Zorn's Controversial Coaching

Zorn recently turned some heads with unorthodox coaching decisions on the Sunday Night Football game against the Ravens. Particularly calling a timeout with 25 seconds left in the fourth while trailing by 14 points. This was actually not a bad call. It was theoretically possible to score a TD, recover an onside kick, and score another touchdown. Small chance, yes, but he didn't give up. The most controversial call may be his decision to call for a punt after mounting one of the first solid drives. Dan T. from Extremeskins describes it:

"Down 14-0 with 6:12 left in the 2nd quarter, the offense is finally moving. Starting from their 10 yard line, they mount a decent drive. Campbell has hit passes of 8, 25, and 19 yards on this drive to Randel-el, Moss, and Portis. On a 3rd and 8, Sellers plows for 6 yards, to the Ravens' 43 yard line. 4th and 2, with 1:09 left in the half. Moving with the wind, they're getting close to field goal range, even for Suisham.

Cut to a shot of Zorn, who looks. . . god, I don't know, some combination of panicked, perplexed, apopolectic. He calls a timeout. Then sends in the PUNTING UNIT!?!?!? WHY??? Your offense is finally moving the ball. You have a chance to turn game momentum before the half with a score and you PUNT?? From the opponent's 43 yard line with 1:09 left? That's a loser's decision."


The play calling and intensity of the team may be subject to criticism. However, all things considered Zorn has been had a successful first year and should be retained for a second year.

Redskins vs Cowboys Songs

So this Sunday the Redskins will meet the Cowboys at FedEx, most media experts have the Cowboys over the Redskins by a slim margin since it is likely that Portis will not play. If last year's Super Bowl has taught us anything its that you have to play the games in the NFL. This weeks match up on the Ninja Tickets blog is Redskins remixed songs vs Dallas remixed songs.

First up Crank Dat Dallas:


Chris Paul's We Whoop On:



Round 2:

TO's Rap "This Time I'm a Cowboy" (who knows what it is actually called?):


Chris Paul and Big Tigger's "Swagga Like The Skins":


We'll see how the biggest rivalry in the NFL plays out this Sunday Night! If you need some tickets to the game or any other rivalry game, check out Ninja Tickets' NFL Ticket Index compiled with tickets from the biggest and most reputable sellers in the industry.

The Economy and Event Tickets

With uncertainty in this new economy we are seeing a shift in event ticketing. At one time it seemed certain event tickets had virtually no ceiling, and box offices acted accordingly, raising the price of first sale tickets almost to the limits of the secondary market, we're now seeing these prices come back to earth. I hate to sound like a ticket salesman, but there hasn't really been a better time to buy tickets (unless you're talking about Giants tickets at the new stadium and their exorbitant PSLs). So what we will see is a stratification of event tickets: the best tickets will come down to earth for all but playoff and rivalry games, average tickets and upper deck seating will be hard to sell and the prices will drop. Upper deck seating will be easy to get, look for prices under face value additionally premier sporting franchises will have trouble filling season ticket orders for upper deck seating, if you want to get off of the waiting list, it might just be a phone call away.

Where does comparison shopping come into the mix, great seats, while cheaper, will still be a bit hard to obtain. Utilizing aggregation you'll be able to find better tickets at better prices.

3g iPhone Activation Tips

After waiting in line this morning to pick up two new 3g iPhones, I've begun my review process and will hopefully get a video out tonight. Before I do, I wanted to pass on a tip I noticed, if you are having trouble activating your new 3g iPhone, try activating the phone from a Mac. I'm not sure why it works better, but after trying unsuccessfully for an hour or two, I switched over to a Mac and it activated on the first try.

NinjaTickets selected as one of The Washingtonian's Top Ten Stock Picks

In the July 2008 Washingtonian, NinjaTickets.com was selected as one of ten top area stock picks in their "Capital Advantages: Top Stock Picks."

NinjaTickets CEO Honored as one of Washington's Top 35 Entrepreneurs Under 35

NinjaTickets' CEO, Cliff Mark, was honored as one of Bisnow's top 35 Entrepreneurs Under 35.

A Pair of Ticket Coupons / Discounts Codes and SportsTechNow Coverage,

We were recently covered by Joe over at SportsTechNow.com. Joe's grgot great site over there that keeps people up to date with sports technology, a lot like what mydigitalmusic.com does with music (Joe's site may have a slight business focus to it).

Both TicketsNow, and RazorGator are running some promotional discounts.

