D.C. transit wants NFL gala reimbursement

Metro wants the NFL to pony up $57,000 to account for extra trains it ran during the kickoff event last Thursday.

And the NFL's like, "Um, no?"

Here's the Post link from a few days ago.

When Metro opens early or closes late to handle ridership from a special event, the agency typically charges the event sponsor $18,000 an hour. If Metro recoups $18,000 in revenue during the extra hour, it refunds the money to the sponsor.

[...]

The only exception to this policy has been the Redskins, who refuse to pay when Metro stays open two hours past normal closing after weeknight games, Farbstein said.

Wow, there's just so much going on here that doesn't make sense.

Metro charges $18,000 an hour to special events that require extra service? Does that make any sense? Did New York's subway system charge the NFL for extra service when it held the first kickoff gala thingy last year in Times Square? I seriously doubt it; that's going to deter people from holding big events in your city.

Metro wants the NFL to pay tens of thousands of dollars... after the fact? What are they going to do if the NFL doesn't pay? Fire up the flux capacitor and take one of their trains back in time, and unplug Britney's microphone? Because that's just going to mess up the timestream. All of a sudden they'll come back to the present and it'll be all dinosaurs and shit. What was my point here? Oh yeah... too late, Metro. Maybe try to collect on services before you render them next time?

Metro charges everyone except the Redskins, who refuse to pay the bill? The same Redskins who themselves charge $5 to each to person who arrives at FedEx on the shuttle bus? The same Redskins who built an 85,000-seat stadium in the middle of nowhere just six years ago, but neglected to provide enough parking? The same Redskins who are worth just shy of $1 billion and charge the highest average ticket price in the NFL... don't have the decency or civic pride to pony up a relatively measly $18,000 for one extra hour of service for night games?

I... don't even know. Just such a strange situation. If Washington manages to trick the NFL into giving it a Super Bowl, it will be interesting to see what Metro does. "Yeah, we decided to take today off. What, it's Super Bowl Sunday? Ohhhh, what a shame! Now if you slipped $100,000 our way, we might be convinced to run some trains... maybe."