Fluid Tickets...Again

Seems like it's every year I'm writing about this Fluid Tickets thing that the Wizards rolled out for season ticket holders a few years ago. Here goes the 2019 version.

Before we get to my thoughts on this year's version, let's recap what this whole thing is about. This program was introduced during the 2016-2017 season to add value to season ticket holders who couldn't (or didn't want to) make it to all 41 home games. The team allowed ticket holders to return a certain number of their tickets to the team in exchange for store credit (so to speak) generally at the per game price paid by the ticket holder. The credit could be used to purchase additional tickets returned by other ticket holders. Easy enough concept, right?

For the first two years the program was great. The inventory of available returned tickets was pretty decent (especially in the all-inclusive VIP end zones which I covet) and the team made participation in the program attractive by giving $100 in credit as a kickstarter to get you into using the program. But towards the end of the second year the inventory of tickets became decidedly less attractive as (and I'm guessing here) people in the more expensive seats figured there was no point trading in tickets for credit. Last year the Wizards put additional restrictions on the quantity of games that could be traded in and they eliminated the free $100.  So last year I just didn't participate. I figured it was a waste of my time, although a fellow season ticket holder did tell me he used the program pretty regularly last year.

This season I'm giving it another shot. And so far, I'm OK with the results. Let's cover this year's rules first then get to what I've found.

• This year tickets can be returned up to 48 hours before tip-off for credit equal to the per ticket purchase price. However, tickets returned more than 48 hours in advance of tip-off get you an additional 15%  bonus credit. 
• No ticket returns are permitted after February and a maximum of 10 games can be returned total during the season.
• Credit for premium games (vs. the Clippers, Lakers, Warriors or the March 21 Milwaukee or April 3 Philadelphia games) get an additional 50% credit over the per game purchase price (not the price listed on your printed ticket). 
• Unused credit at the end of the season is returned to the team.

So at first pass here, the terms and conditions look about the same as they did last year. I don't remember if there was bonus credit available last season but it makes sense. Generally speaking the team wants that inventory back to they can re-sell. Considering how poor the Warriors record is right now and how many people they have out, it might actually make sense to return that game, although I haven't yet.

But checking out the program this year I've noticed one big difference from two years ago: the inventory seems to be way bigger. In fact, the inventory seems to be about every seat that's available. And that makes this year's program way way better. To be fair to the Wizards, the inventory may be identical to last year's selection; I just wouldn't know because I sat out the program last year.

It's been a few years since I've wanted to attend every Wizards home game. The performance of the team combined with other interests in life have combined to get me down to about 20 or so games per year. But the resale market for some games just isn't attractive. No way do I want 25 or 30 cents on the dollar for a mid-week game; I'd rather take some team credit for some upgrades If they are available. But without an attractive inventory of alternate seats, the program is useless. That seems to have been solved this year.

So far this year, I'm at five games returned, including tomorrow's sort of matinee against the Magic. I've got an all-inclusive game sitting out there in March or so that I'm looking forward to and a little credit to spend. No idea how I'll spend that but maybe another VIP game is in the cards. 

As we turn the page into 2020, the Wizards are about as bad as I thought they would be. Ticket prices on the resale market are still miserable and while it feels like trading second round picks away to get rid of bad contracts, I'm looking at my season ticket investment as sunk cost at this point. At least this year's version of the Fluid Tickets program allows me some options.

Minor Leagues

Last month, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced plans to potentially reduce the number of Minor League Baseball (MiLB) teams across the United States by 42. Considering the number of MiLB teams out there stands at around 160 or so, 42 is quite a cut. MLB claims this will save them a ton of money and they might be right. I've read that the cost savings might be around $22 million or so per year. I've also read that Major League Baseball brings in revenue of about $10 billion per year. $22 million divided among 30 teams pulling in $10 billion seems like small potatoes to me.

Understandably, there has been some backlash to this plan, particularly from the communities which stand to lose their baseball teams. Think this isn't important? I disagree. Access to live professional sports for communities is sometimes vital for community pride and social connection. It has been for centuries. Take away the Pioneer League (which is part of the contraction plan) and you've just wiped out professional baseball in Montana. Like all of it. So maybe not that many people out west care about a rookie league or any other team that's being run out of business, but I bet some do. And not just the owners of the teams (MiLB teams are not owned by parent organizations) and the communities that have financed stadiums for those teams. Although those two groups might have a pretty strong opinion of Major League Baseball telling them they are out of business.

