Earlier this month, the Washington Nationals introduced a “Take Back The Park” initiative, in which they would sell tickets to three games against the Phillies on May 4, 5 and 6, only to people with Maryland, Virginia or DC addresses, in an attempt to prevent Phillies fans from filling the stadium.
Tuesday, a story broke that at least one group of about 100 Phillies fans, who had put down a deposit for the game on May 5 with Nats ticket account executive Andrew Ascienzo, were refused the tickets by Nats officials. Kate McCorriston, a representative of the group, told CBS Philadelphia:
"we had tried to contact the Nationals because we thought by the end of January we were suppoesd to know," McCorriston said. "So we called and emailed and called and called and emailed and called, this had been going on for two and a half weeks, and they finally just notified us and said ‘well sorry, we have to take back our park, you know, you can’t have the tickets, there aren’t any tickets left, and we’ll refund your deposit. That was it."
That’s all well and good, though the Phillies fans are more than just disappointed:
When Jennifer Wagner at IPS Inc. told Ascienzo in an email that they had already put down a $400 deposit on a bus, he replied "at this point, there is nothing we can do for this game. I can refund your credit card the $200 deposit that you initially put down."
I suspect we haven’t heard the last of this.