New Stadium News?

[SkinsFTW]

He purchases one of the the largest yachts available on the planet and then puts his tesm into the smallest stadium in the league after previously being housed in the largest.

 

He's admitting that he's lost most of the fans but he really doesn't give a **** and just wants to profit off of his own ineptitude in any way possible. (Probably doubling ticket prices in the process)

 

And it's been that way since he bought the team on credit. He's always gone all in on anything and everything that would make him more money but never has done the same to build a winning team.

 

Remember when he tried to force season ticket holders to only pay using a Redskins Mastercard so that only he could profit off the interest? Or when he removed the scoreboard for other NFL games and then rented fans hand held devices so they could see the scores. ( Good thing people could just use their phones!)

 

Meanwhile they never won ****! Getting close to 30 years now!

 

[No Nonsense]

55,000 seats is embarrassing. 

[FrFan]

19 minutes ago, SkinsFTW said:

He purchases one of the the largest yachts available on the planet

 

That's because of his IMAX screen, couldn't fit in a smaller yacht (sarcasm). He's going to build a top of the line small stadium which will be very comfy for Pokes, Giants and Eagles fans. Last but not least expect a major raise in tickets prices.

Edited June 1, 2022 by FrFan

[Brokenstriker]

Bleacher Report article this morning about smaller stadium in VA with "least popular" team undertones.  Seriously don't believe Cooke's stadium is under attended exclusively due to team popularity.  Personally I stopped going because it's in a bad location for me, traffic sucked, everything there is way too expensive, and the seats were sized for children under the age of 12.  It's uncomfortable, expensive, with far too many terrible views.  I think that's why the current stadium struggles to sell seats.  Compound that with the incessant piped in music and crowd noise, and far too many visiting team fans (which I suspect is due to the inability to make going to the stadium attractive and affordable for the very many (still) local fans.  Just my opinion but I'm getting a little sick of the standard dump on this franchise and owner.  It's like everyone's favorite off-season pass time.  Let's focus on the team and provide a really enjoyable stadium for players and the fans.

[88Comrade2000]

14 hours ago, Conn said:

I don’t agree with this. The at-home TV experience gets more appealing every year and the NFL makes more from ad revenue than from ticket sales, by a huge margin. It’s only going to get more lopsided, the league is going to move away from prioritizing the in-person experience more and more if the sport survives long term. Build for the inevitable future, don’t be wistful for the past. If they ever get good again, imagine how much easier it would be to maintain a home field advantage if you “only” have to fill 55,000 seats consistently. Design it the right way and it will sound just like any other stadium when the defense is on the field and the stands are rocking. You know, in a fictional future where Snyder doesn’t own the team and they can actually fill an imaginary stadium with the correct fans again. 7-10,000 extra seats doesn’t make much of a difference in the end imo. Make it a small, intimate setting that has the potential to one day be intimidating.

You shout a lot of outrageous stuff into the void here but you can’t actually believe this, right? That’s an extremely small and easy number to meet lol, and I’m one of the most pessimistic people here in regards to the fanbase. 

I do. I think a good chunk of the Redskins fan base, found the perfect out; the Redskins are no more. Especially,  after all the crap coming the last 2 years; those fans aren't  inclined to come out to support the new team - the Commanders. So, at this moment; I don't think there are 55,000 fans in the DMV area; that will be willing to com e out for the Commanders.  If the Commanders win a couple of years; they will get a new fanbase.

[hail2skins]

23 minutes ago, Brokenstriker said:

Bleacher Report article this morning about smaller stadium in VA with "least popular" team undertones.  Seriously don't believe Cooke's stadium is under attended exclusively due to team popularity.  Personally I stopped going because it's in a bad location for me, traffic sucked, everything there is way too expensive, and the seats were sized for children under the age of 12.  It's uncomfortable, expensive, with far too many terrible views.  I think that's why the current stadium struggles to sell seats.  Compound that with the incessant piped in music and crowd noise, and far too many visiting team fans (which I suspect is due to the inability to make going to the stadium attractive and affordable for the very many (still) local fans.  Just my opinion but I'm getting a little sick of the standard dump on this franchise and owner.  It's like everyone's favorite off-season pass time.  Let's focus on the team and provide a really enjoyable stadium for players and the fans.

The stadium was constructed too quickly in a less-than-optimal location and has had its sets of issues from the outset. However, Snyder has absolutely contributed to a lot of the issues you mention above.

