Last night’s Washington Nationals postponment brought the front office’s new rainout policy to the forefront. Tickets from last night’s game can only be exchanged for tickets to the Thursday afternoon make-up game.

Numerous fans expressed displeasure with the Nationals’ decision, particularly given time constraints. Many ticket holders were concerned they would not be able to attend a 4:05 p.m. weekday game after planning to go to a night game two days earlier.

Prior to the season, the Nats allowed tickets from postponed games to be exchanged for a future game, subject to availability. It is a common-sense policy that many other teams use. Moving away from that policy presents several problems:

• It antagonizes ticket-buyers, fans and D.C. taxpayers

Around a conference table on S Cap St today, @nationals suits are stunned at the lack of gratitude for not suing fans like Snyder does.

— BallWonk (@ballwonk) May 8, 2013

• It discourages buying tickets in advance
• It gets negative media coverage:

On the Nationals’ new rainout ticket policy – The Post

Nationals – Tigers postponed until Thursday at 4:05 p.m.

The NY Post even mentioned it and thinks Bud Selig should get involved.

Nats aren’t alone in not giving exchanges, but it’s short-sighted. They cited increased attendance. There are still 10K empty seats a night.

— Adam Kilgore (@AdamKilgoreWP) May 8, 2013

All in all, a stupid policy made worse by poor public relations skills, something the Nats have always had whether they were being run by MLB, Stan Kasten or Andy Feffer who wouldn’t even go on the record about it.

Telling that #nats COO Feffer, who has NEVER been shy, refused to answer @adamkilgorewp‘s e-mail re: rainout tix. #coward @nationalspr

— Luigi de Guzman (@ouij) May 8, 2013

The front office is going against my two rules of franchise stewardship:

Don’t antagonize your fanbase/customers

Don’t make feel people feel stupid for caring or spending their money about or on the team

So, it is good to see the outrage is being directed where it belongs.

However, I do note that this kind of media coverage has been generally lacking in one area — the treatment of the Nats, their fans and the District of Columbia by Peter Angelos and the Baltimore Orioles. The bad behavior out of Baltimore towards D.C. from voting no on relocation to the nation’s capital and most notably the Nats television rights situation has not reached this level of outrage. Giving fans a voice when the Nats front office screws up is important. It is just as important to give us a voice when external forces are going against our interest too.