Cynical article from the City Paper (DC alternative paper) -- Snyder and the Skins don't "even hide the fact that your ability to fork over cash matters far more than your status as a fan."

The Skins "continue to push the illusion that tickets are a scarce commodity, as they learn, just like the Buffalo Bills (another team with a 80,000-plus-seat stadium in the suburbs) learned long ago, that you need a winning team to sell out."

The stadium's signature moment to date -- Gus Frerotte's head-butt.

Interesting article. Makes me wonder what it's going to be like next year at Lincoln Financial Field. One of the latest gripe about the Eagles organization: season-ticket holders got a letter offering playoff tickets. The letters were dated something like December 3rd, most people only got them the end of last week, and if you want to get the playoff tickets you MUST pay with cash/check/money order. They will NOT accept credit cards. People are worried about what it'll be like next year.

Oh, and Dan Snyder is evil.

I don't want to sound like I'm defending Danny Boy Snyder or the nasty Jack Kent Cooke, but ...

RFK was a dump. Good riddance. It was an ugly, under-sized concrete donut in a bad, inaccessible part of D.C. At least Fed Ex has decent freeway access, apparently. RFK was inaccessible by all known transportation means.

Snyder may or may not be fleecing Skin fans (I suspect the former), but credit the franchise for putting RFK in the rear view point.

Another point where I think the story-writer was totally wrong is the history of site selection for the new field. If I recall, the top priority for Virginia resident Jack kent Cooke was to put the new R*dsk*n stadium in Northern Virginia. He nearly got it located in Alexandria, right near National Airport. District of Columbia sites were only considered once all close-in NoVa sites were made wholly unavailable. Cooke wasn't too hot on playing in the District, for good reason.

[quote]Originally posted by Charlie in the Trees:
If I recall, the top priority for Virginia resident Jack kent Cooke was to put the new R*dsk*n stadium in Northern Virginia. He nearly got it located in Alexandria, right near National Airport.

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And he didn't, thanks to me and all the other citizens of Alexandria who rose up and fought him. Now it's PG County's problem. Good riddance.

The best thing Danny Snyder did when he bought the Skins and the stadium was to rename the location -- Jack Kent Cooke had created the awful name of Raljohn, Maryland (a merging of his two sons' names) -- Snyder changed it back to Landover.

btw CITT, RFK has terrific transportation access -- its own metro stop, its own ramp off of the Southeast Freeway, lots of side streets one can take ... and it's in a great part of town -- Capitol Hill (where I live -- although RFK is on the far eastern fringe ...)

[ December 20, 2002: Message edited by: DCBucky ]

[quote]Originally posted by DCBucky:
btw CITT, RFK has terrific transportation access -- its own metro stop, its own ramp off of the Southeast Freeway, lots of side streets one can take ... and it's in a great part of town -- Capitol Hill (where I live -- although RFK is on the far eastern fringe ...)

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Eastern fringe of Capitol Hill? Is that a realtor's term for Anacostia?

As for Metro access to RFK, I'll defer to the D.C. people, but I (vaguely) recall the D.C. Armory metro stop being a long walk from RFK.

[quote]Originally posted by Charlie in the Trees:
Eastern fringe of Capitol Hill? Is that a realtor's term for Anacostia?
As for Metro access to RFK, I'll defer to the D.C. people, but I (vaguely) recall the D.C. Armory metro stop being a long walk from RFK.

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IANAREA (I am not a real estate agent), but my understanding is that Anacostia is on the eastern side of the Anacostia River.

As for Metro system maps, try http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm , specifically Stadium-Armory. That has a link to the Neighborhood street map from StationMasters Online. It looks like a quarter-mile walk, maybe.

It has occurred to me that, since everything else is now on the Internet, if I put my mind to it, I could find a map showing which streetcars served Griffith Stadium.

[ December 20, 2002: Message edited by: twin58 ]

The metro stop isn't too far from the stadium, that's the only way I've ever gone there, via the metro.

People in the suburbs like to drive, they'd rather drive to FecEx than ride to RFK, that's why it had to move to a suburb. I'm personally just glad it's not in VA.

>>
I'm personally just glad it's not in VA.
<<

Megadittos. Oh, yeah, you're shocked to hear me say that.

I play Ultimate every weekend in the Spring and Fall in Anacostia, just over the river from RFK - the neighborhood is fine - we've never even had a disc stolen from the fields, or ever had any cars broken into, etc. I've also been to plenty of concerts at RFK and the transportation via Metro was great.

As for evil FedEx Field, I am sure most of the DC area, at least those on the eastern side of the city, would have welcomed a site in, or at least close to, town. As it is now, when a home game is scheduled you may as well just not try the beltway from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge to the 95 North interchange in Silver Spring - the backups are horrendous.

Mr. Cooke spent all the time he could, when negotiating the stadium deal, playing local governments off one another, trying to find the government who would give him exactly what he wanted. He probably would have gotten a better deal from DC if he hadn't pinched (or was it patted?)Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly on the rear end during negotiations.

Let's just hope that, if baseball ever comes to DC, they will have the sense to put the team in the city, and not in Reston, or some other god-forsaken suburb.

Great story, DCBucky. What a loser Snyder is, hunh?

The article's permanent URL has changed to http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/archive.../cover1213.html

Actually, FedEx Field is the least convient stadium/arena in the Washington area. RFK is just above a subway stop. MCI Center is just above a subway stop. All of the proposed sites in the city for a baseball stadium are near subway stops.

The first game at FedEx Field, more than 20,000 people didn't get in the stadium until the second quarter because the traffic was so bad. Now, after a few years, we're used to it but at the beginning it was terrible.

My problem with FedEx field is that there is no home field advantage. RFK held 55,000. You'd get maybe 5,000 fans from the opposing team, maybe 10,000 at the outer limit. At FedEx Field, you could easily see 20,000 fans from the opposing team. And the Redskins are just slightly over .500 there. Winning at RFK Stadium was given for the Redskins.

Nice warm day, but lots of empty seats anyway. David Carr looks terrific.

[quote]Originally posted by CPT_Doom:
... and not in Reston, or some other god-forsaken suburb.

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But, Virginia, there are homosexuals in Reston. We're not dead, we're Restin'!



GatorJamie
Reston, VA

Fed Ex Field voted by the NFLPA as best playing surface...

The Vet, of course, was voted worst...

...which to some extent seems kind of stupid since the turf at the Vet is only two years old. Unless there are no other artificial turf fields, I'd bet there are other rugs that are actually worse. Not to mention that garbage they played on in East Rutherford, which isn't artificial.