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The Official Rules for Fedex Field Standing Room Only Tickets

The Redskins Public Relations department provided details of what is allowed and not allowed in regards to banging the sides of the metal.

By Kevin Ewoldt

It's common to hear Redskins fans bash the game day experience at Fedex Field. The drunks, the stadium being in a hard to get area, you name it. Well, I generally disagree with that statement simply because if the Redskins were a winning team, it would likely be a different story. Philly anyone? Anyway, bad things do happen to fans, which I've experienced personally. Hogs Haven member and season ticket holder, Jpage0024, wrote a Fan Post this week citing his problems at Fedex during the Week 6 Vikings game when they got wrongly blamed for an earlier fight:

[The usher] screamed, "You Two! You're out of here!". We were shocked and asked the same question, "Us?". He started with his story that we had been verbally warned three times not to bang on the panels. We had not been approached by anyone and would have gladly stopped... I figured that it was probably a misunderstanding and that we would just explain as such and stop pounding, even though the entire section was as well. He then said we had to go. We protested by asking what happened and that we were not warned at all yet. By this point he had shoved me into the stairway and had grabbed my buddies arm. As we continued to the concourse he told us things such as , "I don't give a s**t," and "You had your f****ing chance."

I emailed that fan post to the Redskins PR department who got in touch with Jpage0024 the same day. In my email to the Redskins, I asked what are the official rules of the Standing Room Only (SRO) tickets. The Redskins called me back and we had a nice discussion. In short,

  • The metal plates in the SRO section are not meant to be banged on. Certainly, people will use their hands to bang on them, but it is definitely not allowed to use your aluminum beer bottle or foot. Damaging the plates or hitting them where they can jar loose is a hazard for everyone.
  • It's a judgement call by ushers for hand banging. Certainly one can use their hand to smack the plate, but banging it where it would dent or potentially affect others around you will warrant a "warning."
  • If the ushers have to warn you, they will write a "W" on your ticket so that if another usher comes along to warn you and sees you've already been warned, then you will be escorted out. (Note to self: Swap tickets with my girlfriend at half time every game.)
  • The Redskins were very clear that they diligently train their staff employees each week on security. I certainly didn't get that impression, but it makes sense given the stakes and the enormity of fans to manage. David Donovan took on this job for several years constantly roaming the portals and upper deck in his suit to check on things. I can't imagine having the job to manage all of Fedex Field's security, but there has been a team in place for quite some time.
I then opened the discussion to frustrations myself and friends have had at Fedex. I mentioned the time the opposing team was coming on the field to kick a game winning FG in overtime. My friend was standing and yelling as loud as he could like all the other 70K fans (rough year). That's when two fans behind him demanded he sit down? Wait what? No...you stand up and make noise...this is a key moment. Long story short my friend got kicked out of the stadium. Nice...those are the fans we want kicked out of Fedex?

The Redskins responded that it's a difficult situation. They mentioned a 83-year old lady that is a long time season ticket holder 11th row up from the field. She complained to the Redskins that she can never see any of the game because everyone stands the whole game that low, which is true. (First thought that came to my head, "Is this the same lady that the Redskins sued?"). I bit my tongue on that joke given this wasn't the right time for humor.

So, the point of that story is the Redskins are in the middle of fans that want to sit and fans that want to get rowdy. How do you accommodate both? Moving people around is one tactic they do. I had a similar story to my friend except it was a guy cursing at me to sit down at Redskins Giants game....and he was wearing a Cowboys jersey. Some good advice for season ticket holders...get to know your usher on a first name basis. Ken and I knew our guy in 306 (this was before we started with Hogs Haven) and with a quick hand wave the usher told them to shut up. Problem solved.

In short, let's all work together on this. Cue the Kumbayah music.

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