Besler, Matthew
Cristman, Adam
Gomez, Herculez
Hartman, Kevin
Hirsig, Santiago
Hohlbein, Aaron
Kraus, Michael
Kronberg, Eric
McKenzie, Rauwshan
Morsink, Kurt
Watson, Lance
Marquess, Matt
Pardo, Boris

If we were to lose a player to Philadeplhia these are what I see as the chances of it or what I like to call the “interest meter”. Remember, we can only lose one in the bunch so once picked it’s done.

High:
Kevin Hartman: KC’s MVP and a great foundation for a new team.

Medium-High

Matt Besler: Going into his second year, a lot of potential and versatile
Aaron Hohlbein: Has played with Jimmy Conrad for 2 years now; great addition if paired up with an experienced center back; young
Adam Cristman: Strong goal scorer WHEN HEALTHY. Big if that might be worth the price.
Herculez Gomez: Good winger who comes cheap and with a lot of experience. He is not consistent enough in his position could fit nicely anyway.
Santiago Hirsig: Next to Luciano Emilio and Dave van den Berg he one of the best international players available; he’s a cheap and interesting option for the Philly midfield.

Medium:
Kurt Morsink: Can play anywhere in the midfield and only makes $35,000.
Lance Watson: See Morsink

Peter Novak in a drunken stupor:
Everyone else.

I have a bad feeling that we will be losing Kevin Hartman and will be looking at the other free agent keepers that will be available this year to take over the Wizards goal.

Who do you think we’ll lose:

Who will we lose?(survey)

Here is the list:

M Davy Arnaud
D Jimmy Conrad
D Michael Harrington
M Jack Jewsbury
F Kei Kamara
D Jonathan Leathers
M/F Claudio Lopez
M Kevin Souter
F Josh Wolff
M Graham Zusi
F Zoltan

Right off the bat I have a couple of issues with the protected list that I feel will come back and bite us very quickly. I understand that Kamara and Lopez had to be protected if we intend to resign them but there are a couple of picks that are puzzling.
First, protecting Kevin Souter; I might not be a big Santiago Hirsig fan, but he is a step up Kevin Souter any day, and if we were to protect a fourth international player it should have been Hirsig over Souter, who spent more time in the TV booth than on the field (yes, due to injury, but one must call into question his durability).

Second, protecting Jonathan Leathers over Matt Besler, Aaron Hohlbein or Kevin Hartman. I like Leathers’ work ethic and toughness, but I feel there was less of a threat to lose him than there is to lose either Besler or Hohlbein (plus Besler did play wide for much of the year, making him more versatile).

Also, I know people might argue that Hartman is too old to be picked, but remember that if there was one player that set the foundation for a good season for the Seattle Sounders it was Kasey Keller. I believe that if the Union look at the Wizards exposed players and think who can give them that veteran influence to hold a team together starting from the back it would be Kevin Hartman.

They will a lot of players that have never played together and a few young ones from the draft that could use his experience. He had an outstanding year, he will turn 36 midway through the season (Keller is 40) and even if not in their plans initially, Hartman would make a great addition to the new team, not only for his quality and leadership, just by the factor of hurting KC by taking who I saw was our MVP this past year.

Think about it: Pardo or Kronberg to be in the KC goal next year? This time last year we knew Keller was going to be the Sounders keeper so exposing Kevin was understandable, this year maybe not so much.

I’m sure there is some logical reason for these choices; I’m just trying to figure what it is.

Who do you think should not have been protected? (You can pick 3)

Who should we have NOT protected?(surveys)

Applause, ticker tape, confetti, streamers… (Upon further review, please hold the steamers during the excitement, remember, we had an incident with streamers a few weeks ago, so to avoid any issues with security do not use them, even if handed out by FO personnel…)

We need to celebrate!!! Forgotten are the times where he and Curt Onalfo brought failed international players. Forgotten are the times where we could not field a potent and steady squad that we could count on to either score constantly or at least make our home field advantage count. Forgotten are times where we scored only one goal in 8 games. Forgotten are the times where players were penciled into the lineup because of their name and not for how they actually did on the field. That is all forgotten.

