Getty Washington Commanders fans in 2022.
For the second time in as many year, the Washington Commanders have agreed to a settlement to repay fans who placed security deposits on season tickets but never received refunds for those deposits.
The Commanders and the Virginia attorney general’s office reached an agreement to repay $1.3 million after a two-year investigation into the return of security deposits — $600,000 in security deposits to be repaid plus another $700,000 in penalties and investigation costs incurred by by the state.
In April 2023, the Commanders reached a $625,000 settlement with the D.C. attorney general to repay $200,000 in security deposits and another $425,000 to the district in penalties and costs.
The alleged ticket deposit scam occurred while the franchise was owned by Dan Snyder, who sold the team to a group led by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion in July 2023.
Snyder bought the team for $800 million in 1999. Harris also owns the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers, the NHL’s New Jersey Devils and English football club Crystal Palace.
In a press release, the Commanders told ESPN: “We are pleased that this settlement has been reached resolving issues that occurred under prior ownership.”
Investigation Reveals ‘Significant Sums’ Held Back
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares’ two-year investigation into the Commanders began after a former employee of the franchise testified before congress and revealed they suspected improprieties with the ticket deposits.
In a press release, Miyares’ office said the Commanders “unlawfully retained significant sums of security deposits, often imposing additional conditions on consumers seeking refunds.”
As part of the agreement, the Commanders have been ordered to refund security deposits where possible or remit them to the unclaimed property departments in various states and have 30 days to do so.
“When corporate actors are misbehaving, when you have bad corporate actors, we’re going to protect consumers,” Miyares said. “We’re going to hold them accountable. And that’s exactly what we did here.”
Commanders No Strangers to Ticket Scandals
This wasn’t the first scandal involving tickets to Washington games that occurred during Snyder’s tenure as owner.
The U.S. House Oversight Committee opened an investigation into Snyder in 2021 after allegations surfaced that he’d withheld or underreported ticket sales to the NFL — a scheme that would have cut other owners out of money and allowed Snyder to keep more money from ticket sales.
In April 2022, the Oversight committee relayed information to the Federal Trade Commission about its investigation which alleged Snyder had been keeping two separate financial ledgers for a decade regarding ticket sales — one that was presented to the NFL and one that showed the actual financials.
The committee alleged Snyder drove up ticket prices by selling cheaper tickets in bulk to a third party vendor, which would cause the available, remaining tickets to shoot up in price and force fans to either buy the more expensive tickets or join an expensive waiting list.
In July 2021, the Commanders were fined $10 million by the NFL after a yearlong investigation found widespread incidents of sexual harassment, bullying and intimidation that occurred during Snyder’s ownership of the team.
Following the fine, Snyder stepped down from running the team’s day-to-day activities and eventually began the process of selling the team to the group led by Harris.