Should ‘Skins fans start buying tickets again since Bruce Allen has been fired, or will it require a new stadium?

I remember when RG3 jersey sales topped the NFL merchandise charts in 2012. Now, we get the news that there were no Redskins in the top-50 in 2019.

My natural urge when I read this was to feel disappointed, but a second or two later I did a mental double-take. After all, I’ve been reading comments on Hogs Haven for two or three years now that said readers refused to go to games, buy Redskins merchandise or do anything else to financially show support for the team of Dan Snyder until he fired Bruce Allen.

Well, Dan did it. Bruce Allen is gone.

We won the battle.

But, is the war still on?

I’m wondering whether Redskins fans feel as though they can now go back to ‘normal’ fan behavior like buying team jerseys and season tickets.

Brucifer, has, after all, been vanquished.

Of course, just because Bruce is gone, that doesn’t mean the team will become a winner. They’ve struggled for a quarter of a century; Ron Rivera and his Carolina North Catskins may bring winning football back to the nations capital (or its suburbs at least), but are you, as Redskins fans, ready to put your money where Ron’s mouth is and show up in droves for the first home game of the 2020 season, and continue to pack the stands for all eight home games?

Or has the franchise already used up all of its benefit of the doubt — are we in a position where the team is going to have to go out and win some games before fans are ready to go back out to the stadium or invest in team merchandise?

Perhaps even a winning team isn’t enough to convince people to suffer all the indignities of a day at FedEx Field.

I know from reading Hogs Haven for years that “the game day experience” at FedEx Field leaves a lot to be desired.

Will it require a new stadium to get Redskins fans to attend games again?

Certainly, the issue of the next stadium is back in the news in DC this week.

This on-again, off-again soap opera is one of the longest running shows in the DMV, with first one potential stadium site and then another rising to prominence as new stories are published, often in the off-seasons, but also with occasional discussion arising during the season as well.

This is notable primarily because the lease on the current stadium in Landover, Maryland runs to 2027 — another seven years — and talk about the shortcomings of FedEx Field and the need for a replacement has been simmering for probably a decade already! Has there ever been another fan base so eager to get out of its home stadium that people spent fifteen years or more discussing and agonizing over the need for a new one?

I think fans would be most excited to see the RFK stadium site revived as the next home of the Redskins, but a few alternate sites have been kicked around over the years, each with its benefits and drawbacks.

Tangled up in the question of where to situate the next stadium are the never-quite-finished debate over the team name, the question of public funds or tax breaks being provided, and, as of this week’s news article, the question of allowing legalized gambling on-site.

If Ron Rivera can turn the Redskins into winners again, then the prospect of a new stadium will become much more appealing. Until and unless that happens, it feels more like a running joke. One of the most disturbing aspects of this week’s Washington Post article (linked in the tweet above) is that Dan Snyder seems to be considering Landover as one of the possible locations for the next stadium.

Given the terrible associations Redskins fans seem to have with the current Landover stadium, it seems almost unfathomable that Dan would think about committing to it for another 30-year run at the site when the current one is done.

Regardless of all that (Irregardless, even), should Redskins fans be prepared to wait — possibly as long as seven more years — before buying tickets to Redskins home games again, or is it time to get back out to support the team in person?

RFK Stadium was once one of the most raucous and intimidating places in the NFL for visiting teams to play because of the rabid, vocal, and visible fan base. Nowadays, for teams like the Eagles and Steelers especially, it can feel almost like home-away-from-home, and games against teams like the Jets are often played in front of more empty seats than seats with warm bodies in them.

Is it time for Redskins fans to spend their hard earned dollars on team merchandise and game tickets, or should the waiting game continue?