Seriously. The day after many of us rejoiced that a professional team in KC finally had the balls to make the right personnel decision and get rid of a locker room cancer, the Wizards give us the news that one of the guys who could not make us competitive is given yet another shot. It’s bad enough our baseball team is full of Atlanta Braves rejects (you doubt this? Pena, Pena, Davies, Chen, Mahay (gone), Colon, Cruz, Farnsworth, Lerew, and Anderson) now we decide to let this “experiment continue”?

Yes, the team showed the slightest of attitude improvements with Vermes, but definitely not enough to warrant this. Were there just no other candidates available? Is it because the expansion draft is close? and if so, don’t we all really not have an idea of who we are protecting? The Wizards President could have put that list together. I know, it’s a 2 for 1 deal: take 2 positions: technical director and head coach and only get paid for one. I know what you must be saying: “it’s the economy, stupid”, don’t you get it? Well, I guess you’re right, I should have seen it.

Three wins, 6 losses and 3 ties means that he earned 12 points out of a possible 36: 33.3% (counting all his games Onalfo actually had a 35% production this year) Can I petition to get a job where I am only right 1/3 of the time? Add to that the fact that according to the KC Star there will be “a roster overhaul” this offseason. This of course means that after a 2 week analysis Vermes has figured out that it was the players who took us down this path of failure.

I knew it!!! It wasn’t Vermes or Onalfo, it was the players; it was all their fault; but wait, wait a second… aren’t these the players THEY brought in when they cleaned house in 2007? I’m just saying…

Oh, well. I know the truly hardcore faithful will be there with their Season Tickets, but honestly I will be hard pressed to convince the economic leaders of my home that the financial effort is worth it for season tickets since it seems that the on the field product will probably be about the same (and yes Sam, I know there are those season ticket perks you have spoken about that try and offset the goal-less streaks and the sucky play and the indecision of whether we will have a stadium in the next decade and the occasional screwups from the FO when it comes to stadium experience which could make up for the fact that my money was paid in advance, regardless of how the team does). Still it’s a tough sell.

Still, for those of us who will now probably only be the occasional once a month stadium fan there’s always Metro Sports, the kid’s projector and the dark basement; throw in some FIFA 10 background team chants to try and make up for it and we can give it a try. Yes, it’s not the same thing but at least I can change the channel if the opposition puts in the 4th or 5th goal.

So, am I pessimistic about next year? Like Sarah Palin would say: “YOU BETCHA”

Peter Vermes = Technical Director: After 3 seasons in this position I feel Vermes has done a less than stellar job. Yes, the hires, drafts and the team depth are done with the coach, but truth be told he should have had the final say. His final say should have been “Nay” when it came to Colombano (who I personally liked), Trujillo, Marinelli, Thompson, and his failure to have a fully competitive team that not only had a stable heavy presence on the field but have a pool of trusted and established set of backup players that could step up and could be worked into the starting lineup.

Truth be told, although he did score some positive points with players like Claudio Lopez and to some extent Santiago Hirsig (Zoltan and Kamara look positive but it’s still too early), and I think KC has a nice pool of young players that at times have stepped up when given a real chance, Vermes as a Technical Director has done a sub-par job and I believe he does not deserve to keep his position. Three years on the job and KC seemed to have peaked in mediocre year one and gone down after that.

John Pascarella = Goalkeeping/Fitness Coach: Although at times it looked like the team was a bit out of gas, fitness was something that seemed to be a strong point for KC. Also, Kevin Hartman looked superb this year keeping the team in games that under normal circumstances should have been losses. He is a definite keep in my book.

Peter Vermes-Coach: I personally don’t like his style and at times it looked like he was slow to react, especially in those games where at the end of the season we needed a win but we still finished playing with 4 or 5 defenders and would either go play 3 defensive midfielders one game and then would play 4 offensive midfielders in another; interesting to say the least but I will acknowledge that it seemed that the team started to respond to his coaching style. I will also say that I believe he lost a great chance at the end of the year to give some younger players a chance to prove their worth and evaluate talent. I won’t buy the “we were still in it” excuse (yes we might have been mathematically alive but there was no way it was going to happen.