[SkinsFTW]

16 minutes ago, Brokenstriker said:

Seriously don't believe Cooke's stadium is under attended exclusively due to team popularity.  Personally I stopped going because it's in a bad location for me, traffic sucked, everything there is way too expensive, and the seats were sized for children under the age of 12.  It's uncomfortable, expensive, with far too many terrible views.  I think that's why the current stadium struggles to sell seats.  Compound that with the incessant piped in music and crowd noise, and far too many visiting team fans (which I suspect is due to the inability to make going to the stadium attractive and affordable for the very many (still) local fans.  Just my opinion but I'm getting a little sick of the standard dump on this franchise and owner.  It's like everyone's favorite off-season pass time.  Let's focus on the team and provide a really enjoyable stadium for players and the fans.

 

So you believe that a stadium that used to sell out year after year at close to 100K, with a decade or longer waiting list for season tickets, just in the last 10 years or so became unattractive to fans so 10's of thousands of people stopped going and everybody dropped off the waiting list for these reasons too?

 

That's kind of funny man. 

[88Comrade2000]

1 hour ago, CommanderInTheRye said:

Washington Commanders’ stadium plan calls for 55,000 seats, smallest in the NFL

 

 

 

From 2004 to 2010, Washington had the largest seating capacity in the NFL, with more than 91,000 seats at FedEx Field. But as the team has struggled on the field and alienated fans with off-field controversy, FedEx Field renovations have consistently reduced the number of seats, as the team couldn’t fill the stadium. And now the team is planning a new stadium that would be smaller still.

 

The Commanders are currently proposing a new stadium in Virginia that would have just 55,000 seats, making it the smallest in the NFL, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

 

Although nothing is finalized with the team’s new stadium, Commanders President Jason Wright acknowledged that the Commanders are likely to end up playing in the smallest stadium in the league.

 

“We are much more likely to build the smallest venue in the NFL than the largest,” he told the Virginia Mercury.

 

A 55,000-seat stadium would be too small to host a Super Bowl and some of the other major events that NFL stadiums attract, but Washington sounds set on going in the opposite direction after once leading the league in attendance.

 

 

 

The Commanders are now rumored to be open to a stadium with a capacity well under 50,000; if a deal can be reached with a local jurisdiction willing to allow construction to begin soon. 

 

Rumors persist that current team owner Dan Snyder may soon be forced to sell the team. Some within the league office are now openly speculating, off the record, that he wants the new owner to be hamstrung by a small stadium, in a less than ideal location, that would severely limit team revenue and growth.

 

At this point the mental stability of the team's owner has to be a concern for Roger Goodell.

 

 

🤩😉😎😁

Bezos would either sell stadium or just demolish it and build the Amazon Dome.

[CommanderInTheRye]

23 minutes ago, 88Comrade2000 said:

Bezos would either sell stadium or just demolish it and build the Amazon Dome.

 

 

Hot rumor from those in the know is that our little Napoleon, knowing the team won't be his for long, is willing to sign a 50 year lease and agree to a 10 figure penalty for early termination. j

 

He wants to leave us with a generous taint stain on the team so we won't forget him anytime soon.

 

It also insures that the next owner doesn't outdo him in ticket sales and Danny boy can go on tv and say, "See it wasn't me! It was  a lazy, cheap, fat and ugly good for nothing fan base that let me down all along. I was a great owner."

 

 

Edited June 1, 2022 by CommanderInTheRye

[SkinsFTW]

13 minutes ago, CommanderInTheRye said:

Danny boy can go on tv and say, "See it wasn't me! It was  a lazy, cheap, fat and ugly good for nothing fan base that let me down all along. I was a great owner."

 

 

 

If he does that he'll end up being the first owner of a Franchise to give us his own Scooby Doo ending. 

[Conn]

1 hour ago, 88Comrade2000 said:

I do. I think a good chunk of the Redskins fan base, found the perfect out; the Redskins are no more. Especially,  after all the crap coming the last 2 years; those fans aren't  inclined to come out to support the new team - the Commanders. So, at this moment; I don't think there are 55,000 fans in the DMV area; that will be willing to com e out for the Commanders.  If the Commanders win a couple of years; they will get a new fanbase.

55,000 is just such a small number (even just in the DMV area—that an important qualifier you added, but I still think you’re incorrect). Trust me I agree the fanbase is dead. I just think that’s an insanely small number. There are plenty of reasons not to go to Fed Ex that have nothing to do with whether someone still identifies as a fan of the team or not. 

