Why the FedEx Field Bashing?

[REDSKIN2]

I just wondered a few days ago, not relegated specifically to the warpath or skins fans but in general throughout the media and NFL why so much FedEx bashing.

I realize that there are some issues, i.e. location on the beltway, not located downtown or near a Metro, high ticket and parking prices, traffic, doesn't have all the bells and whistles of other downtown facilities.

Aside from this, it does have good aspects. Tailgating is great, club level that is second to none in NFL. The field is well kept. Huge capacity. The inside of the stadium isn't bad and when the SKINs are rolling it is a very intimidating homefield advantage, maybe not quite like RFK but we were a championship team then. I'm sure many owners around the league wouldn't mind owning FedEx and their team's too. It's definately a facility that has what is needed to keep the team here for a long long time.

If you look at some other facilities like Arrowhead, Gillette Stadium, The Coliseum in Nashville, all are somewhat like FedEx, they have plain exteriors, and are located somewhat outside of their downtown cities yet FedEx seems to get the most criticism.

My experiences at FedEx have been pretty good. You just have to get there early.

Just curious, any thoughts, experiences?

[dgack]

Because it's in vogue to bash The Daniel and his ability to turn a big profit annually, despite having run one of the five worst franchises in the NFL (in terms of W/L record) since the end of Gibbs I.

[Master4Caster]

The biggest problem is that it's not RFK, sacred ground in Redskin history.

People forget that:

1. RFK is not viable for modern NFL economics.
2. Jack Kent Cooke tried for years to work with the District to build a stadium in DC. If you watched the baseball stadium debacle, you get the idea.
3. Cooke built Redskins - later Jack Kent Cooke Stadium - later FedEx Field with his own money; so it's functional, not pretty.
4. The open effect lets cheers escape skyward. RFK's canopy redirected crowd noise back to the field. Atmosphere! Atmosphere!
5. The corporate suites and plaza level moves fans in the upper deck much farther away from the action. The upper deck at RFK was almost intimate.
6. Prince Georges County welcomed the Stadium when DC and Virginia said no.
7. Parking and traffic for a 90,000 seat stadium would be more congested in the District than in PG County.
8. RFK would vibrate with crowd noise. Sturdy FedEx does not.
9. Joe Gibbs, Jack Pardee and George Allen won at RFK. At FedEx, well . . . .

There's loose talk that District fathers would like to lure the Redskins back.

You can laugh at that one. I do.

[jsarno]

Originally Posted by Master4Caster

The biggest problem is that it's not RFK, sacred ground in Redskin history.

You really didn't need to say anything else.
I told my wife I wanted my ashes spread across RFK stadium. Not fedex field!

[TheMalcolmConnection]

I bash it because when I listened to the game this weekend, it sounded like an Eagles home game.

[BrunellMVP?]

too corporate from the commercials during game time to the "fans" that sell their seats every game. WE are a late arriving, non factor, fair weather, stuck up (ie- yelling at people to sit down...its a GAME people) bunch. the high price has driven the real fans out of the stadium...
for the price of season tickets, you could buy a HD big screen TV, a kegerator, and grill 20 lbs of meat and a keg of beer with your buddies...each game.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

That sort of sums up how I feel about the whole experience. While I truly feel the Redskins have the most dedicated fanbase in the entire NFL, those are not the people who have season tickets and show up to games.

Just as BrunellMVP? mentioned, these are the corporations, the snobs who have the funds and money to afford to have a leisurely evening watching an "NFL football match" and most couldn't give two shits who won or lost. FedEx isn't representative of the fanbase, which is unfortunate because at the bar I was in all the way down in Florida last weekend, it was 50% Skins fans, all in their jerseys.

While no one has ever asked me to sit down, it makes me want to fucking puke when I see even a small amount of opposing team's fans in Redskin's seats. If you're a "real" fan you go to each game, no matter what, because I'm DAMN sure that if the Giants are needing a win on the last day of the season, I bet their fans will gladly take tickets off our hands.

