Washington Commanders sued for cheating fans out of ticket money
The Washington Commanders face yet another civil lawsuit for allegedly withholding security deposits from season ticket holders.
Dan Snyder’s woes in Washington are only getting worse.
On Thursday, the District of Columbia brought a second civil suit against the Commanders organization for improper use of security deposits taken from season ticket holders.
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine brought the lawsuit while making his opinion of Washington’s operation very clear calling the security deposit scheme, “yet another example of egregious mismanagement and illegal conduct by Commanders executives who seem determined to lie, cheat, and steal from District residents in as many ways as possible.”
Washington Commanders sued for cheating fans out of security deposits
D.C. is alleging that Washington had contracts for premium seating with security deposits averaging $1,200. The initial contract was supposed to have the security deposit returned to the ticket holder within 30 days of the contract’s expiration.
However, the team got away with not returning “nearly $200,000 in unreturned security deposits” by allegedly making it more difficult for ticket holders to get the money back. The lawsuit claims that in 2009 the team added a requirement for customers to have a signed written request for the return of the security deposit. A team employee allegedly called attention to the fact that the new requirement violated the original terms of the contracts.
Of course, there are two sides to every story and the Commanders deny the wrongdoing, telling Forbes that outside forensic auditors “found no evidence that the team intentionally withheld security deposits that should have been returned to customers or that the team improperly converted any unclaimed deposits to revenue.”
This lawsuit comes on the heels of another from the District of Columbia accusing the Commanders organization, Snyder, Roger Goodell and the NFL of deceiving fans about Washington’s workplace culture.