Need any other reasons why this sucks? How about tradition? The Chattanooga (Tennessee) Lookouts are on the chopping block with this proposal. They have been the Lookouts since 1909 and their franchise dates back to 1885. They might have survived without MLB affiliation in the early 20th century but today that might be a different proposition.

So why am I writing about baseball on a Washington Wizards blog that's supposed to be about basketball? Well, because I think this same sort of thing has been going on for the past few years in the NBA's minor league system, the G League. Not the contraction (because the G League has actually been expanding) but the removal of professional sports from towns and cities with little to no access to that kind of thing once the NBA moved their teams. And I'm arguing what the G League is doing pretty much sucks too.

Erie Insurance Arena: Home of the Erie (PA) BayHawks. For now.

Consider this: at the beginning of the 2009-2010 NBDL season (the NBDL or National Basketball Development League was what the G League used to be called before corporate sponsorship got involved) had 16 independently owned and operated teams spread out over 14 states. Of those 14 states, seven of them had no NBA team so the NBDL was all they had. Of the nine teams located in NBA states, one (the Tulsa 66ers) was in their state before the NBA was (on a permanent basis, anyway) and two of the other teams (in Hidalgo, Texas and Bakersfield, California) were hours by car from the nearest NBA arena, which made access to live pro basketball an overnight or very late arrival home affair. Point is, professional basketball was available to people in the United States without having a visit an NBA city.

Fast forward to today and the G League looks much different. There are now 28 teams in the league which from a growth standpoint is awesome. But all of those teams are now owned by NBA franchises and just six of those 28 teams are located outside the state of their parent team. Considering one of the remaining six is the Memphis Hustle which plays just over the Mississippi border about 12 miles from Memphis but is named after the city where the NBA team plays, it's really just five remote teams. Of those five, just four are located in states without an NBA team. I think things are trending in the wrong direction there.

When the NBDL was launched in 2001, it was deliberately located in the underserved (from a professional basketball standpoint anyway) southeast of the country. At that time there were other non-NBA affiliated regional leagues (notably the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) centered in the midwest of the country) around the United States but I guess the southeast stood out to the NBA as an area of opportunity. Plus I imagine locating all eight charter members of the league in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama cut down on travel expenses.

It didn't work. Within four years, two of the franchises had folded and four of the other six had moved. The two that remained in place? Gone one year later. New teams were added in Arkansas and Texas and they too went belly up after just two years in business. Not such a good idea to start a basketball league in the southeast apparently.

Inside the rockin' Portland Expo Center.

Obviously, the league was able to weather the poor start, likely because it had the backing of the NBA. Original franchises which had re-located to Albuquerque, Austin and Tulsa were more successful in their new locales than their original cites and in 2005, the league engaged in a serious expansion, fueled in part by the defection of four teams from the CBA, to bring the total number of franchises to 12. Three years later it was 17. The league that started in the deep south now spread from Los Angeles to North Dakota to Portland, Maine. And they had taken the CBA out along the way and stood as the only serious minor professional basketball league in the country.

Things were good. Good for basketball fans. Good for small cities which needed professional basketball. Good for the NBA.

Then things started to go downhill. Maybe not for the NBA. Maybe not for the players. Maybe not for the owners of the teams that were suddenly being offered large sums of money for their teams. But for fans in small cities...for sure. In 2011, the Boston Celtics entered into what would be known as a hybrid affiliation with the Maine Red Claws. Under that arrangement the Celtics got to run the operations of the team and install their own coaching staff. That meant they could coach their G League assignees in the exact same system they were using in the NBA. Huge advantage to have that kind of control.

Two years later, the Knicks founded their own G League team. That slowly became the new norm. One by one (well except for the Denver Nuggets and Portland Trail Blazers) teams were either added to the League (typically in very close proximity to the parent club) or NBA teams purchased existing franchises and moved them. 

