite of good play on the field--or really, without regard for good play on the field.

Snyder is basically good at hedging his financial bets. That is, he'll do great if the Redskins do really well, but he'll also do really well in the event the Redskins are mediocre as he has diversity in his income sources and isn't solely reliant on ticket sales.

I just don't think Snyder adequately took into account the fact that ultimately there's a negative correlation between poor performance and strong revenues.

I'm sure he's discovered this negative correlation and I imagine he's adjusting his revenue models right now. For this reason, I tend to agree with bulldog that a big change will be made in the front office this off season to reflect the fact that revenues have declined (finally!) as a result of poor on-field performance.

And this comes back to why it's taken so long for this change in the front office to be made (assuming it is in fact made)...

I'd argue that we really have only ourselves--i.e., the "hard-core" Redskins fan base--to blame. We're the ones that kept providing the revenue--whether in the form of clicking on ads on Redskins.com, buying the Haynesworth or Deion Sanders jerseys or buying season tickets--all without allowing ourselves to be dissuaded by the pervasive mediocrity of the last 15 years.

To change the 'Skins, perhaps we should temporary deny our ancient Redskins instincts and, with apologies to Leary, turn off, tune out and drop out of Redskins mania.

Only by denying this beast may we slay it.
 
Great post Sol. I hadn't thought about other possible motivations for Snyder's seemingly irresistable penchant for making big free agent splashes. But that's certainly a valid POV. Whether or not revenue sales generated from signing a big flashy free agent generate the kind of jersey sales, increased ticket sales, etc..to eclipse the expense of signing him, I don't know.

Funniest part about all of this? I'm guessing that Snyder really believes he is trying to 'field a winner'. If he would step back and look where the focus of this organization really is - look at his own damn web site for 30 seconds as I suggested - I think he'd have a graphic example of where the organizations priorities are.

And I'm not convinced his shrinking revenues (and I don't know the state of those, although I'd love to know what the damage this season has been) will have any impact on the org structure or operations plan. I believe Snyder will largely rationalize away any losses, attribute them to things like a poor economy, that damn Washington Post and their negativity, etc...Maybe he'll prove to be smarter than I currently give him credit for.

And as for voting with your wallet, I couldn't agree more. I will never understand fans with a 'I support my team no matter what' mentality. What does that even mean? I'll watch, I'll cheer, I don't love my team any less because its leadership is lost or soulless - but I'm not spending money that's going to end up in their pockets. I can't see how fans right now continue to sanction the product and the experience. But hey, I'm an old guy. Maybe that's part of it.
 
Harsh, Boone.

But true.

I wish I could take issue with anything you have said but I can't. Well done again, as always.
 
C'mon Dan's doing it for the fans. That's why you can get a Papa John's pizza with six free toppings today. He's trying to save us money.



This message brought to you by Papa John's, the Official Pizza of the Washington Redskins.
 
Is there a commercial on TV in Washington where the vendor doesn't have the 'official toilet paper of the Washington Redskins' type banner line on it? :laugh:

What's next?

Colonial - 'the official DC parking lot of the Washington Redskins'.
 

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