Preseason

The Washington Wizards wrapped up their five game preseason slate last night by pounding the Guangzhou Long-Lions 140-111. Devin Robinson led the Wizards onslaught with 23 points and a number of spectacular dunks. Austin Rivers was the high man with five assists and Troy Brown picked up more boards than any other Wizard with eight. There will never be a box score like this in the regular season. Ignoring the fact that I don't know exactly what a Long-Lion is, nobody really cared about this game. 

Other than promoting general international basketball goodwill, last night's game was pointless. Most Wizards season ticket holders didn't care about the contest and didn't go and the Wizards coaching staff didn't care because John Wall and Bradley Beal didn't play at all. Yet I was charged by the Washington Wizards $136 for last night's game. I was also charged the same amount for the other two preseason home games against the Miami Heat and New York Knicks. This has to stop.

Eight preseason games used to be standard for every NBA team. This year the Wizards played five, three at home and two away, just like they did last year. Since I became a Wizards season ticket holder in 2000, I think three is the maximum number of preseason home games the team has ever had. We used to get two or maybe some years even one as the team tried to fill other local arenas in lieu of their home building downtown. It spread the excitement of the NBA to other cities while sparing season ticket holders the burden of paying half price for some meaningless games. Now for some reason, we are made to pay for three.

Apparently NBA teams are free to set their own preseason schedules, unless they are selected for an international tour like the 76ers and Mavericks just finished in China or like the 2008 Wizards did in Berlin and Barcelona 10 years ago. If teams are truly free to schedule as many preseason games as they want at home, why are the Wizards scheduling three? It just unnecessarily drives up the cost of season ticket plans. I get that $136 per game is not a lot, but some ticket holders paid five figures per seat for these meaningless games. Also if $136 is not a lot to me, it's certainly not a lot to the Wizards, who have way more money than I do.

Packed house for the Wizards-Knicks preseason game last week.

I attended one of our three preseason games this year, the first one against the Knicks. I cared so much that I left at halftime. All things considered, I got kind of lucky. All five starters (except for Dwight Howard with his mysterious butt injury) played significant minutes and the Budweiser Brewhouse was open for discounted beer although none of the regular bartenders showed up (hey, it's preseason, right?).

I actually got lucky in other ways this preseason. I actually sold all my other tickets that I didn't use, albeit all of them at a loss. Yes, someone actually paid me for my lower level tickets to see the Wizards and the Long-Lions last night. I can imagine they might have wanted to see John Wall and Bradley Beal up close and playing. They didn't get that privilege. I'm not arguing with the decision to sit Wall and Beal but I am objecting to the Wizards charging me for a game I didn't attend and someone who bought my ticket for a game that the team really didn't take seriously by resting players.

But I imagine the excitement felt by the two folks who bought my lower level seats for just twenty bucks (to me) plus fees (which go to Monumental Sports since they also own Ticketmaster locally) was nothing compared to the folks who shelled out some money last preseason to see the Wizards take on the Cleveland Cavaliers. I actually got more money than I paid out of that sale. What the people who bought my seats got was tickets to a game with no LeBron, no Dwayne Wade, no Derrick Rose, no Tristan Thompson, no Iman Shumpert, no J.R. Smith and no Jae Crowder playing for the Cavs because they all sat out. Healthy but not playing (because there was no point to the game). There is no way I would have sold those tickets if the "injury report" was made available ahead of time. No way.

In recent years, the NBA had tried its best to make sure that fans don't get cheated out of their money by watching games where teams rest players. This is a star-driven league and most fans pay to watch players not teams. When healthy players sit, fans get cheated when they pay for games. The league has extended the schedule to allow more rest and has also fined teams in the regular season for taking games off. They need to start doing that with the preseason or just not charging people for tickets. They can start with the season ticket holders and they can make the tickets non-transferable electronic tickets so they can't be re-sold. Somehow, this has to stop.