Dakota Wizards? Gone from North Dakota to be close to the Warriors who bought them. Replaced by...nothing. Reno Bighorns? Also gone. Moved to Stockton, CA to be close to the Sacramento Kings. Idaho Stampede? No more (say hello to the Salt Lake City Stars)! Get the picture? How about in Oklahoma where the Thunder actually moved a team from Tulsa to Oklahoma City. That's 107 miles away. Did they really need to move that team?

The Springfield (MA) Civic Center, no longer home of minor league basketball.

I have never visited Bismarck, North Dakota or Reno, Nevada or Boise, Idaho during basketball season or at any other time in my life. But I have visited Hidalgo, Texas and Erie, Pennsylvania and Canton, Ohio and Portland, Maine. They are all cool little cities who showed up to root for their basketball teams, no matter that they were in the G League. All of those cities fortunately still have their teams (except Hildago - the Rio Grande Valley Vipers moved to Edinburg about 20 miles away) although Erie will lose theirs at the end of this season.

The Celtics, I guess to their credit, didn't move the Red Claws (awesome name by the way) from Maine to Boston but instead keep them in the old 1915 Portland Expo Center. I saw that team play on a Sunday afternoon in the middle of winter and the place was filled. If any team saw the atmosphere inside that place I kind of believe they would think twice about moving that team. Maybe. Probably not.

While I have never been to Bismarck, Reno or Boise, I have been to Springfield, Massachusetts. I was there in 2014 to see the Springfield Armor play in their final season, right before the Detroit Pistons bought the team and moved it to Grand Rapids. With no offense intended toward the place where basketball was founded, Springfield is dead. In the two days I was there (small sample size I know) the streets were empty and decidedly not alive. Except before and right after the Armor played. The NBA took that away.

So I know I'm being a little melodramatic here. I mean, it's not like the NBA forced all these team owners to take millions of dollars for what were probably barely profitable teams. On the other hand, I'm not. I really believe in the power of sports to bring people and communities together. And I think the NBA has played a role in taking that away from some cities and towns. Just like Major League Baseball will if their plan to contract their (admittedly much more extensive) minor league system goes forward. They should stop it.

So should the NBA. But they probably won't.

The cover photo of this post is the logos of six of the original eight NBDL teams. 

Kristi Toliver Bobblehead

I know we are more than two weeks away from the new year but I have to say 2020 is shaping up to be a banner year for Wizards bobblehead collectors. In addition to the end of season in game Thomas Bryant bobblehead, the Wiz have rolled out a three game / bobble pack that I'm looking forward to starting in February. And yes, I've already shelled out some extra money to make sure I've got those three collector's items coming home with me in the new year.

That was supposed to be it. I was going to be content with four Wizards-related bobbleheads this season. Then something else happened.

Every so often at lunch or before I start work (and I swear it's just those times) during the weekdays, I check in on Twitter to see what's going on. A Monday morning 7:15ish check of that social media site last week got me interested in a raffle for Ted Leonsis' courtside seats for the December 28 home game vs. the New York Knicks. $20 for 20 entries. I figured it was worth a shot. Plus the money went to charity.

But on closer inspection, I found out I could spend $80 more, get 80 more tickets (and 80 more chances to win) and snag a Kristi Toliver autographed bobblehead in the process. Don't have to ask me twice on that one. I'm in!

I didn't win. But my KT bobblehead showed up in the mail today. Better to spend $100 and get this than spend $20 and get nothing.

Kristi Toliver this ain't.

When the Mystics made this bobblehead available this past summer as part of a three game ticket package, I was tempted to shell out some money and get myself one. If I have a favorite Mystics player, it has to be Toliver; she's absolutely the fiercest, most stubborn competitor and she's really good and she knows it. But we were out of town or otherwise occupied during the pickup game date so I passed. This second opportunity couldn't be passed up. With just 20-some of the 100 available remaining at the time of my Monday morning Twitter check, I made a quick decision. Glad I did.

There is something about in-game giveaway free bobbleheads that fascinates me. Maybe it's the had-to-be-there-to-get-one nature of the acquisition (although in this case I guess I wasn't really there). Maybe it's the limited edition aspect (not numbered or anything, just limited). Maybe it's the crappy quality of these things. Maybe it's all of it. This bobblehead has all of that.

