A grand location for a new stadium

[PARROTHEAD]

2 hours ago, mike23md said:

So, a couple of years ago, DC residents and lawmakers had stated they were not in favor of bringing back the Redskins unless the name was changed. 

With the pressure of COVID, and the location of the stadium, Snyder was forced to change the name (although I am pretty sure he was thinking about it for the stadium sense). 

With the LA and LV teams getting new stadiums, with Fed Ex not being iconic like Lambeau, it makes no sense for the team to stay there. And we all know that Snyder likes the limelight and cannot be outdone. For all the reasons stated above, Superbowls, Wrestlemania, College BB tourney, Concerts and more, money would come in hand over fist. Keeping the stadium where Fed Ex is now, is just not worth it, for the legacy of the franchise and its fans, there needs to be a turning point in which Dan matures to stop appeasing the fan in him, and start to appease the fan in us. 

But will those DC residents and lawmakers vote to build the stadium he wants for him?

Vegas bribed the Raiders to come there pretty decently. Multi billion dollar stadium and the works while Oakland offered nothing. I can see Maryland putting up some massive deal to keep the team on their soil. DC is 68 square miles, 25% of that is in roads alone (17 square miles worth). So of the 51 usable sq miles left. Theyd have to hand over near 1 to Dan freely and build him a multi billion dollar stadium.

[Ghostnote]

1 hour ago, PARROTHEAD said:

But will those DC residents and lawmakers vote to build the stadium he wants for him?

Vegas bribed the Raiders to come there pretty decently. Multi billion dollar stadium and the works while Oakland offered nothing. I can see Maryland putting up some massive deal to keep the team on their soil. DC is 68 square miles, 25% of that is in roads alone (17 square miles worth). So of the 51 usable sq miles left. Theyd have to hand over near 1 to Dan freely and build him a multi billion dollar stadium.

Prince Georges county nor the state of Maryland have that kind of money to pony up for a stadium. If they do, their best interest should be near the national harbor. 

[Ghostnote]

3 hours ago, turtle28 said:

I believe Thai when he says he won’t go to DC for a game. I don’t believe that represents the majority of Virginia fans, especially those who live in Arlington or Fairfax counties. They’ll still go. They go to Caps & Nats games, they’ll go to Washington Football’s games too if it’s back in DC.

More people would be willing to go to a game if its at the site of Old RFK. It was easy access with Metro and easy parking. Fed Ex is hard to get to, Metro is 1 mile away. Its not ideal and was a bad business move to stay there. 

[turtle28]

5 minutes ago, mike23md said:

More people would be willing to go to a game if its at the site of Old RFK. It was easy access with Metro and easy parking. Fed Ex is hard to get to, Metro is 1 mile away. Its not ideal and was a bad business move to stay there. 

Definitely but you’re not going to convince @Thaiphoon we’ve all had these conversations for like 5 years. 

[Ghostnote]

I am not out to convince anyone, I just understand what people have been saying for the last 6-7 years. 

[turtle28]

14 minutes ago, mike23md said:

I am not out to convince anyone, I just understand what people have been saying for the last 6-7 years. 

Same here. 

[PARROTHEAD]

15 hours ago, mike23md said:

More people would be willing to go to a game if its at the site of Old RFK. It was easy access with Metro and easy parking. Fed Ex is hard to get to, Metro is 1 mile away. Its not ideal and was a bad business move to stay there. 

But it doesnt boil down to the fans. Its about which area would pucker up most for Dan. Youll have all the DMV tossing every dime they can to make him happy and land the team for themselves.

[Thaiphoon]

23 hours ago, mike23md said:

More people would be willing to go to a game if its at the site of Old RFK. It was easy access with Metro and easy parking. Fed Ex is hard to get to, Metro is 1 mile away. Its not ideal and was a bad business move to stay there. 

I completely disagree that more people would go. Also, RFK was not "easy access" and "easy parking" . It was a PITA to get to the stadium via car. And still is. 

The Caps & Nats fans argument is "meh" to me. 

• Capitals = capacity seating is around 20k. Average attendance? 18.5k --> Season runs from October through April
• Nationals = capacity seating is around 40k. Average attendance? 28k -->  Season runs from Late March/Early April to October.
• WFT = capacity seating is around 82k. Average 2019 attendance? 65.5k  -->  Season runs from September to February.

None of those stadiums are full on games days unless you're talking about playoffs. But let's decide that they are always full, all the time.