[hail2skins]

I was just listening to some of Sheehan's opening hour this morning talking about the 55K number for the new stadium.  Kevin was saying valid things about the difficulty of filling up upper decks with bad or mediocre teams in the days of great home technology, but then started saying crap like "I doubt you had more than 500 people in the upper deck at FedEx games last year" and "there were probably only 25K-30K people at the games."  I'll admit I haven't been since 2018, but to me on TV the lower level always looked fairly full, and the capacity there alone is around 30K, probably not even including the OV seats installed in 2004. And while there were plenty of empties in the UL, there were certainly far more than 500 people up there for each game. I like Kevin, but saying things like that is ridiculous.

[Est.1974]

Does the NFL have rules around the number of season tickets you can sell for example, eg a certain % of the capacity. Are team obligated to put some on general sale etc for opposing teams ? Or could we just have 55k season ticket holders outright. Genuine question, as personally whilst 55k is a low number it doesn’t really bother me if you get a stadium full of home fans, designed and built to generate an great atmosphere. 

[Skinsinparadise]

 

 

[hail2skins]

Teel is being lazy. That 64 percent of capacity is based upon the 82K figure ESPN uses, while Teel's RTD colleague Mike Phillips has put the capacity at 67K.

 

And I do think the team has largely  changed the way they have reported attendance since Lafemina was brought in for his one season in 2018. I won't deny that actual butts in seats has taken a hit in the past 5 seasons, but I went to a lot of games in the mid 2010s and would look at the reported attendance afterwards and say "no way!"

[NewCliche21]

16 hours ago, Skinsinparadise said:

 

They were talking about this some on 106.7.  The theory is less seats make them a harder seat to get especially for out of towners.    Better look on TV because these days they are filling about 45,000-55,000 so the stadium would appear more full. Construction costs I guess make sense -- less cement-infrastructure needed.

 

Personally, outside of removing Dan, the 2 most obvious hurdles for selling tickets is a tradition of winning and having some star power-excitement.  When we had RG3, that was the last hoorah of this fan base arguably.

 

 

1)  Thank you for always posting all of this stuff.  If it weren't for your reporting on the reporting, to put it poorly, I wouldn't know ANY of this. So, genuinely, thank you!

2)  I don't think that our fans aren't going because out of towners are, I think we're just not going and out of towners are. I feel like it'd be a better look for a half-filled stadium to be half-filled with Eagles fans than a full stadium be 3/4 full of Eagles fans. But math was never my thing.

3)  For construction I was more saying that once it's built, it's built.  He added the "dream seats" in front of the front row (still boggles my mind), but he couldn't like add an upper-upper deck or anything like that. 55K would be the max, they'd have to take away general seats to add "Command Centers" (which they will refer to the premium seating as and I am totally getting a trademark on before hitting "submit" for this post).

4)  Yep, FedEx was ROCKING during 2012. I only got to see the playoff game, but that first quarter, damn, that was crazy exciting. It's all, ACL's included, fallen apart since then.

[Skinsinparadise]

10 minutes ago, NewCliche21 said:

 

1)  Thank you for always posting all of this stuff.  If it weren't for your reporting on the reporting, to put it poorly, I wouldn't know ANY of this. So, genuinely, thank you!

2)  I don't think that our fans aren't going because out of towners are, I think we're just not going and out of towners are. I feel like it'd be a better look for a half-filled stadium to be half-filled with Eagles fans than a full stadium be 3/4 full of Eagles fans. But math was never my thing.

3)  For construction I was more saying that once it's built, it's built.  He added the "dream seats" in front of the front row (still boggles my mind), but he couldn't like add an upper-upper deck or anything like that. 55K would be the max, they'd have to take away general seats to add "Command Centers" (which they will refer to the premium seating as and I am totally getting a trademark on before hitting "submit" for this post).

4)  Yep, FedEx was ROCKING during 2012. I only got to see the playoff game, but that first quarter, damn, that was crazy exciting. It's all, ACL's included, fallen apart since then.

 

As for opposing fans, etc.  I agree.  I've consistently more or less gone to games for the last 20 years give or take both on the road and at home.   And its an interesting experience.  The road games over the years have become much more fun for me. 

 

I think their issues are a combination of things

 

A. shrinking pool of season ticket holders

B.  willingness of said season ticket holders among others to sell those tickets

C. lack of demand from local Commanders fans

D. Bigger demand at times from road fans and a big pool of tickets so they can buy said tickets dirt cheap.

 

I mentioned this at the time but I got to talk to Brian Lafemina once about it on the phone.  He was super cool.  I sent him an email at the time and he said lets talk and we chatted for 15 minutes.