If the Front Office wants to give Vermes a shot at a whole season as a coach they need to go look for a capable and experienced Technical Director because very few (in any sport) have done a good job when performing the GM/Coach double duty. I’ll give Vermes the Coach a maybe with a short leash attached to his stint so that if the team does not show a significant turn around I would cut his coaching career short.

Kerry Zavagnin-Assistant Coach: Zavagnin is an interesting case and is someone that I can see as a possible future coach for the Wizards if they prepare him well. I think the first step to prepare him well is to get him out of KC; the FO needs to flex some diplomatic muscle and get Kerry a job as an assistant coach (paid by the Wizards) either in England, Scotland, or Holland for example, so that he can learn from other coaches and assistants and get a feel of how teams in better leagues do things. He knows the MLS, now he needs to know other leagues and systems.

Call it enrichment, call it internship, but the Wizards need to help get Zavagnin prepared if they want to see him as a successful future MLS coach for KC. Add to that the fact that there is a reason that institutions like the military move their Soldiers away to other units when they get promoted up the chain to a position of power; because the line of respect and camaraderie sometimes gets blurred when you are in charge of your ex-peers and as a coach you want that line to be there. If Zavagnin moves out for a few years on some kind of internship it will serve both for his preparation as it will allow for a roster turn over and help avoid any problems.

What’s your take on it? Who should stay, who should go?

The future of Peter Vermes the Technical Director(polls)

Kerry Zavagnin’s future(survey)

Should John Pascarella stay with KC ?(answers)

Peter Vermes as a Coach(answers)

Kansas City started with a different look using Kamara and Zoltan at the same time but kicking Kei off to the wing and leaving Zoltan up top with Josh Wolff; yes an improvement but not by much since Wolff did look slow on a couple of breakaways. The defense was also reworked because of injuries having Bessler, Hohlbein, Marquess and Jewsbury in the back.

The game was a bit entertaining at times but the Wizards again failed control the midfield which led at times to a lot of D.C. pressure. I guess that’s what happens when we play 2 offensive players in the middle of the field and have no holding/defensive midfielder to slow down the opponent advance; but hey, did anyone really expect Vermes to bench Arnaud?

Kamara opened up the scoring with a nice diving header off a free kick by Zusi. Although leading, United had most of the scoring chances in the 1st half but their forwards and the post kept KC in the lead. The 2nd half started off with DC United pressuring the Wizards back line that had to work hard containing not only the DC forwards, but also the midfielders that moved up due to the lack of KC ball control.

Hartman kept it scoreless with a couple of great saves, but finally a long Ben Olsen pass caught Marquess napping allowing Fred to steal the ball and in the jostle between the two the Brazilian fell to the ground. Penalty? Not in my book since he went down way to easily (I might be a bit partial after watching 2 Premier League games that morning and afternoon and knowing that it would have been considered a dive in those games), but Salazar gave it to him and Moreno barely got it past Hartman. A few minutes later another play off the Wizards’ left side gave D.C. a free kick on a dubious foul; the cross was headed backwards towards the goal by Jack Jewsbury and then parried up (instead of out) by Hartman, allowing James to head it in as it came back down. 2-1 United.

KC went all out in the final minutes making Steve Cronin work hard to keep DC on top. Shots from Lopez, Arnaud and then a free kick by Lopez were all stopped; this last one earning KC a final corner in the 90th minute. The cross came in and in the confusion a shot towards goal was stopped by Fred with his forearm, earning KC a penalty and Fred a red card for denying an imminent scoring opportunity. Lopez finished off KC’s goal tally for the year and tying the game.

Commentary: Not much to say about this one. I thought Marquess held his own until the 2nd half and made a rookie type mistake by losing the ball and fouling Fred. I can’t blame him on the 2nd goal since the ball should have been headed out instead or towards the goal, and Hartman had no pressure when he went up so he should have punched it over. All in all an OK game that meant little and where these mistakes are tolerable.