Nationals is 50% of the fans. But the kicker here is that it only clashes with Football season for about 6 weeks. And even now, a big reason why you don't see too much of an issue is that people going to Nats games are not fighting the same commute with the people who need to go to the WFT games. Simply put, the Nationals have grown in popularity as they have won games and a championship. And still didn't top 50% of the average of a WFT that hasn't done much in 30 years. Add to it that they play 80% of their season without any competition from another major sport. 

Same thing with the Capitals. Won a Stanley Cup. Can only muster 1/3 the average attendance. Metro is already packed closer to their games. Now add that the WFT fans are also going to a game. Or add a MNF or TNF on top the the weekly commute of people going home from work on to of all of that? Yeah. That's gonna get old...fast.

And this is not even counting the numbers on the Metro that will be for the Wizards games.

So using both of them as a "well people use the Metro to go to their games too." Not in the same #s that are currently going to the WFT games

Let's talk about the gameday experience for a second. But first a few questions:

Do people tailgate track meets?

How about swimming meets?

Tennis?

Nope. Not part of the gameday experience.

Okay hockey?

Basketball?

Baseball? 

Nope. Not part of the gameday experience

Take away that (and you'll have to in order to place a stadium where RFK is now) and you'll be left with the commuter lot feeling at your local college.

Typical gameday that I've witness over the last 20+ years at Fed Ex

We get there right as the gates open around 9am (sometimes they open 30 minutes early like they did on the last playoff game). 9am-10am the lots are filling up with cars/trucks/etc... eager to start their grills. From 10am-11pm, the lots are filled up with only about 10-15% open spaces remaining. The rest fill up between 11pm and kickoff. The people coming in cars are easily over 50% of the attendees (using my calibrated eyeball). Why do I say that? There's 22k onsite parking spots. Most are filled by the time I go into the stadium at 12:30. There's also another 6500 spots that are offsite. Most cars have at least 3 people in them, but let's go with an average of two. That's 57k of the 82k total possible attendees (2/3rds the total) currently coming by car AND most of them - around 45k - tailgating).

RFK is about the same distance from 295 as Fed Ex is to I-95. 295 is not an interstate highway that can handle the same amount of stadium traffic. In fact, it was a nightmare in the 80s and it's still a nightmare now (*) So even if people wanted to still come by car, they would quickly stop.

So then, assuming that the ticket holders will give it a shot on Metro, add 80k to the ridership each way those days and see how Metro fares. You might see an uptick in ridership as people go to the "new stadium", but I guarantee you that people will stop going once they get tired of the hours-long waits...the cramped quarters...and the headache that it takes to simply get home. 

And all of THAT ^^^^ is not even counting that the commute into many of these games will be taking place DURING normal weekday commutes. So add to the foot traffic, all the people who don't care about any of the teams either way, they just want to get home to make dinner and watch TV. 

And yes...headache. I live in Leesburg. It takes me an hour (sometimes a little under that) to get to the game. I'm home in a little less than 1.5 hours from the end of the game. That's it. That's less time than it took my friend to ride the metro from Reston to a Nats game, last year. And THAT Was in the summer. On a Saturday.

 

TL;DR - different sports. Different gameday experiences. This sport is a tailgating sport. You take that away (and you'll have to to put it back at RFK site), and you've made the gameday worse, not better. No matter where you put the stadium. Placing it into the heart of a city with poor traffic design, infrastructure, and a bad mass transit, is not going to get more people to come. It will have the opposite effect. (**)

 

(*) DC was designed by L'Enfante. He designed it to confuse any enemy who came to capture it. It is why the streets go the directions they do instead of a normal pattern. Which is great for defending from a hostile invader. It absolutely sucks for traffic.

(**) Say it does return to RFK. I guarantee that within 15 years of its return, regardless of the success of the team, we're wondering why more people aren't coming to the stadium. In fact, this will be my marker (just like my prediction that the Redskins would not sell games out and the "waiting list" was a fraudulent thing - most people didn't believe me, but I was proven right). So I'll go on record now and state that more people will stay away and simply go home and watch the game on TV instead as a result of blowing up the gameday experience.

 

[Thaiphoon]

6 hours ago, PARROTHEAD said:

But it doesnt boil down to the fans. Its about which area would pucker up most for Dan. Youll have all the DMV tossing every dime they can to make him happy and land the team for themselves.

Yup ^^^^