In 2005 i was living in Boston and stoked to find out the Raiders were coming to play The Pats for the season opener. I got up at 7am to buy tickets at 8am when they went on sale. Well, by the tome the window loaded they were sold out at 8:02. This was back before ticket master had limits per transaction so all the tickets were bought by scalpers with automated systems. Then the tickets were up for resale later that afternoon with huge markeups.

I was pissed so i wrote 3 identical letters to express my frustration with the system. 1. To the NFLs ticket office. 2. To the Patriots President of Operations and 3. to Amy Trask. The NFL wrote back and said they are aware of the problem but a long term solution was difficult to implement, but we’re working on it. The Pats never replied (too busy cheating). And Any Trask’s secretary called me. Said Amu enjoyed my letter, is happy to know there are Raider fans in Boston and was sorry to say the Pats control tickets for their home games so they can’t really help me. Well, i felt rewarded by the personal phone call and it only made me a bigger fan of the organization.

Well, two days before the Game, i get another call from the same secretary “one of the players has returned tickets they purchased for their family and we can resell them to you if you’d like?” What!!! 55 dollars a ticket.: sitting high up but surrounded by Raider family members in their jerseys. Was awesome.

There must have been a trade proposal today that Mark just couldn’t stomach