I like Zusi in midfield, but he Arnaud are similar players (although Zusi has a better touch) and give us little defensive support. At one point in the second half the D.C. midfield was just completely on top of the KC defense since Zusi, Arnaud, Lopez and even Kamara brought little defensive pressure and could not hold possession to make better distribution. On the pass that Olsen sent in to Fred that led to the penalty he ran with it for yard after yard with no pressure from any of our mids; now that was pretty bad.

My Oscar obviously goes to Fred who basically acted his part in getting the penalty and the later foul that led to the DC goals; simulated an injury at the end of the game to lose time just to try and come back on the field the moment he stepped off it, and even tried to dupe Salazar on his handball by going down to the ground after the ball hit his arm. All in all a busy night for Fred.

Season over and the transition begins. I’ll be writing in the next few days about what I think should happen with the team and the coaches and T.D.

Here are the highlights:

A boring first half where it seemed that Seattle had the run of things generating more chances and completely dominating our midfield. Lopez and Zusi helped KC move forward, but it just seemed that we were physically pushed around by a bigger, more compact Sounders team. During one of their advances they were able to produce a corner off Hartman’s right side; the cross came in low and no one was placed on the near post, allowing the rebound to be knocked in through the position normally occupied by the shortest guy on the field (from later corners it seemed to be Zusi). Whatever the reason for not having someone there it was either the specific player’s fault or Hartman’s for not physically placing someone there; Mistake #1. Still, at the end of the half the game was pretty balanced and KC was generating a few chances.

The second half started with KC on the attack using both Michael Harrington and sub Chance Myers (in for an ineffective Leathers) off the wings (Wow, did Myers seem comfortable back there or what? so much for playing him in the middle; it reminds me of another coach who playerd one of his back out of position for most of the season… I’m sure it will come to me).

The tie came off a pretty bad Harrington shot on goal that just crossed the box and was redirected in by a streaking Zoltan who came in from behind Leo Gonzalez. KC kept up the pressure and a few minutes later they took the lead when Davy Arnaud skipped a poor cross from the right side that no Sounders defender cleared (and at least one missed), which allowed Josh Wolff to knock the ball in past Cassey Keller.

Although leading, KC could not hold the midfield and the Sounders’ attack kept pressuring the backline. Another corner kick brought the tying goal when the cross came to the near post, Hartman missed the punch-out, leaving the goal open for Roger Levesque to knock it in easily (Mistake #2). A few minutes later came another KC mistake, this time by Matt Besler who got outsmarted and outmuscled by Freddie Ljungberg on a ball that should have been cleared (Mistake #3) near the KC box. Ljungberg stole the ball and fed Nate Jacqua for an easy goal.

The story of our season in a nutshell; 3 plays we gave away, 3 goals.

Commentary: I was impressed with rookie Graham Zusi who, with Zoltan, was one of the best Wizards on the field (interesting that the KC mls website has Besler on the POTG poll, even with his huge mistake, and did not Zusi; I guess I must have watched a different game; that and of course the fact that Zusi is not from the KC area). It seems that playing a few games as a starter has Zusi’s confidence. His understanding with Lopez seems to be growing, although with Arnaud and Jewsbury he did seem out of sync which may not be his fault after all. (I’m anticipating hate e-mails from people wearing their blue tinted glasses and for whom these 2 players can do no wrong ).

Too bad Zoltan didn’t get a start with Kamara. I guess Vermes will stay with his boy Wolff who again scored but overall has been doing pretty poorly in the last few games. It would be nice to see Kamara so he can show us what he has and if he’s worth the money he’ll be looking for next year. Oh well, I can only hope our new coach (and our new Technical Director? need to remember to include that on my Xmas list this year) will have some MLS coaching experience and have a better eye at evaluating talent than our current one.

