DDP: Approx 8 sections of seating removed in upper deck endzone - more removed as of 2012 DDP, LL Endzone in 2013

[tshile]

I'm posting an update. I'll post it in the general season ticket thread as well.

Tony Wyllie, VP of Public Relations just called me about when i was on the radio with Chad and Danny on Monday. I explained my story to him, and why it frustrated me. He listened and then discussed the matter with me about why things went the way they did.

He's going to see what he can do to get my ticket account reinstated. He was a very nice guy, and I'm honestly shocked he actually called me.

I wanted to post the update, because of the amount of complaining I've been doing since this happened in april. Personally, I'm very pleased with the conversation.

I know some people will think i'm dumb for trying to get the tickets back, but we have a good time and I don't mind being a season ticket holder. That was just an unacceptable way to deal with things for me, and I lost it.

As for you guys concerned about upgrades he did mention that they were in the middle of getting seat relocations (from the removal of seats, as well as the auto upgrade process) going. So i wouldn't be freaked out if you haven't heard/seen anything yet, they're still in the middle of it.

[DC9]

Nice, Travis. Congrats.

[SwampEm]

How much do you think they are going to try to sell these seats for at the team store?

[HOF44]

How much do you think they are going to try to sell these seats for at the team store?

Damn had not even thought of that :doh: I'd pick up a couple if they are not outrageous.

[tshile]

So would I.

Would look nice on the wall, right next to my ticket from the last game at RFK.

[hail2skins]

Go to Redskins.com and on the front page you'll notice a game pic from last year. Notice the swaths of of empty seats in the upper level. There's a high concentration of vacancies in the east endzone while thousands of empty chairs checkerboard the visiting sideline. Not sure which game this was from, but it looks to have been early in the season judging by the field condition.

That pic could've been taken early in the game where not everyone had made it to their seats, but I agree with you, the number of empties in the UD, particularly the corners, has been glaring in recent years. And it is nonetheless sad that the game was already underway and the UD, where the supposed "hardcore" fans sit, was that sparse (that is, if those seats were accounted for).

Terl's blog has a pic of the cranes outside the stadium.

http://blog.redskins.com/2011/06/08/a-brief-update-on-the-construction-at-fedexfield/

[DButz65]

I have a friend, who worked on the stadium when it was being built...

He swore to me on numerous occasions, that there was "parts" buried under one parking lot, to add a roof

to (then) Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. Maybe he wasn't full of poo lol

[C.Taylor]

I hope construction doesn't affect the escalator. It's nice not being soaked in sweat after making the ascent in warm weather.

[PCS]

Whoa. Breaking out the big sticks for this job. No surprise considering what they're probably going to be doing. The mud alone is going to be pain,(and duh,very heavy).

[RFKFedEx]

That pic could've been taken early in the game where not everyone had made it to their seats]

You'd think the team would choose pics showing only the thickest of crowds on the front page of their website, but this shot might have been the best day photo they could find from last year.

Judging by the positioning of the shadows on the field it's looks to have been later in the afternoon. Late arrivals could be the case if it were the Houston game, but I think the crowd looks pretty much normal for recent years, upper and lower levels.

[Cool as Crud]

I have a friend, who worked on the stadium when it was being built...

He swore to me on numerous occasions, that there was "parts" buried under one parking lot, to add a roof

to (then) Jack Kent Cooke Stadium. Maybe he wasn't full of poo lol

what does that even mean? by "parts" do you mean equipment to operate a retractable roof or building materials? either way, it doesn't make much sense.

[hail2skins]

Kind of related to this thread in the line of removing seats and avoiding blackouts (but also interesting from a historical perspective and also considering the labor situation we are in):

The Insider blog (in the Post) in recent days has been running articles or columns from the "Championship Seasons." Today they posted one from the day after the 1982 home game against Philly, which we won 13-9 to get to 4-0. Second game after the strike, weather was crappy....and there were close to 7K no-shows at RFK:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/post/redskins-championships-1982-game-4-vs-philadelphia/2011/06/07/AGM5GAMH_blog.html

[DC9]

How much do you think they are going to try to sell these seats for at the team store?

At least three times what they sold the jumbo-tron chunks for

[kappaluvacee]

If you look at my profile information to the left of all my posts, you will see that my seats are firmly within the affected area. I see some back and forth about an empty Upper deck. That's not accurate from my seat directly within the Upper deck. Yes there are some seat vacancies, without a doubt, but from our view we can look across a great majority of the stadium and see seat vacancies all about. there's no more vacancies in the UD than there are along any other level.

