Update: Washington allegedly kept ticket sales revenue that was supposed to go to visiting teams

More bad news for Dan Snyder

Update: Washington responds to the latest allegations

Update: Former VP of Ticket Sales Jason Friedman offered no evidence to the Congressional Oversight Committee per sources

Update: More than eyewitness testimony was given to the Committee by one person

It was reported this week that the House Committee on Oversight and Reform was investigating the Washington Commanders for alleged financial improprieties. They were given information about the team having two sets of books for their finances. This allegation has now been expanded, and a new report from last night has given us some information on what that might mean.

A.J. Perez from From Office Sports broke the news that the House Oversight Committee has received information that Washington has allegedly been keeping ticket revenue that is supposed to be sent to the league to be disbursed to visiting teams. NFL bylaws say that 40% of sales from each home game must be shared with the other team, and this new allegation says Washington wasn’t sending the full amount.

This affects every team and player in the league because ticket revenue is factored into overall league revenues. Those number are used to help determine the NFL’s salary cap every year. Washington had the 2nd-lowest attendance last year, but those numbers might be in question now too. Washington has long been accused of cooking the numbers on their attendance and their season ticket waiting list. The last few years they have finally been posting attendance numbers that seem closer to reality.

The FOS article says it’s unclear how long this has been going on for and who authorized it. The Congressional committee has it’s eye on Dan Snyder after new allegations about sexual misconduct came out when Tiffani Johnston testified during their roundtable. This led to a new investigation into Snyder, one that he originally tried to start, but was taken over by the NFL again.

That investigation, led by the NFL’s go-to fixer lawyer Mary-Jo White, was never expected to have many meaningful consequences for Snyder. If the Congressional Oversight Committee has real proof that Snyder, and Washington, have been running two sets of books that are cheating the NFL, teams, and players out of money, this could lead to significant penalties including loss of ownership for Dan Snyder. We aren’t there yet, and they would need more evidence than one or two people saying it happened. But for now there is a glimmer of hope that Dan Snyder is on the hot seat and it could turn into a cleansing fire.