Washington Post Today ~ Empty Seats Irk Arrington

[sportscurmudgeon]

I think some of you are missing the point regarding why MANY people in Washington go to Redskin games. Hold onto your hats here; it has NOTHING to do with football or the Redskins or the opposing team or anything like that.

Many people go to the game as a social event because Redskins' games have become an important social event in Washington and therefore it is important TO BE SEEN there. When lots of people go there, they spend as much time looking around to see who else is there and trying to wave to friends so that the friends will attest to the fact that they were there too. If the game is not close and the real football fans are "sitting on their hands" lots of the socialites will often have their backs to the field while plays are being run because they are checking out who might be seated behind/above them.

Those "yellow seats" are not cheap; that's why they're are unsold. And so the people sitting there will continue to go there and enjoy their comforts simply because they can do just that. And if any of them are reading this board - highly unlikely - they will not give a rat's arse what anyone here thinks of them or their game watching preferences. They aren't going to a sports bar to see the game - unless they own the sports bar and want to be there to watch the money roll in.

You want them to make noise. I'll bet that if you hooked all of them up to lie detectors, you'd find that they would really prefer for you to keep your voices down...

This is the reality of Redskins' crowds. And as long as prices are where they are and as long as Washington is a town full of people who despearately need for others to know that they are "connected", it ain't gonna change.

Just a historical note, it was that way when I went to my first Skins' game at RFK in 1969 too; this is not a new phenomenon.