TicketsNow: Final Four/ March Madness Tickets
"When your purchase Rounds 1 or 2 tickets of the Men's Basketball Tournament you will receive a Savings code for 10 percent off your next purchase of Men's Regionals tickets. When you purchase Men's Regionals tickets you will receive a Savings code for 15 percent off your next Men's Basketball Championship tickets purchase. Purchase Semi-Final tickets for April 5 and receive a Savings code for 15 percent off your Men's Basketball Championship Game ticket purchase."

Razor Gator: $15 off baseball tickets until April 30th: RG15CJ

An up and coming singer: JERO

So my brother showed me this video about this good singer JERO, Check this out.

Sports Updates

Well we're really close to march madness and NFL free agency starts tonight. We've already seen some big deals and more to come with Asante Samuel and Randy Moss on the block. Todd Collins of the Washington Redskins also may draw interest from teams such as Miami, but JLC of the Washington Post believes the Redskins are making a play to keep Todd Collins, however if he is assured a starter position I think he will be off to play elsewhere. On the other hand if Randy Moss is offered a big deal, he may leave the Pats and Tom Brady.

In terms of March Madness, we're just sorting out who may make the tourney and who won't. I'm pulling for my Terps but I'm not sure they have the consistency to be contenders.

Sorry about the bad grammar, I'm a bit tired right now trying to stay on top of the Free Agency.

Recent Questions About Ninjatickets.com

People call and ask me questions from time to time about NinjaTickets. Here are some of the more useful questions I've been asked. (I'll move these over to our FAQ soon).

• How does NinjaTickets.com make money?

When I first heard this question I was a bit taken back. I realized though the reason behind the question, which was:

• Does NinjaTickets.com charge any premium over buying tickets from the store directly?

The answer to this question is no. We do not levy any service fees and our partner stores do not levy any additional chargers by purchasing through NinjaTickets.com. Tickets are the same price in our database as they are at their respective internet ticket store. The stores we do index do charge fees, but these fees are the same as they would charge by going directly to their site; however, we do receive a small portion of the fees that the stores charge to any of their customers.

You can use coupons in conjunction when comparison shopping with NinjaTickets.com.

• Why do you not index tickets for _____ event?
  

If an event is more than 8 weeks in the future we usually will not have an up to date ticket index for it. However, if you download our patent pending toolbar you can receive up to the minute results for all events on Ninja Tickets, even ones we haven't indexed yet.

• Why isn't such and such listed in your directory?
  

We try to keep the directory up to date, but you can search for events that aren't in our directory, or check out the top 500 uncategorized artists here.

• How can I list my tickets on NinjaTickets.com?
  

Well we have some pretty strict criteria in place to protect our buyers. We will not index multiple re-branded or co-branded affiliate sites (every store source must be unique) like some of our competitors do. We will not list sites that do not guarantee authenticity and on time arrival.

• I can't find the tickets I found on NinjaTickets.com on the _____ (partner) website, what's up?
  

NinjaTickets.com is the only site to offer real time search results for event tickets. This is so important for finding great values since these tickets get sold quick! If you need to find to the best tickets at the best prices download our Patent Pending Live Results Toolbar.

Jim Zorn announced as the next head coach of the Washington Redskins

After more than 30 days of looking for a new head coach Dan Snyder has finally decided on promoting Jim Zorn, former Seattle Seahawks quarterbacks coach, as the new head coach of the Washington Redskins. (He recently signed on as the offensive coordinator. )

Whether Snyder wasn't able to find some one better, was deterred from the hiring Fassel from fan reaction, or was truly impressed with Zorn is unknown. What is known is that Redskins fans seem to have embraced the hire (http://www.extremeskins.com/forums/showthread.php?t=237810).

The official spin from the Skins is that Zorn was so impressive in interviews that they hired him as the Head Coach: http://www.redskins.com/news/newsDetail.jsp?id=34376. Is it possible that Zorn, formerly a quarterbacks coach, would outperform Saunders or Williams, I think its unlikely but he has recieved high acclaim from those who have worked closely with him including the Hasselbacks. Perhaps his unorthodox teaching methods have wooed Dan Snyder:

I wish him the best of luck coaching the Redskins

Best Super Bowl Ever?

While I feel bad for all my friends who love the Pats, its hard to deny that XLII may be #1. Perhaps surpassing Namath versus Unitas and Redskins over Denver, the giant defeat over the seemingly perfect Pats; a rematch of the last regular season game seems almost surreal.