The biggest issue in my section is the fact that it gets consistently flooded by visiting fans. When you ask the fans on a consistent basis where they are purchasing their tickets, they respond mostly "from a ticket broker!" The Monday Night Massacre was the worst. I'm excited about the stadium contraction because it will limit the amount of opposing team’s fans that much more.

I have not heard where I am being relocated to, but the team is saying the relocated folks will have seats that they will be very satisfied with so I'm not stressing. I also have seen the various news reports about the waiting lists and "real reasons" for contraction. Though it may seem farfetched to some, if you really think about the move from a business standpoint and don't drink the hate-punch being served by the various media outlets, it would be a poor business decision to eliminate 5,000 seats just to hide the truth about the waiting list. Snyder is going to spend Million$ to complete this renovation, while compounding that with the loss of revenue for those seats for an entire year, just to prevent a blackout and because he can't sell those season tickets....

I'm not buying it! Snyder could buy the unpurchased seats himself to preserve the non-blackout, and still turn a profit off of the aftermarket resale of whatever he can move. Think about it folks! Snyder has football people running the organization now. My theory is that Bruce Allen and Mike Shanahan have both told him that there is no advantage to playing a home game in that stadium. That is due to a combination of things: frustrated fan base, bad product on the field, and a stadium experience that cannot provide the game-environment of many of the newer stadiums. As it stands today FedEx is the worst stadium within the division. Yes, I know 1/2 of the other stadiums are under 5 yrs old, but it's the oldest and worst in-division. Snyder will never accept being last at anything. It may be the reality he is facing based on the team’s performance, but the quality and environment of the stadium is something he can control with his wallet and that's exactly what he's doing.

I've tried to visualize what those two open enzdones could offer from an architectural standpoint and it creates a wide world of possibilities. A few years ago Snyder presented a plan to lure a SB to DC which included a temporary roof. Might the open endzones be a forward move in that direction? Whatever they are going to do will reveal lots about the team's long-term future in PG County. I think it's clear there will not be a stadium in DC for a very long time (20+) years. Snyder is pouring too much money in the current location to abandon the stadium in the near future to incur debt on a new facility. I just don't see it happening. He's going to beautify this puppy and ride it until it is profitable to leave it in favor of a new venue. That usually doesn't happen until; you are in the last 20% of the projected lifespan of a venue. We aren't even at the 50% mark of a modest venue lifespan of 30 years for FedEx.

Bruce Allen is fond of the Redskins he witnessed @ RFK where fans were rabid and the place was the beloved dump that visiting teams hated to play in. FedEx will be a dump before the team moves to another venue, therefore they have to restore that RFK feel to the current spot. That's actually what's fueling the renovations and seat contractions. I don't think it's anything more or anything less.

[dgreen]

[/color]

Kind of related to this thread in the line of removing seats and avoiding blackouts (but also interesting from a historical perspective and also considering the labor situation we are in):

The Insider blog (in the Post) in recent days has been running articles or columns from the "Championship Seasons." Today they posted one from the day after the 1982 home game against Philly, which we won 13-9 to get to 4-0. Second game after the strike, weather was crappy....and there were close to 7K no-shows at RFK:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/post/redskins-championships-1982-game-4-vs-philadelphia/2011/06/07/AGM5GAMH_blog.html

Nope. Sorry. Didn't happen. I've been told over and over and over that RFK didn't have no-shows and EVERY person in the stadium was the most die-hard Redskins fan ever. It's the truth. Empty seats and opposing fans are only a Fed Ex problem. I've been told this over and over, therefore it is true.

[HOF44]

At least three times what they sold the jumbo-tron chunks for

That would be a bargain, weren't the tron pieces only 5 bucks a piece??

[DButz65]

what does that even mean? by "parts" do you mean equipment to operate a retractable roof or building materials? either way, it doesn't make much sense.

He never elaborated, I am guessing he meant steel beams or something to that extent, just a guess

[clskinsfan]

I have to agree with you earlier posters. We all know how bad the Dan wants a Super Bowl. The only way you are getting that in DC in February is with a roof. No way in hell he's pulling 10K seats out of the stadium unless it benefits him. Do any of you really believe Snyder would lose the revenue of 10K seats for our benefit? Clearly a roof is going in. Maybe not by the 2012 season but we are getting a roof.

