Nationals Ticket Office Comprised Of One Intern Swamped With Strasburg Debut

Written by Andy | 03 June 2010

Stephen Strasburg is set to make his major league debut next week for the Washington Nationals, and the game expects to be a sellout. Unfortunately, this has created an enormous amount of work for the club's ticket office, which only consists of a solitary intern.

"It's been hard to get all this done with my busy schedule," said intern Julie Grafton, whose position is currently unpaid. "Ticket requests for this game are flying in left and right. Plus, I don't get paid for any of this like I figured I would, you know, since this is a professional baseball team, so I had to pick up a waitressing job at Applebees."

Grafton, a junior sports management major at East Virginia State University, currently works about 60 hours per week between her internship and waitressing job. She says it would be easier to fill orders if she just had access to more up-to-date resources.

"This current system is so inefficient. I just write down a customer's name in a notebook, the number of tickets they want, and where they want to sit. I have no idea how they verify if someone purchased a ticket when they come to the stadium, since I have the only copy and don't have the ability to print out a ticket or anything."

"They probably just take their word for it, 'cause not that many people buy Nationals tickets anyway."

If a heavy workload is likely for future home games, Nationals officials hope to make Grafton's job a little easier by giving her a small workspace with an office phone and everything, so she won't have to use her personal cell. A refurbished computer with internet access may also be in the works in order to make it possible for Julie to fill orders submitted online.

Around the Web:

Stephen Strasburg Debut Will Be A Nationally Televised Sellout (FanHouse)
Strasburg Update: The Last AAA Start (Online Sports Guys)
Next Tuesday Will Be Great Theatre (Nats320)