 

Like me, he agreed they'd never settle the problem completely without winning and or getting a new stadium.

 

Sadly, from what I heard Bruce pushed him out.  I gather he saw him as a threat.  If they stuck with Lafemina years ago, I'd bet they'd have already secured a stadium.  He is a smart dude. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by Skinsinparadise

[dyst]

He should build a 1000 seat stadium so he can claim 100% attendance and a waiting list for season tickets. Now before you guys make jokes that 1000 is too much to accomplish that, come on, lets be serious. There are definitely 1000 fans around.

[hail2skins]

Interesting article on attendance at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas for the first season, although I'm not sure why the first two games and the last game of the season were excluded. Vegas is somewhat unique, but does have a population that has significantly grown over the past 30 years as well as the tourism, and this was the inaugural season with fans at a brand new stadium. And yet only 50-55K in attendance at a venue that seats 62K, including games against the Chiefs, Eagles, and Skins:

 

https://lvsportsbiz.com/2022/05/29/inside-allegiant-stadiums-attendance-numbers-for-2021-thousands-of-empty-seats-no-shows-at-raiders-games/

[88Comrade2000]

5 minutes ago, hail2skins said:

Interesting article on attendance at Allegiant Stadium in Vegas for the first season, although I'm not sure why the first two games and the last game of the season were excluded. Vegas is somewhat unique, but does have a population that has significantly grown over the past 30 years as well as the tourism, and this was the inaugural season with fans at a brand new stadium. And yet only 50-55K in attendance at a venue that seats 62K, including games against the Chiefs, Eagles, and Skins:

 

https://lvsportsbiz.com/2022/05/29/inside-allegiant-stadiums-attendance-numbers-for-2021-thousands-of-empty-seats-no-shows-at-raiders-games/

People go to Vegas to gamble. If Raiders went on a SuperBowl run; they’d sell out.

 

 

[Est.1974]

55k is more than enough, seems like a strange thing to contest to be honest. Is that like a  fan ego things against the actual reality of the proposal?

[CommanderInTheRye]

38 minutes ago, Est.1974 said:

55k is more than enough, seems like a strange thing to contest to be honest. Is that like a  fan ego things against the actual reality of the proposal?

 

You are once again on point @Est.1974.

 

To be completely honest I've been dogging the decision but in my heart I honestly love it.

 

The truth is I loathe Snyder and part of me is just naturally against anything he wants.

 

But when I think about all of the excitement I experienced at 50 some thousand seat RFK whose worst game experience was infinitely better than the best day at FedEx Field I realize it's not about the number of butts in the seat.

 

The intimacy of RFK was special-- comforting to our boys and intimidating to invaders. Those were the days when we had a true homefield advantage.

 

It's a good move-- if executed properly. Now we get to see if they can pull it off.

 

Full stop.

 

.

Edited June 1, 2022 by CommanderInTheRye

[CobraCommander]

Yeah I don't mind 55k. I have a feeling Jason Wright is really pushing for an EPL level stadium experience, which is much more in line with an RKF than FedEX ever could hope to be. 

Edited June 1, 2022 by CobraCommander

[TD_washingtonredskins]

I think smaller stadiums are the direction the NFL will eventually go. Football is a television sport and pro football is far more conducive to television than college for a couple reasons: 

 

1) The majority of games are on Sundays and bump up against the work week

2) The majority of the fan base that would attend aren't already living right near the stadium and 18-24 years old dying for something to do

 

So, it wouldn't shock me at all if the trend with newer NFL stadiums is to go smaller and smaller...but I thought that a decade ago and I've been wrong so far. 

 

Having said that, it's also sad that the Commanders and Snyder are essentially forced into this due to lack of demand. It will be very ironic to me if he ends up making a shrewd and innovative move accidentally. 

[profusion]

Part of the point of going with a smaller stadium in the modern era is to make up for the smaller capacity by jacking up prices for such a "premium" experience, assuming that the poors will simply be watching on TV. Does anyone think the impresario behind sewage leaks, unsafe safety railings, defunct airline peanuts and expired beer is going to provide anything approaching a "premium" experience? He'll jack up the prices, for sure, but for the same level of awfulness all around. If there's a corner to be cut, it'll be cut with a chainsaw.