Warning – This a completely Off Topic and self-serving post.
I’ve put this here as much as a place maker for myself as anything.
The Redskins suck. They’ve sucked for a long time. So long that the once rabid fan-base has mostly become “over it”. For a little while each season I try to care, but I just don’t. Not anymore. I’m a guy that used to watch 3 NFL games at once. Usually one of them was my other favorite, the Raiders. Yeah I know, I can really pick’em. At least my Sundays are free for other things now.
Reddit – Here is SVP completely going in on the organization. Thoughts? I apologize for the quality, was looking online but couldn’t find a vid of it so decided to record it with my phone.
Video in thread. Article on it below.
Scott Van Pelt on the Redskins: ‘Is anyone at Redskins Park listening?’
“I don’t know a single person from back home who would have gone Sunday if you paid them to go. Actually, you know what? That’s not true. My boy Sacco and his kids went. They’re Eagles fans. The stadium experience is miserable, insufferable drunks, the lousy product for decades. And what’s equally hard for me to fathom: Somehow, ownership is blindsided by the fact that fans are done.”
Washington Post – A once-proud franchise, the Redskins are showing signs of foundational cracks
Yet in two decades as an NFL owner, Snyder has achieved something more difficult — driving away one of the more loyal fan bases in professional sports…Some close to Snyder say privately that he doesn’t fully grasp the extent of fans’ enmity. Like a quarterback who can’t read the whole field or spot open receivers, he fails to connect his squad’s poor performance, both on the field and at the turnstile, to the frequently tone-deaf moves of his unpopular front office. Nor does he necessarily see his own hand in the mess, opting to find and fire scapegoats…
The Redskins set single-season NFL attendance records at FedEx Field, peaking with an average crowd of 89,625 in 2005…Heading into Sunday’s season finale, their average game-day crowd of 60,719 ranks 29th in the 32-team league…Moreover, the Redskins rank dead last in percentage of stadium capacity filled (74 percent). Visually, the team tried to minimize the fact that more than 25 percent of tickets were unsold by covering large sections of the upper deck with advertising banners. But the empty seats, prevalence of fans wearing opponents’ jerseys and sporadic boos were jarring to Snyder…
Fans’ dissatisfaction with FedEx Field isn’t Snyder’s only problem. Six successive years of a drop in local TV ratings for the Redskins’ broadcasts on Fox — the predominant network for teams playing in the NFC — indicates that more fans are tuning out the team from their own homes. This year’s rating (17.7) was down 10 percent from 2017 (19.7) and off more than 46 percent from the rookie season of quarterback Robert Griffin III in 2012 (25.9)…
The sentiments of former third-generation season-ticket-holder Steven Collins reflect that of many alienated fans.
“My emotions during the Snyder era have run from anger to hope and back to anger. Then disbelief. The crazy part now is that I feel indifference. Indifference to the team that was a huge part of my life growing up,” Collins, 55, wrote in an email. Collins, who had kept his Redskins tickets after moving to Florida, continued: “Anger isn’t cutting it because the organization probably believes that no matter how mad they make us today, we will love them tomorrow. Indifference can be powerful and much harder to overcome. I’m there. I’m not hopeful. I’m not mad. It’s easier to stop caring and move on.”
SVP Went In On The Redskins And Skins Fans Have Bullied The Team Off Of Twitter #FireBruceAllen
Dan Snyder has systematically destroyed the culture of the team, the history of the team, and the fanbase of the team. We’re left to pick up the pieces and wonder when this reign of terror will end…And so Redskins fans are stopping giving Dan Snyder their money. Thank goodness. And hilariously, have bullied the Redskins off of Twitter. Seriously. Because every reply to every tweet for the last couple weeks has been #FireBruceAllen, they have just stopped tweeting.
BTW – If you’re wondering how I became a Raiders fan…
In high school I read Jack Tatum’s They Call Me The Assassin.
As much as I despise naming rights (and believe me, I do) I wonder if the shipping company cares too about the situation you’ve described. Sure, I suspect that the naming rights deal probably doesn’t have any escape clause that ties to performance (or lack thereof) of the team, but I wonder if a fan would do what I do when it comes to naming rights johns.That is, do not buy their product nor attend/buy the product of the seller. Sure we can’t always avoid the shipping company, but are there any sort of ‘official’ widgets of the team one can not purchase? For example, if a certain beverage is the official drink then don’t buy it.
Here in the Big Apple we’ve a baseball team that plays its games in a stadium that has a corporate naming rights john’s name attached to it. They are also the john for the bike share program. Granted, as for baseball, I stopped caring back in 1994 when they players went on strike.
It might be time for the fans of D.C.’s team to go on strike as well.
Hey Eric I feel your pain. I’m a Patriots fan from way back when they sucked. When James Orthwein bought the team and later brought in Bill Parcells as coach I felt a ray of hope. And when Kraft bought the team I worried he was like Billy Sullivan, not enough cash to improve the team and the facilities. Although Pete Carrol didn’t work out and the way Bill Belicheck came on board, I was a little worried. Obviously my fears were unfounded but I guess the answer lies with ownership and whether they can have the right people on board and let them do their jobs. It seems you’ve got a decent coach but your problems are at the top.