I feel like those tickets we're worth every penny. I'm sorry Pats fans who bought tickets through us and got let down. Though you have to admit, it was one hell of a ride. To Giants fans who bought tickets through us and saw that game, it sure feels great to put the NFC East back on the map. It also seems to me that this is the first time two brothers have won Super Bowls back to back.

Sorry Pats, but you did make history and your team put up one hell of a game. What to watch next? I would think the Daytona 500 and Eric Clapton will be big.

Also of note Super Bowl 43 or XLIII's Logo




A lot of people have been landing on NinjaTickets.com looking for these tickets, we'll get them up soon!

Great YouTube Video

Just found this on ExtremeSkins... A tribute to the Redskins coaching hunt.

Super Bowl Tickets and 10% off Super Bowl Tickets at TicketsNow

I just saw this, its an image of real super bowl tickets so you can check to make sure you're getting the real deal:
F.Y.I. Every ticket listed on NinjaTickets.com is guaranteed by the website the tickets are listed on. So you can rest easy that if you find a super bowl ticket on NinjaTickets.com you can rest assured that not only are you getting a great price, but that your ticket is guaranteed to be authentic and get to you on time!

Also, TicketsNow is running a promotion for 10% off Super Bowl tickets (up to $500), so Comparison Shop with Ninja Tickets, if you find some cheap tickets on NinjaTickets.com from TicketsNow enter in your code that you get by filling this out and save even more.

DP Motions and 5% go to the West Indies. Do the Giants stand a chance in the Super Bowl?

My friend Denson P. runs 5% and High Waters, most of the stuff they do is in Amsterdam, but believe me if your out there you got to look them up, its more fun than checking out the filth any day of the week. I had some incredible experiences going to a bunch of different concert out there with my man DP. Anything he's promoting is golden. Which comes to this blog, DP is promoting an event within a couple of thousand miles so I've got to tell the US about this. If your partial to Caribbean getaways, why not hit up some real music and a good time at Trinidad and Tobago with 5%, check it out here http://www.5percent.nu/sunrise.html. Don't hate because you may not know the singers man, believe me these people will be incredible and you'll get exposed to some music that you can bring home and rock with.

Alright now to the NFL,

With the Giants beating the Packers, and the Chargers almost beating the Pats you've got to ask yourself, do the men in blue stand a chance. The truth is I don't really think so, but I do know that the Giants are better than they are last time the two teams met and the Giants could challenge and perhaps upset the Patriots if they come out playing hard, stopping the run and applying liberal amounts of pressure from the front four.

Comparison shop for your Giants and Patriots tickets here! As some one said, you can't lose money, you can only save it with NinjaTickets.com

Gibbs retires cites Jason Taylor as reason. Next Redskins Coach?

Joe Gibbs has once again announced his retirement, 4 years to the day after coming back to the Washington Redskins. The head coach position to the worlds most valuable franchise has once again been vacated. Gibbs has cited family reasons leading many to believe Gibbs wants to be closer to his sick grandson, Jason Taylor. Joe Gibbs updates the world on the status of his grandson at joegibbs.com.

The next head coach for the Redskins has not yet been picked. Al Saunders and Gregg Williams both have one year left on their contracts both of which stipulate a million dollar award if they are not named as the next head coach of the Redskins.

Bill Cowher is also rumored to be in talks with the Redskins as the next head coach. Russ Grimm is also thought to be a candidate for head coach, representing a "spiritual successor" to Joe Gibbs, and a coach who would keep the Al Saunders Gregg Williams offense and defense. It is doubtful that Bill Cowher would keep the existing systems or coaches.

As far as I'm concerned the most likely replacement for Joe Gibbs is Gregg Williams (~60% chance) with Cowher (35%) and Russ Grimm (5%) as other possibilities.

Gregg Williams has been a head coach and has had success with the Redskins defense. It also seems that Gregg Williams has learned to respect players and their contributions to the success of a team in his time with the Redskins (most notably Sean Taylor), which has been one of his biggest flaws as a coach prior.

Happy 2008 From NinjaTickets.com

I hope everyone had a good holiday season. Thanks to everyone for helping us make 2007 a successful launch year, and to everyone who has been using our spam-free toolbar (you know who you are!).

I can't discuss NinjaTickets resolutions, so I'll discuss some predictions:

-Cool down of Hannah Montana Tickets

-Break out year for NinjaTickets.com, by the end of 2008 NinjaTickets.com will be #1 in event ticket comparison shopping.