[hail2skins]

If you look at my profile information to the left of all my posts, you will see that my seats are firmly within the affected area. I see some back and forth about an empty Upper deck. That's not accurate from my seat directly within the Upper deck. Yes there are some seat vacancies, without a doubt, but from our view we can look across a great majority of the stadium and see seat vacancies all about. there's no more vacancies in the UD than there are along any other level.

Nice post Kap, but I dunno. I've been going to pretty much all of the games for the past decade and there's no way that the LL has the same number of vacancies that the UL does. I do think Snyder has realized that he does have an attendance problem up there, and may also realize that it might be an issue that won't go away even if the Skins do return to winning ways, especially due to people's viewing options at home having become better in recent years.

I don't think Snyder should be criticized for trying to improve the stadium. The one beef I might have is that he was late to the party with the jumbotrons. Other places have had large boards for how long and we always heard that it "couldn't be done" at FedEx because of analog, etc. Cowboys and New Meadowlands open in the past two years and voila!

I'm reserving judgment on the party decks until we see more information on them. The notion of recreating what they have in Dallas does not sound very appealing as a fan......how many folks on those plazas actually get to see the field? But maybe (hopefully) they are doing something different here, and the inclusion of a roof structure would be a definite plus.

[Lavarleap56]

Nice post Kap, but I dunno. I've been going to pretty much all of the games for the past decade and there's no way that the LL has the same number of vacancies that the UL does. I do think Snyder has realized that he does have an attendance problem up there, and may also realize that it might be an issue that won't go away even if the Skins do return to winning ways, especially due to people's viewing options at home having become better in recent years.

I don't think Snyder should be criticized for trying to improve the stadium. The one beef I might have is that he was late to the party with the jumbotrons. Other places have had large boards for how long and we always heard that it "couldn't be done" at FedEx because of analog, etc. Cowboys and New Meadowlands open in the past two years and voila!

I'm reserving judgment on the party decks until we see more information on them. The notion of recreating what they have in Dallas does not sound very appealing as a fan......how many folks on those plazas actually get to see the field? But maybe (hopefully) they are doing something different here, and the inclusion of a roof structure would be a definite plus.

Wont be just like Dallas so don't worry. The upper deck redesign is a huge plus all across the board imo.

[SonnyandSam]

No one ever said adding HD screens could not be done; just that it would be very expensive to rewire everything, add a new control room and the screens. I think when DC politicians courted Snyder for a couple years about returning to DC in a new stadium, he considered it and did little to upgrade FedEx.. I think the last two years makes it clear he now intends to stay in Landover for a long time. Snyder probably learned, just like JKC did, that promises from DC politicians are pretty worthless.

[pjfootballer]

Kind of related to this thread in the line of removing seats and avoiding blackouts (but also interesting from a historical perspective and also considering the labor situation we are in):

The Insider blog (in the Post) in recent days has been running articles or columns from the "Championship Seasons." Today they posted one from the day after the 1982 home game against Philly, which we won 13-9 to get to 4-0. Second game after the strike, weather was crappy....and there were close to 7K no-shows at RFK:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/football-insider/post/redskins-championships-1982-game-4-vs-philadelphia/2011/06/07/AGM5GAMH_blog.html

I was at that game. First Redskins game I ever attended. I was 14. My great uncle had seats in the upper deck under the overhang.

[hail2skins]

I was at that game. First Redskins game I ever attended. I was 14. My great uncle had seats in the upper deck under the overhang.

My first Redskins regular season game attended was also the Eagles game that year, but the one in Philly. Nice year to have your first-ever seeing the Skins live!

Didn't make it to RFK for a real game until late 1986 where unfortunately we got beat by the Giants.

[texasthunder]

http://twitter.com/#!/LL56xtremeskins

Steelers fan just told me he lost his season tickets at fed ex cause of the re-design.. good riddance

http://twitter.com/#!/TKextremeskins

I call that a good start. RT @LL56xtremeskins: Steelers fan just told me he lost his season tickets at fed ex

[Guest Spearfeather]

I have to agree with you earlier posters. We all know how bad the Dan wants a Super Bowl. The only way you are getting that in DC in February is with a roof. No way in hell he's pulling 10K seats out of the stadium unless it benefits him. Do any of you really believe Snyder would lose the revenue of 10K seats for our benefit? Clearly a roof is going in. Maybe not by the 2012 season but we are getting a roof.

You do know that New York is hosting a Super Bowl in 2014, right?