Official Game Thread - Week 12 - Falcons @ Commanders

That run made me jump out of my chair. The effort he made and all the while knowing exactly where the first down was was impressive. Loved watching him play yesterday
 
This fanbase remains loyal. We die never.

We may be outnumbered, but he's right. These players are family, and viewed as such by a lot of us.

 
Outside of the Sean part I find it hard to believe. We are loyal, but I've heard every other teams crowd drown ours out for years. I'll have to listen closer next home game.
 
I think they are talking about quality and intensity not numbers.
 
I was there Sunday. And yes, while I was cut off from reality as someone in chat said, I could still get a sense of the crowd. It was sparse. The smallest crowd I've ever seen at a game. The upper deck was mostly empty. I'd say 2/3 to 3/4 empty. The lower bowl was probably about 80% full. The club was about 50/50. You could hear the crowd on some plays, but it was not constant like it used to be. They did stand in the lower bowl, so that is good. Also, there was a lot of Falcons fans on their side, which is only surprising because they don't generally travel well. That speaks to how many fans just don't show up. I appreciate the love for the fans and yes we are loyal to a fault, but the crowd wasn't that great and I doubt it's been great for any home game.
 
I’m gonna guess the weather was a factor. It shouldn’t be but…
 
Gonna take a long time,alot of winning and Snyder's departure to get fans back.

Not fair to Ron and the players but it is what it is. Too many bad feelings/disgust built up between fans and the franchise.

Trust is easy to lose hard to get back.
 
I’m not traveling to MD to be at a game in person anytime soon and I’ve had season tickets living in NC previously. Lots of reasons for it. Until things change, truly change, I’ll watch from my living room.
 
I'm the same way. I went this past week because someone in our family had tickets in a suite. I don't think I would have wanted to sit out in the rain. It's sad because I wouldn't have cared about 10 years ago. I did everything I could to go to a game. I would figure out when I'd be in town and if there was a home game, I'd ask for tickets early. I think this was the first game I've been to since the playoff game after the 2015 season. I've just had no desire to try and go. I had fun at the game, but part of it was being with family and the other part was that they won.
 
MikefromOH said:
Outside of the Sean part I find it hard to believe. We are loyal, but I've heard every other teams crowd drown ours out for years. I'll have to listen closer next home game.
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With rare exceptions, (deer season or sickness), we go to every home game.
Of course, I missed this one, (but not my deer...depleted freezer is full again ;)), so I can't speak for the Falcons crowd.
Your are somewhat, correct. It depends on our play and opponent. No matter what, those fucking Iggles fans travel well and are pretty loud and those Dallass fans, are loud. When we're playing well, we have a decent, vocal crowd. But when we play like shit, and during the losing streak, the opposing fans are very loud. Embarrassingly so.

As for drowning out our fans? Sometimes, but I've noticed that more and more Skins fans have been showing up and have been very loud. You should also take into account that when we do play bad, a lot of our fans are sitting on there hands while any opposing fans are whooping it up.
Some games, it actually feels like a home-field advantage but, sadly, it's been the other way around. Fortunately, it's been getting better each week, as we stack W's.

On the down side, I imagine that there will be a shit-ton of Dallass fans, (but that's in every stadium, not just ours). My un-scientific theory on this as well, is that opposing fans, (other than NFC East), rarely get a chance to see their teams play, so everyone within driving distance tend to show up when they do play. That, and flights to the DMV are cheap, as are the game tickets, which may contribute to the opposing fans volume.

One "advantage" of those opposing fans noise is that it's definitely prepped the team for dealing with crowd noise.:cool:
 
Just from the perspective of the TV, you can tell FedEx Field has not been fan friendly for a long time. We don't fill it up anymore, there is always such a large contingent of opposing fans that you wonder if there are more of them than us, and we are very quick to get frustrated and boo our own team.

Now in fairness, all of this is earned. The product, the atmosphere, and the welcome at FedEx has been wanting for a long time. You have to give the fans a reason to be fans. This doesn't mean winning. There are teams out there that have been consistent losers for fifty years with healthy fanbases. I'm thinking about the Dawg Pound, Raider Nation, and other places in which the sense of community triumphs over the futility of the scoreboard. I think to do that you have to not take the fan for granted. You need to understand the emotional and financial investment fans put into the team. Heck, if cheap tickets are $50, then for a dad to take his son means shelling out $100 on a game, probably at least thirty on transportation, and another 20-200 on food, drink, and souvineers. That's an expensive outing! How many families feel great about shelling out $500 to have a bad time?

So, I think the first thing the team needs to realize (and maybe they do) is that they need to earn our money and our love. They need to take care of us and make us feel like we are part of the team. It's been thirty years, so you can't pretend you elite. Too much of your fan base has never even seen this team be good let alone great. Even for someone like me, right now, I don't know what they can do to make me want to go to the game. I used to try to make a couple of games a year. I enjoyed the Tailgates. There's something special about that moment where thousands of us spontaneously leap out of our chair to scream. But there's also something real about all the drags that impact our ability to enjoy this team. The relationship with the fanbase needs not to be repaired, but rebuilt.
 
I realize that I am probably an outlier but for me watching an NFL game is a much better television experience than a live one.

No drunks in my living room.
Better food that is easily accessible.
No lines for the bathroom.
Heat or air-conditioning on demand.
No travel or traffic.
Free parking.
Replays (all of them)
Close-up views of every play.

Old man rant over. And now, get off my lawn.
 
Chris said:
I realize that I am probably an outlier but for me watching an NFL game is a much better television experience than a live one.

No drunks in my living room.
Better food that is easily accessible.
No lines for the bathroom.
Heat or air-conditioning on demand.
No travel or traffic.
Free parking.
Replays (all of them)
Close-up views of every play.

Old man rant over. And now, get off my lawn.
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I’ll try to remember that when we walk into met life stadium this weekend .. your 100% correct😂 just can’t stay away tho
 
Chris said:
I realize that I am probably an outlier but for me watching an NFL game is a much better television experience than a live one.

Old man rant over. And now, get off my lawn.
Click to expand...
Yeah, that too. Much better lines of sight.

Though I actually don't mind having my vision partly blocked if it's because we are all excited. The opposite often bugs me more. I've had people who were like, "Sit down!"

When I first went to games at RFK, the idea of standing the whole game and burning your voice out was considered the way to go. Maybe it's a nosebleed seat philosophy. But the idea that standing up is being rude bugs me (unless the person behind me has a disability in which case I'd offer to switch seats.)
 
Chris said:
I realize that I am probably an outlier but for me watching an NFL game is a much better television experience than a live one.

No drunks in my living room.
Better food that is easily accessible.
No lines for the bathroom.
Heat or air-conditioning on demand.
No travel or traffic.
Free parking.
Replays (all of them)
Close-up views of every play.

Old man rant over. And now, get off my lawn.
Click to expand...



I think this is the biggest reason we don't see fans the way we did before... and nothing you mentioned has anything to do with the product on the field.

There are not enough pro's to outweight the cons you mentioned above. EVERY stadium in sport worldwide has EVERYTHING you've mentioned above working against them, yet you see sporting events packed in beyond comfort. Why is that?
 
Places like Petco park, dallass stadium, etc have learned this and made games more of an experience with things to do and cool stuff like that instead of just "stadium/game/home"

It's going to come down to teams investing if they want people to come out... especially if your team isn't good and its cold
 
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