In a recent gathering with fans and season ticket holders, Redskins President Bruce Allen said the team’s future will include “a more intimate stadium” that will be closer to what RFK Stadium was.
The team held a fan forum for about 100 committed supporters last week, in which a host of topics were discussed. (More on that later.) One fan asked Allen how the team could better keep out visiting fans, and how the long-touted season-ticket wait list could mesh with the sense that there aren’t enough Redskins fans to fill FedEx Field.
“To get Redskins fans to the game mainly does have to do with winning more games,” Allen said, in audio provided to The Post. “Maybe that has something to do with it. What we’re looking at, the future of the Washington Redskins in our new venue — whether it’s here, wherever it is — is going to be a more intimate stadium,” he went on. “It’s going to be closer to what RFK is.
“That’s Dan’s vision,” Allen said, referring to owner Dan Snyder. “He grew up at RFK Stadium, going to the games. And, as you know, that was 53,000 fans. And if we’re going to have loyal people….Forget the person who just wants to come for a game or two. You can lose that customer. Bring the people who BLEED burgundy and gold.
“And we want exactly what you want, and I feel your passion for it. We want those people in our stadium. We don’t want to sell it to the Eagles and the Giants fans.”
Virginia has already started pushing for a new Redskins stadium, with Gov. Terry McAuliffe pitching multiple sites in Loudoun County. Last August, Snyder told Comcast SportsNet that he wanted a new stadium that would “feel like RFK.”
Later in the fan forum, which lasted about two hours, Allen faced another question about the number of visiting fans that have sometimes populated FedEx Field.
“Once again, it goes to what we were talking about, the intimacy of the stadium,” Allen said. “We do have a big stadium. It’s a large stadium. And fans, in our division, one of the great things about the Washington Redskins is we have a great rivalry with everybody. And the I-95 corridor, guess what the Giants fans are telling the owner of the Giants: I hate when those Redskins and Eagles fans come there. And guess what the Eagles [fans] say: I hate when the damn Redskins fans come.
“If you came to Dallas in 2012, and our fans were singing ‘Hail to the Redskins’ in Dallas Stadium, you should have heard Jerry Jones afterward,” Allen said. “So our divisional rivalries, we DO travel. Everywhere we go on away trips, we have fan rallies. We’re the only team that does that. We go to different pubs. And it’s great with the local market. Those teams hate when our fans come in.”
Allen concluded by again mentioning the best cure.
“Winning,” he said. “That does it.”