Before we get to the details, let's address the small elephant in the room that nobody except me knows about, shall we? Yes, it's true my current bobblehead collection is a WIZARDS bobblehead collection. Over the years, I have picked up a few other non-Wizards bobbleheads and those are all packed securely away out of view. My Kristi Toliver bobblehead is not. She's on the shelf with the rest of my active Wizards bobbleheads. That's because she is a Wizard. She's spent last season and this season as a barely paid (thanks, archaic WNBA rules!) assistant coach. She deserves to be on the shelf!

So about those bobblehead details...

One of the first quality tests of the freebie bobblehead is the head. Does it really look like the person whose name is on the base? I'm a little torn on this one. There's no way this thing actually looks like Kristi Toliver, despite the analysis of some of the individual details. There are two images of Kristi on the box, one frontal and one in profile and it's difficult to nitpick many of the details. The profile is almost correct, the face around the mouth is pretty good and the nose is almost spot on frontally. But the eyes and ears are clearly wrong and the overall effect is more Michelle Obama.  Not that there's anything necessarily wrong with that but it doesn't look like the person it's supposed to represent. It's not as bad as some of the Wizards bobbleheads I own (particularly the elf-like John Wall from 2011-2012) but it's not great.

Then there's the overall pose. Every so often the bobblehead designer makes a conscious effort to make a bobblehead after a specific picture. This is clearly the case here and they blew it. Sure it looks find in profile but the geometry of the typical bobblehead (oversized head and disproportionately stubby and short arms) renders the desired effect useless. The result is a shooting motion with one hand on the ball and the guide hand nowhere close. This is NOT a shooting motion. Fail on this point.

Finally I think it's worth checking out some of the details. One of the things I loved about older school in-game giveaway bobbleheads (and here I'm thinking like 5 years ago) is that their jersey numbers were cast in bas relief onto the person's body. Lately, the bobble artists have been ditching this strategy (which requires hand-painting the numbers) in favor of decals, which are I guess quicker to apply and more precise in detail. Here, not only are the numbers cast and hand painted but so is the "Toliver". I love that even though the front of the jersey logo and advertisements (gotta get the advertisements in...) are applied stickers.

There's not a whole lot else to note about the finer points of this bobblehead, although I will say I appreciate the effort to do something different with the shoes. Maybe I'm too soft here but the overall execution is lacking. It looks like the court is adhered to the soles of the shoes.

Glad to have this one in the collection. Next summer I need to make more of an effort to get over to southeast D.C. more than once to pick up what I assume will be a treasure trove of champions bobbles. Don't laugh. After all the team owner is still the same, right?

Load Management

Tonight the Washington Wizards hosted the Los Angeles Clippers for the one and only time this season. I didn't go. I had a holiday party to go to that was a more important way for me to spend my Sunday afternoon so I sold my tickets. I made it home in time for the second half to see the Wizards fight valiantly again but lose again.

I'm thinking (and I'm guessing here) there might be a good chance the person who bought my tickets did so to see Kawhi Leonard play. If that's the case, they got lucky because a few weeks ago it became apparent the Kawhi wasn't going to play the first night of back-to-backs this season for medical reasons and the Clips are playing in Indiana tomorrow night. Kawhi's playing regiment (or maybe sitting regiment) is justified by the term "load management" which essentially means he's technically healthy but that if he played, he might not stay that way. This whole issue has a bunch of people a little upset.

Now, I can imagine if you bought tickets to an NBA game with the intent of seeing a specific player suit up that you would be disappointed to see that player sit out. I get it. I also get there are no guarantees in life when it comes to who's going to play in any single game. This is not like going to see a concert where the artist can't be swapped out. On any given night any player can miss time. Injuries. Sickness. Personal issues. Suspensions. Whatever. Go see the teams, not the players. It will save you some angst.

It may be difficult to swallow when you pay a bunch of money to watch one player on the court but look, life is full of risks. An NBA player missing time for whatever reason on any given night is one of those.

