The devaluation of all things Washington Redskins continues.
The latest evidence: “Hail the the Redskins,” a new, cheaper scatch ticket coming out of the partnership between the team and the Virginia Lottery.
Hail to the Redskins is the third Redskins scratch game in as many years.
The original Redskins scratcher, Redskins Mania, debuted in 2009. In keeping with the Redskins’ charge-’em-more! philosophy in the Dan Snyder era, that ticket had a sale price of $20, making it as costly a scratcher as had ever been sold by Virginia Lottery.
The Redskins ticket was also the most expensive of all the NFL-themed scratchers introduced that year, the first year in which the league approved alliances between teams and state lotteries.
Up the road in Baltimore and also in 2009, for example, the Ravens introduced their scratch ticket, Baltimore Ravens Cash Fantasy, and affixed a blue-collarish $5 price on it.
The Redskins $2o ticket flopped and was discontinued after one year.
“We sold about 37 percent of our tickets,” Virginia Lottery spokesperson Jennifer Mullen told me last year. “We discovered the $20 price point was a bit of a barrier.”
Meanwhile, the Ravens ticket immediately became the most successful scratcher in Maryland Lottery history.
While the Ravens continued selling the Cash Fantasy tickets with the same low price in 2010, the Redskins rebooted and partnered with the Virginia Lottery on a new game, Redskins Legacy, trading on the good ol’ days Before Snyder, like so many of the team’s ventures since Bruce Allen was brought in.
The price on Redskins Legacy was $10, lower but still twice the cost of the Ravens.
Still, no dice. The $10 Redskins Legacy scratcher also closed after just one season this July.
Now there’s Hail to the Redskins. The only eye-opening aspect of the new ticket: It costs $5.
Just like the Ravens Cash Fantasy scratcher has all along.
The Ravens ticket is still running strong in its third season.