Talk about striking out.
Frustrations boiled over for Washington Nationals fans who aren’t season-ticket holders Friday after they say people who bought National League Championship Series tickets couldn’t even buy seats for the World Series home games.
They say the Nats site kept crashing and popping up error codes.
@Nationals guys your webpage just crashed , its a shame that even us loyal fans can’t have access to the WS . there was never tickets available @granthpaulsen @funnydanny #nats pic.twitter.com/IfGDvOque4
— ROL (@ROGL83) October 18, 2019
WELP, sounds like the NLCS presale was a bust for a lot of people. I’m still in the system where it’s showing available seats for 10/27, but crashes every time I try to purchase. Heads up @Nationals, when I watch the games on tv… it doesn’t go well. #getmeinthestadium
— TROMBONE SHOUTY (@CorporateMonkey) October 18, 2019
I need to know that ONE person actually got a ticket through the presale. ANYONE?
— Chris Ford (@DCSportsNexus) October 18, 2019
District resident Philip Ford has been a Nationals fan for a long time. He said he’s been to every Opening Day since Day One.
“They hyped it up, they gave you your own passcode this morning around 9 o’clock so that you can get into this presale,” Ford told WTOP. “At 10 o’clock, you go in … it’s a virtual waiting room.”
He described a timer that ticks down from 44 seconds. Once it gets to one, it’s supposed to let people buy tickets.
That didn’t happen.
“It just repeats, it goes on repeat. … I have no idea about how shady what’s going on, once it gets to one, the screen kinda shakes, and then next thing you know, you’re back to 44 seconds,” Ford said.
He stuck around for 30 minutes. When the system finally let Ford in, the first game was gone already, leaving people only Game 4 or an if-needed Game 5 to select.
“No chance whatsoever. It’s not even listed,” Ford said.
He said he chose Game 4, and the site presented him with several options to choose from. He opted for the two “best available” seats.
“You wait five seconds and it comes up: ‘We have no tickets that fit that.’ I’m like, ‘Well, what do you mean? I said the best of any of these that are listed,'” Ford said. “And then you go on and on. I did it for, honestly, I think I did it for over an hour. So basically, they took an hour and a half of my time.”
He said he kept going back through, redoing the steps in the hopes of getting tickets.
Got through to buy 2 tickets in section. 139. So scoreboard pavilion. They wanted $515 EACH for those seats. I didn’t even purchase.
— Travis Rechenbach (@trechenbach) October 18, 2019
“They kept on showing tickets available, but when you clicked on it, it never showed up. Nothing ever happened,” Ford said.
He said he’s sure thousands of people dealt with the same thing. He even tried for the Sunday game and got nowhere, noting that standing room only tickets were $75 for Friday (before fees), but that they were then jacked up to $350 for Saturday and Sunday.
“Talk about frustration,” Ford said. “Don’t set me up and tell me [there’s this] special presale — and then nobody’s gonna get them?”
“It’s insane.”
Ford said that, in his experience, it seems like computer programs are snapping up all the tickets for resale before real fans even get the chance.
“To put your fans through it is absolutely ridiculous,” he said. “Give me a break.”
Sal Johnson, of Manassas, Virginia, had a similar experience. What really bothers him was the promise that if fans are told to get online at a certain hour with a code, there is an expectation that they can get on and get some kind of ticket.
“When you get on and then it takes 45 minutes, and then there’s no ticket, that’s going to get people kind of upset,” Johnson said.
Johnson said he feels the Nats have “really ripped off their people” because there are no tickets left, and the tickets that are available, “they’ve inflated the price.”
In an ironic twist, Johnson used to be a season-ticket holder but gave it up this year because it was too expensive.
Johnson said he took the chance to give up what would have been guaranteed seats, “Even though, I didn’t think we’d have a chance in hell we’d get to the playoffs, let alone the World Series.” He will still try, though, and will look into what Stubhub has.
Diron Baker said in an email that he feels “worked over” by the Nationals. After the wildcard game, he and his wife spent $2,600 for “VIP access to purchasing World Series tickets.” He is afraid that he will now have to spend another $3,000 on the secondary market just for a pair of tickets.
Over at MLB partner Stubhub, tickets for Friday’s Game 3 at Nationals Park are currently listed at “from” $749 for standing room only; Saturday’s Game 4 is “from” $769. Oct. 27’s if-necessary Game 5: $750.
At least there’s always Baby Shark — unless you hate having that song stuck in your head, in which case we deeply apologize.
Thanks😡@Nationals: 4 the World Series Ticket Sales debacle. Rcvd email with password to buy. Went online errors on the site & tickets sold out in 10 mins?? OF COURSE @StubHub has all the tickets at 10 times the price. Way to treat your fans! #actlikeyouhavebeenthere
— Keith Carney (@cngrssnl) October 18, 2019
Has any actual human baseball fan managed to buy a usuriously priced @Nationals @WorldSeries_MLB ticket through the ticketing system today? I’ve failed. However, 10% of the tickets in the entire joint are on Stubhub right now, which tells you all you need to know about greed.
— Randy Lilleston (@RLilleston) October 18, 2019
The #Nationals pre-sale has, quite literally, been the worst & most frustrating ticketing experience. The Bullpen DC it is..
— Lizzy Becherano (@lizzy_becherano) October 18, 2019
Just spent 45 minutes on the Washington Nationals pre-sale site to buy World Series tickets and could not get further than the ticket selection. It kept telling me I couldn’t get tickets together so choose another option. ONE SEAT?! @Nationals My wallet was open
— Natasha Smith Cady (@lassoyh) October 18, 2019
@Nationals I bought NCLS tix and tried to participate in this morning’s presale. It kept me in a waiting room, as I watched eagerly, until 10:45 and then told me, when it let me in, that there were none left. :(. That was not access to World Series presale.
— Nancy (@NancyPDoyle) October 18, 2019
“Based on the feedback from today’s presale, good freakin’ luck,” The Washington Post’s Scott Allen mused about Saturday’s ticket lottery, one final way to get in, on Twitter.
The Nats’ official Twitter has been silent since Tuesday. There’s no official word from the front office about the kerfuffle.
Regardless, if you’re not able to score World Series tickets when the Nats play in D.C., you can still watch the away games at Nats Park. The ballpark confirmed it will hold watch parties on Tuesday, Oct. 22, and Wednesday, Oct. 23, when either the Houston Astros or the New York Yankees host Washington.
As for who will be battling it out with the Nationals in D.C., that remains to be seen. The Astros currently hold a 3-1 American League Championship Series lead over the Yankees.
WTOP’s Mike Murillo and Abigail Constantino contributed to this report.