The people sitting in the corporate boxes of FedEx do not represent the fanbase. It's people like Warpath who has season tickets even though he lives nearly two hours away from the stadium. It's Gmanc who makes it a priority to make it down to at least one or two games a year all the way from New York. It's all those other people that are too many to mention who make it a VACATION to actually go see your favorite team play, playoffs or not.

That's the Redskins fanbase, not these people who live minutes away and decide to stop going at the first sign of problems.

[celts32]

There's nothing wrong with Fed Ex Field...the problems are on the field. if the Redskins of the 70's & 80's played like the 90's Redskins then everyone would have called RFK the dump that it was.

[gibbs4life]

ok my experience between the 2 goes something like this nothing and i mean nothing compares to RFK period.alot of history in that stadium and it was really hard to play the redskins there too.fed ex is to me a great hangout a really nice stadium great lookin jumbotrons and great hangout for the corporate executives that love football or so it seems.RFK is like a legacy that will remain with me til death ,it,s like a marriage sort to speak.
when you get beat by the skins you knew you got beat period now it aint the same......like the above poster it all started even before joe gibbs @RFK not fed ex kind of makes me go well hmmmmm ,it aint the same and it never will be..atmosphere is huge at RFK not so at fed ex. in short RFK couldn,t survive in todays nfl and i agree with master all the way...

joe gibbs era 1 was built and won us proud redskins over like true redskins..
he also represented to the redskins what redskin football is all about .

[The Zimmermans]

Fed Ex sucks because it is too big, with too many bad seats at too high of prices........plus parking is a rip off and the metro stop is miles away......and that doesnt take into account the traffick situation. What is good about fed ex from a fan's standpoint????? (Yes I enjoy the tailgating...but tailgating is good anywhere) And don't give me that "well more fans get tickets to games", yeah fans of the other team.

[MTK]

FedEx isn't RFK, simple as that.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Is FedEx really as "corporate" as other new stadiums around the league or in other sports? Yeah they show commericals on the jumbrotrons during timeouts and they are annoying, but I've seen that sort of thing elsewhere. Yeah they sold the naming rights to the stadium but that's become the norm. The seats themselves are pretty expensive but things like food and beer cost just as much as in other stadiums in the area, so that's to be expected.

It does usually seem like there are a ton of fans of the other team there but that's mainly because the team is doing so bad this season. If the team was better tickets for Skins fans would be in higher demand and you probably wouldn't see nearly as many opposing fans. Plus, I think you also have to look at the make up of a city like Washington; there are a ton of transplants that move here for the jobs opportunities and they often bring their football loyalties with them. Hines Field in Pittsburg, for example, probably has a higher ratio of Steelers fans at each game because the team is doing well and there probably aren't as many people who move there from other places.

As far as the actual stadium goes, I'd have to say that the club level has to be one of the best but it lacks that "into the game" type of atmosphere, so I personally don't really like sitting there. Also, the jumbotrons suck compared to the one's in baltimore, so that's sort of disappointing. When the crowd is really into the game the place is amazing, but it's hard to get all reved up for a team that's really struggling.

The worst aspect of FedEx has to be the Funky Four. God I hate them.

[dgack]

Originally Posted by ArtMonkDrillz

The worst aspect of FedEx has to be the Funky Four. God I hate them.

I haven't seen pro sports sideline entertainment that embarrassing since the old Washington Bullets days in the Cap Centre. Appallingly, uncomfortably bad.

[huntz]

FF got to go. Sick of that lame act.

[jsarno]

I don't live in the area, and the only Redskins games I have ever been to were road games, so I really don't know all the aspects of what everyone is talking about. However, I don't recall a game like Phily last week (a lot of cheers for the opposing team) happening last year. So hopefully these fans that are selling their seats are only doing it because we're losing. Then again, if I had season tickets I would be there, or at the least give them / sell them to a Redskins fan.