By the way, I know Seattle won, but Freddie Montero was horrible; he missed 2 EASY sitters in the second half. I know he’s good (he’s shown it most of the year) but I wonder if trying to get some payback for “Punk-Gate” weighted a bit too heavy on his little frame. Also I would love to know what the deal is with Cassey Keller’s anger, the guy was really going at it with the ref, the linesman, and even Kei Kamara. He needs to chill and double up on the Metamusil before the game because anger like that MUST be derived from constipation and bowel irregularity. Still, you can’t deny the guy still has it as a keeper and a leader.

I have no highlights yet but they will be posted when available.

The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

Although we are not mathematically eliminated, only a complete debacle by the teams in front of us and a sudden resurgence of our team would get us through. (OK, not going to happen). This brings up the point of what we should do with these last 2 home games. Keep the mediocrity and try to bust the slump some of the players are in (hey, one more week might do the trick, right?), or use the friendly venue to give some others a shot.

I personally think Zusi did an OK job on Saturday, not any worse than Arnaud (OK, here come all the comments from the ones with the Arnaud blinders). I’d love to see Zoltan in for Wolff, who again got a bloody nose and who is in the scoring drought part of his up and down season. Will this happen? No, because the coach is also wearing his own blinders hoping that all these players he has been partly responsible for bringing in and giving to Curt Onalfo to use (and now having to use himself) will somehow magically show us all their talent. It just seems that it’s his last ditch effort to justify what he has done.

That actually is kind of sad since when the season comes to a close and the cutting needs to start most of the players leaving will be those who never got that chance. Yes, Yes, some have said that those reserve games have shown us who is good and who isn’t. For me that’s a bunch of crap. Players play to the level around them and playing college teams might be good exercise but the only ones really getting the learning are the…(wait for it…) college teams. And judging some of those players on the one or two games they get to play in with no regularity is actually meaningless. Like someone mentioned in another post, the best goals I’ve seen from the Reserves came from players who aren’t starters and I’ve seen a couple of college players make a few of the starters look foolish. Should we go ahead and sign the kid that was able to dribble through Jimmy Conrad? Giving so much credit to these reserve games to judge quality is absurd; unless we actually play teams that are better than us; KC Brass, UMKC, etc, not the case. Two word: Ryan Pore, need I say more?

In my book you judge these players when they are asked to play at that higher level. If players aren’t given that chance at the higher level they don’t get the chance to succeed. Case and point Ricardo Clark for example who I’ve never seen as a great player IN HOUSTON, but when asked to step up with the USNT, at a different level, he has shown that quality that makes him a good mid with a foot in Europe at the end of the season. The same goes for other players who although have a normal or good level in the MLS but seem to step up when asked to do more. I’m not saying we have superstars on our bench, but I do think we have some serviceable ones who might be able to step up and do an OK job when they get on the field filling in for a starter if it’s not their first time in a meaningful game.

So we lose against that “punk” Montero (that one’s for Coach Onalfo), or against DC; so what? there’s nothing on the line. Pride? Really?

I’ll take losing with a new lineup now, than over losing again like we did against Santos, where Jimmy Conrad got hurt and the guy that came in had few or no minutes and got schooled by the Mexican forwards.

I believe in moral victories but beating Seattle and DC would not even be that (that is, if we actually were able to muster the offensive power to do so).

Oh well, I’m sure Peter Vermes has though about the good of the team next year and setting up the next guy for success instead of trying to justify his job and escape failure. The more he coaches the less the blame scale tips against Onalfo and his time coaching with the hand he was dealt. He’s not blameless but he’s sure as hell not the only one to blame.

Since we didn’t see any KC goals last weekend I leave you with a few of my favorite ones. Enjoy.

Here’s how we stand now:

KC 32 points with 3 games left; can reach 41 at most
New England 38 with 3 games left; can reach 47 at most
DC 36 points with 2 games left; can reach 42 at most
Toronto 35 points with 3 games left; can reach 44 at most

Playoff hopes:

KC must win all points AND:
NE must lose at least 6 out of 9 points (we have the tie breaker)
DC must lose at least 4 out of 6 points (tie breaker up in the air since we have 1 game left vs DC)
Toronto must lose at least 4 out of 9 points (they own the tie breaker)

If KC loses one game they are out of the playoffs. If they tie one game the rest of the teams would have to lose an extra 2 points.

