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tshile
Guest
Tomorrow marks the start of the 2012 season for season ticket holders - it's the first regular season home game. For my family it marks the 50th season that we've been season ticket holders; my grandfather, who passed in August of 2011, got his tickets in 1963 - 2 years after RFK opened.
Discussing it with family members over the weekend, tickets back then (in the upper level end zone) were 10$ a piece, and parking was 3 dollars. My grandfather would take his friend and my dad to the game; my dad recalls his dad and his buddy arguing over who's turn it would be to pay the 3 dollars for parking. My grandfather, being the cheapskate he always was, would threaten to kick him out of the car when the other guy refused to admit it was his turn. Hey, 3 dollars was a lot back then
Even though RFK was a dump, we always had a blast as kids playing tackle football in the grass parking lot while the adults drank and grilled. We never had to wait in line for the bathroom - we had the Anacostia river.
Those tickets remained in the same upper level end zone section until the Redskins removed the section in 2010. This past off season we upgraded to the lower level. In 50 years parking has gone from 3 dollars to 35, and the seats went from 10$ to 100$ (although we have significantly better seats now, comparable seats are 64$)
I took over the season tickets in 2006, and in 2009 my grandfather officially transferred them into my name. I hope 50 years from now my future kids/grand kids are still going to the games, and I hope they have memories like I had growing up. I hope I'm still alive to see the 100 year mark; it's most unfortunate my grandfather died a year too early to see the 50th year mark.
To many fans currently being a season ticket holder means foolishly giving Dan Snyder your money year after year to watch a losing, mismanaged, joke a football team; the pride and status of owning tickets has faded since the '91 season and (probably more significantly) since the opening of FedEx. That is not true for my family; there are still very much a prized possession. My family remembers the good old days, and as my father reminds me often - they were not always good. You have to sit through years and years of bad coaches, bad players, bad drafts, and bad plays, and bad games if you want to watch the good coaches, good players, good drafts, good plays, and good games in person.
For all those bad seasons the Redskins have had since 1963, there were good season too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington_Redskins_seasons
My father and grandfather were there for '82, '87, and '91 seasons. They were there for those playoff games. They watched games in person this generation's fans watch on DVD and beg for the return of. They sat in the stands and chanted "We want Dallas," the famous chant that goes along with the stands shaking - [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spIuA1GgfDE[/media]
I was at the last game at RFK - [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P08Mkj_KoQ[/media]
I remember us all throwing all the cushions on to the field, I remember everyone grabbing anything they could to take home with them; seats, signs, and even parts of the field. I still have my ticket, in plastic; they didn't rip the stub that game, they stamped it, and it'll be one of the center pieces of my collection when I finish our house and put everything on display.
The funny thing about those days was that tickets were in such high demand you never got new seats. That meant you were around the same people year after year after year. The people in my family's section knew me very well, knew lots about me being in boy scouts, playing football, and going through school; even though I didn't even know their names. After that last game I remember driving around with my dad to all his friends houses that also had season tickets; everyone was showing off what it was they had grabbed from RFK, one couple even had a 10" square inch section of the turf in a plastic bag - they were going to keep it forever in their freezer!
It's hard to remember how it used to be with the last 21 years of awful football. Even worse, there's an entire generation (myself included, I can't really recall anything prior to the '93 season) that has absolutely no idea what this area is like when the Redskins are a dominant football team. What it's like to not be able to find a ticket for sale for the game - no price would satisfy a season ticket holder for missing the game. I'm sincerely hoping that Griffin and the Shanahi, along with Bruce Allen, are going to restore us to those days. Hopefully this is the start to a decade of home games that grow to be similar to the 80's; time will tell, it's a mighty tall order.
A half a century is a long time. I think we're going to make a cake.
Discussing it with family members over the weekend, tickets back then (in the upper level end zone) were 10$ a piece, and parking was 3 dollars. My grandfather would take his friend and my dad to the game; my dad recalls his dad and his buddy arguing over who's turn it would be to pay the 3 dollars for parking. My grandfather, being the cheapskate he always was, would threaten to kick him out of the car when the other guy refused to admit it was his turn. Hey, 3 dollars was a lot back then
Even though RFK was a dump, we always had a blast as kids playing tackle football in the grass parking lot while the adults drank and grilled. We never had to wait in line for the bathroom - we had the Anacostia river.
Those tickets remained in the same upper level end zone section until the Redskins removed the section in 2010. This past off season we upgraded to the lower level. In 50 years parking has gone from 3 dollars to 35, and the seats went from 10$ to 100$ (although we have significantly better seats now, comparable seats are 64$)
I took over the season tickets in 2006, and in 2009 my grandfather officially transferred them into my name. I hope 50 years from now my future kids/grand kids are still going to the games, and I hope they have memories like I had growing up. I hope I'm still alive to see the 100 year mark; it's most unfortunate my grandfather died a year too early to see the 50th year mark.
To many fans currently being a season ticket holder means foolishly giving Dan Snyder your money year after year to watch a losing, mismanaged, joke a football team; the pride and status of owning tickets has faded since the '91 season and (probably more significantly) since the opening of FedEx. That is not true for my family; there are still very much a prized possession. My family remembers the good old days, and as my father reminds me often - they were not always good. You have to sit through years and years of bad coaches, bad players, bad drafts, and bad plays, and bad games if you want to watch the good coaches, good players, good drafts, good plays, and good games in person.
For all those bad seasons the Redskins have had since 1963, there were good season too - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Washington_Redskins_seasons
My father and grandfather were there for '82, '87, and '91 seasons. They were there for those playoff games. They watched games in person this generation's fans watch on DVD and beg for the return of. They sat in the stands and chanted "We want Dallas," the famous chant that goes along with the stands shaking - [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spIuA1GgfDE[/media]
I was at the last game at RFK - [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5P08Mkj_KoQ[/media]
I remember us all throwing all the cushions on to the field, I remember everyone grabbing anything they could to take home with them; seats, signs, and even parts of the field. I still have my ticket, in plastic; they didn't rip the stub that game, they stamped it, and it'll be one of the center pieces of my collection when I finish our house and put everything on display.
The funny thing about those days was that tickets were in such high demand you never got new seats. That meant you were around the same people year after year after year. The people in my family's section knew me very well, knew lots about me being in boy scouts, playing football, and going through school; even though I didn't even know their names. After that last game I remember driving around with my dad to all his friends houses that also had season tickets; everyone was showing off what it was they had grabbed from RFK, one couple even had a 10" square inch section of the turf in a plastic bag - they were going to keep it forever in their freezer!
It's hard to remember how it used to be with the last 21 years of awful football. Even worse, there's an entire generation (myself included, I can't really recall anything prior to the '93 season) that has absolutely no idea what this area is like when the Redskins are a dominant football team. What it's like to not be able to find a ticket for sale for the game - no price would satisfy a season ticket holder for missing the game. I'm sincerely hoping that Griffin and the Shanahi, along with Bruce Allen, are going to restore us to those days. Hopefully this is the start to a decade of home games that grow to be similar to the 80's; time will tell, it's a mighty tall order.
A half a century is a long time. I think we're going to make a cake.
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