People getting upset about this issue is nothing new. This has been bothering people for years. Then-NBA Commissioner David Stern got upset seven years ago when the San Antonio Spurs elected to sit Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Danny Green on the last game of a six game road trip. San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich just felt those guys needed a blow, despite there being no injury to report. The Spurs lost that game. Just. But it was also on national television and despite there being no restriction on resting healthy players, Pop got fined $250,000 by Stern.

Since then, there have been other NBA luminaries who have expressed their opinion on this issue including Hall of Famer Kevin McHale and LeBron James. McHale allowed that you might need a day off if you were a coal miner (like his father was) but missing a game of a back-to-back seemed inexcusable to him. I mean, after all, it's just basketball. What's the threat to your health here? 

LeBron James has weighed in this year based on Kawhi sitting out early season games, stating quite heroically "If I'm hurt, I don't play. If not, I'm playing."

There's some irony here. I don't know if any of you have watched Kevin McHale walk (or limp) these days. It looks painful and I'm sure it has something to do with what playing basketball did to his body. And LeBron? He was sitting multiple games a year a few seasons ago. His take on the issue was much different back then. After a game in 2017 when he, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love sat out a game against the Los Angeles Clippers while perfectly healthy, he said "At the end of the day it sucks at times where certain guys have to rest but certain guys need rest." Including LeBron, who is now not a fan somehow.

2017 LeBron: Sitting out games when healthy. 

I don't agree with David Stern, Kevin McHale or the 2019 version of LeBron James. If Kawhi Leonard needs to sit out a game every now and then because he and his medical staff have determined playing all 82 games in a season will do irreversible damage to his body, then he should sit and neither Stern, McHale or LeBron should have anything to say about it. I admit playing in the NBA is not likely to cause brain damage leading to suicide like it has done so many time to former NFL players but it can take a toll on the body. I'll point back to Kevin McHale's limp. Or former Wizards head coach Randy Wittman's gait. Just looking at Randy hobble on to the court during timeouts made me feel pain. And I'm positive it's from playing in the NBA. If resting every few games solved that for Randy or McHale, I gotta believe they'd welcome it.

So what about us fans? Don't we have a right to have players that are signed to contracts for our teams give everything to win for us? I mean aren't they supposed to leave it all on the court for the price of victory now despite all future consequences?

Two things here: (1) no they don't and (2) doing this doesn't mean you can't win a championship.

On the first point, I think sometimes we think that because the athletes we watch on TV or live in the arena make millions and millions of dollars, that we have some right to expect them to do whatever it takes to win at all costs. We don't. I am sure current Wizard Isaiah Thomas, who did major damage to his hip in the 2017 playoffs and cost himself tens of millions of dollars in the process, could adequately tell you or me all about that kind of expectation. Getting paid millions of dollars now does not entitle us fans to expect these guys to do things to their bodies that is going to make them live in pain for the rest of their lives. It just doesn't. It's their bodies, not ours.

On the second point, how do I know that? Because Kawhi did the exact same thing last year and he (and the Toronto Raptors) won the NBA Championship. After all, there are no back-to-backs in the playoffs. Not sure why there was much less fuss about this last year.

Today, the rules for NBA teams resting healthy players are different than they were in 2012 when David Stern lightened Gregg Popovich's wallet by $250K. It's OK to sit healthy players these days, you just can't do it during a nationally televised game. I'm not sure how being on national television solves long term injuries to a player by them playing too much, but that's the rule. In Kawhi's case, he has special dispensation so the Clippers avoid fines in these situations but what about the rest of the league? If my knee hurts from working out the previous day, I generally don't work out the next day. Why can't NBA players have the same latitude?

There's one more reason I've heard floated about healthy-ish players missing games, that it messes up people gambling on the games. To anyone offering up that reason, you are clearly more committed to gambling than you probably should be. Despite Ted Leonsis saying that sports gambling is essentially good for everyone, it's not. The house always win. Gamble and expect to lose, that's all I have to say on that one.

If the person who bought my tickets to the game last night did it to watch Kawhi Leonard play, I'm happy it worked out for him or her. I just wish Kawhi would have sat out for load management reasons to give the Wiz a better shot at the W. But ultimately, it's not my call. He, and every other player, needs to do what's best for their long term health. As much as it might disappoint us fans.