Outlook: Dark, rainy with little chance of sunlight until 2010.

So the Wizards, in their typical “must win” situation, playing a team on their 3rd game this week, which was missing at least 4 starters, finished the game with 4 defenders and a holding mid and not getting a goal. This tie basically means the same as if we had lost; it’s sealed our fate out of the playoffs.

Although I can try and explain why I hate the way we finished the game, with an ineffective (since game 8 or so this season) Davy Arnaud who should not have even started and with few offensive options off the bench, I will let good old ex-Chief coach Herm Edwards explain to Peter Vermes how we should have played this game.

Granted KC dominated and had most of the chances, we lacked the punch that shows up only once in a while this year but that has honestly eluded us most of the season. Colorado came in looking tired and trying to slow the pace of the game and held us at bay. Hirsig managed the midfield but with little options moving forward; Jewsbury and Arnaud seem to linger in the stupor that has not left them for the last 15 or so games; Conrad and the defense did their job; Kamara brought some excitement but that was about it. Zoltan did a nice job off the bench, but missed a great opportunity at the end of the game. It all added up to a nice effort and that was it.

All in all, another typical Wizards game where we just couldn’t get it done and now the playoffs are most likely done for 2009. I’m not saying that we cannot win out, but we have 4 very tough games left and can only reach 43 points. Miracles do happen, but too many things have to fall into place for the Wizards to advance.

I’d have to agree with Jim Mora on this one (you knew it was coming):

Here are the game highlights:

In this era where the MLS struggles to grow its fan base; where we can stay home and watch superb soccer on 4 different channels; and where the only way that soccer as a sports league will survive in this country is with the passion of its fans, teams need to be very careful on how they treat those who visit their stadiums. I understand that soccer is a business like the NFL, like MLB, but truth be told they are starting as a business and cannot alienate neither the 35%-45% loyal fans that are season ticket holders, nor the rest of either pure soccer lovers or casual family who knows a bit about the sport and are looking for a nice family outing. As far as I know MLS teams do not have a list of thousands of people waiting on season tickets (maybe Seattle but not to that extent).

The story that I am adding below happened last Saturday to a Wizards Season Ticket Holder (STH) for General Admissions (GA). I believe STHs, regardless of where the buy their tickets should be treated equally, since most of the time their choice of seats is a reflection of what they can afford in relation to the amount of family members that will take part in the activity. To discriminate or mistreat people because they have tickets of a lower category is shameless and petty. That being said and to give you and idea of where they sit, the GA tickets at the CAB are either at the Berm or might end up behind home plate since few people sit there because of the location and the baseball net. Berm tickets are great for families with kids who usually get an itch after being in their seat more than 25 minutes and they have some space to run and move around.

I am posting this story because I believe the Wizards mishandled this situation horribly. If they were to give a corporation tickets they should have been for a certain section or with certain seat numbers and be done with it, not cordon off a large part of the berm (which is where most GA fans go to anyway), that actually remained almost empty (embarrassing in my opinion), and denied other ticket holders access to it. Come on. we know that the President of the Corporation wasn’t going to GA anyway, and he’s the big money man, so why not allow the few corporation fans that did come, to experience the game next to the Wizards faithful.

Sorry Wizards, I have to say you screwed this one up. Here’s the story.

I brought my three week old daughter, wife, my brother in law and his four year old son along to the Wizard’s game this weekend. My little girl aside it was my brother in laws first time at the Wizards and as somebody who was excited about the plan to build a stadium at Legends was happy to hear I could trade in unused season ticket to get him and his son into the game.

A family of five, and after talking about how great the Wizards are to their fans and how we enjoy our cheap seats on the Berm we arrived and within a minute I was infuriated. The remaining two thirds had been securely fenced off for a Swiss Re (http://www.swissre.com/) staff members and us regular season ticket holders were no longer permitted into the area we had become accustomed to.

Only one third of the Berm was available and the fans that normally populate the Berm were forced to crush themselves into it or retreat to the worst seats in the house – those behind home plate … and a net! There was literally one place for us to sit down, we managed to only because we had a three week old infant with us and people made room the best they could. Meanwhile the Swiss Re people had what I can only describe as an embarrassing abundance of space.

The Wizards took a big fat crap on their fans and season ticket holders this weekend. The message? We don’t give a ******** about the folk in the cheap seats – we don’t care about the families that bring children to the games and have chosen the Berm because it has space. They took what was supposed to be a General Admission area and made it private, changing the terms of our ticketing in the process and filled it with such an embarrassingly small number of people that they eventually took down the fencing and relieved the stewards at half time.

So there I was explaining to my brother in law that normally there is enough room to not sit cross legged and that the Wizards have just done something stupid when I just about exploded at the sight of a others I know from the Berm being turned away. I figured they might be feeling a bit more charitable but after talking to them I realize they were just as angry as I was.

• The Wizards resold space that is generally a General Admission area. I don’t really care if they underestimated the number of people that were planning on attending the game or not – the point was people who bought a ticket to sit on the Berm probably arrived to find they did not have a spot. Sitting behind home plate is only good when its raining … if you sold season tickets for that area exclusively they would not sell any.
• General Admission is first come first served. Not the Wizards selling 65% of the space and everybody else fighting over the scraps from Swiss Re’s table.
• The Swiss Re people barely turned out (surprise surprise) and ultimately the Wizards did open their mostly unused areas just before half time. This wasn’t out of concern for the regular fans – if the Swiss Re people loaded the areas with people we would have been out of luck and out of space.
• If they had done this to the guys on the Cauldron there would have been an absolute din made but I think they thought the Berm people would go down more quietly. This is the only reason that we can assume they did this to the folk on the Berm …
• The Swiss Re people were not held to the same standards as the regular Berm fans – people were allowed to stand on the Berm during play. Presumably because they had room to run around and actually play with … throwing hoops and the like … I sh** you not …
• The security people turning away the regulars were really really rude!!

I really want to know why this happened? I appreciate the Wizards need to sell to groups – that its a business but damn, don’t sh** on your season ticket holders to do it. Don’t crap all over groups that bring kids with them. I also think we deserve to be told if this is going to happen again – seriously, people are going to be unceremoniously dumped out of the areas they bought tickets to I think we should know up front so we can stop the pretense they we are valued consumers and accept that at the cheapest ticket tier we just don’t count.

My wife was already mad about the a security staff run in earlier in the year and was already making noises about not wanting to come anymore. This killed it – she is flat out angry, which means when work is done and the weekend roles around and I have to choose between spending time with my daughter and wife or the Wizards then I just might not bother with a ticket either.

Bottom line is it seasons Swiss Re and whatever they paid trumped loyalty to the fans. A lot of kids collect autographs on the Berm and they were just excluded for some freaking corporation … lame.

Do you want to see how full the Swiss Re area was? Here’s a picture of the overflow of company fans.

By the way, Sam Pierron, who actually works with the Wizards answered the complaint by stating that the STH have advantages that regular fans don’t have, and to that I say “bravo”, but Sam, you don’t start your defense by saying:

The truth is, we net less on a GA season ticket holder than we do someone who walks up and buys 4 stadium seats for a single game (depending on your accounting, you could say 3, but I’ll be a bit narrower).

BOOOO Mr. Pierron, it’s a business, and if you weren’t making money, the props and scarves and the advantages to bring more STH to the team would be non existent. STHs are an important stat that help get advertising, investments and net the team more money. Why would companies want to advertise their products in a half empty stadium?

You might make more money from the family of 3 that shows up to the game, but how many really do? Unless Chivas USA and the Chicago Fire with their Mexican stars show up, what is announced as a sellout seems to have a lot of empty seats, compared to the Santos Laguna Superliga game.

More respect for the Season Ticket Holder who pays in advance to watch the team he loves, and gets no money back when the team goes 3 months without a home win and 7 or 8 games scoring one goal.