New Ownership - what are the top priorities?

[Boone]

We seem on the verge of a 20+ year fantasy coming true - someone other than Daniel Snyder in the Washington owner's box. At the start of a new, more promising era - what are your top priorities for this new ownership group?

 

[SkinsOrlando]

I think first, fan event welcoming in a new Era, bring in some current players maybe alumni and introduce themselves to the new ownership and make it free to attend but have some merch you only can get from attending. My belief is you'd draw more people than you'd think. All of those things listed are important but getting some face time with the fans and showing your human unlike prior ahole will get some goodwill early.

 

[Boone]

I added 'Major fan outreach/engagement' so you can vote for that one if you like.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

I could only pick 3, but here is my order of priority.

1. Major Fan Outreach
2. Clean House/Hire a GM
3. Get a new Stadium Deal

Getting a new front office will help get a stadium deal and practice facility

Getting a new GM will help find the franchise QB

All of that will help bring the fans back

Lowering ticket prices and improving gameday experience should be part of the fan outreach.

Rebranding should be done, but is pretty low on the priorities. Unless the new ownership group has something in mind, I’d rather then boost the on field product first. Getting rid of anything affiliated with Snyder will be a good thing.

Lastly, on the Mary Jo White report, I wish that the law enforcement would head that up. Send that man to jail where he belongs and freeze his assets then seize them and split it among the victims.

 

[Canadian Hog]

There are lots of good choices here and it is definitely tough to select just one.

While I am one who certainly wants to see everything Commanders go, I will say this - I survived the last several seasons watching this team go by a name other than Redskins WITH Dan Snyder still in charge. If I could survive that as a fan and still maintain interest in the football product, I am sure I can survive having to be called 'Commanders' with new ownership, even if I don't like it. One thing I will add on that front is that if we can somehow fix the uniforms to resemble more of the classic Redskins look, I think it will make many more Redskins fans like myself start to come around and eventually accept the name down the road...maybe.

Winning cures all ills though. We win, and people will be quick to forget or care that we are the Commanders now. With that in mind, bringing in football people and a proper GM has to be near the top of the priority list.

The good news is that there is a history of this with Josh Harris' other sports ventures. While I am not really a basketball guy, Harris brought aboard Darryl Morey to the 76ers, who oversaw the Houston Rockets have the 2nd best winning percentage over the course of his 13 seasons running that team as GM. Being Canadian, I am more familiar with his hockey venture - the New Jersey Devils. There, Harris brought in Ray Shero to run the Devils as GM for five seasons, after helping to build the Pittsburgh Penguins into a Stanley Cup winner in 2009. For a while, Shero was a very well-respected GM in league circles and Harris was able to bring him to Jersey. Let's hope Harris follows suit in Washington.

 

[burgold]

So, first thing is to get the easy things right. Spell the names correctly. Don’t blow homages. Don’t try to have your cake and eat it too (Hail to the Commanders is a joke)

Next. Let’s develop a real front office with an empowered GM, a robust scouting department, and include the best practices.

 

[Kel Varnsen]

So, first thing is to get the easy things right. Spell the names correctly. Don’t blow homages. Don’t try to have your cake and eat it too (Hail to the Commanders is a joke)

Next. Let’s develop a real front office with an empowered GM, a robust scouting department, and include the best practices.

The first thing is such a small thing that the last regime constantly screwed up. Attention to detail and being successful in the little things will almost always mean success in the larger things. I’m tired of embarrassment after embarrassment.

 

[MikefromOH]

Rename the team back to Redskins
Get rid of the stupid uniforms and go back to B&G
Move back to RFK site

I wanted to choose GM as well, but you only can choose 3 so I picked them.

 

[Neophyte]

In order:

1. Fan outreach/engagement
2. Mary Jo White report (although I really think this is more of a league thing, not a Harris/Rales/Johnson thing)
3. New GM (this is less of a priority since we are so close to the season)

Other things that got consideration were the Rebrand and Cleaning House, however, I think the former will need some study and the second depends on the GM position, at least on the football side.

Renaming goes with the Rebrand.

Everything else is longer-term and won't be fixed overnight.

 

[Boone]

It'll be mostly an NFL thing, agreed Bob. But I think it's important that the new ownership group not just acknowledge the Mary Jo White report when it comes out, but that they make a serious statement regarding the findings, what they are going to do going forward to ensure nothing like what transpired over the past 20 years happens again, and make a commitment to being a truly professional organization that treats it's staff respectfully, fairly, and with some decency.

The shit that went on wasn't just Dan Snyder - it was the entire org operating in a dysfunctional way and that needs to be owned and confronted by the org itself if we're going to finally move forward. They could easily try and bypass any/all conversation about the past by simply saying 'that wasn't us!' (as Rivera and Wright have consistently done aka 'ghost of Christmases past'). I hope they give the report findings the attention they deserve.

What does that look like in reality? I guess what I'd like to see is something more meaningful than a statement release. I'd like to see a press conference with the new ownership group speaking to the past and answering questions about all of the above. That would make me feel like they take this stuff seriously and understand the trauma that has been inflicted to Washington employees and this fanbase.

 

[Boone]

And despite the lecture, I didn't pick that as a top 3 priority myself - there are so many critical things that need to happen in regards to righting the football side of things. But I felt like given that whole situation was what got us here, it had to be on the grocery list of priorities.

 

[Boone]

I suspect that the new owners will quickly take a name change off the table. I think that's a bad move personally because I believe the vast majority of fans want a change, and saddling us permanently with a name most don't like or want sucks. But it may have been something the league felt strongly it didn't want to happen, and while maybe not a pre-condition of ownership, a strong preference...

I'd like to hope these new guys have some balls, but this is a corporate enterprise so I'm probably going to be disappointed. Again.

 

[Neophyte]

It'll be mostly an NFL thing, agreed Bob. But I think it's important that the new ownership group not just acknowledge the Mary Jo White report when it comes out, but that they make a serious statement regarding the findings, what they are going to do going forward to ensure nothing like what transpired over the past 20 years happens again, and make a commitment to being a truly professional organization that treats it's staff respectfully, fairly, and with some decency.

The shit that went on wasn't just Dan Snyder - it was the entire org operating in a dysfunctional way and that needs to be owned and confronted by the org itself if we're going to finally move forward. They could easily try and bypass any/all conversation about the past by simply saying 'that wasn't us!' (as Rivera and Wright have consistently done aka 'ghost of Christmases past'). I hope they give the report findings the attention they deserve.

What does that look like in reality? I guess what I'd like to see is something more meaningful than a statement release. I'd like to see a press conference with the new ownership group speaking to the past and answering questions about all of the above. That would make me feel like they take this stuff seriously and understand the trauma that has been inflicted to Washington employees and this fanbase.

Totally agree, John. And that's why I voted for it.

In the end, the league will decide what comes out and what doesn't, and there is little that anyone from the Harris group can do to impact that. However, I consider it important that the group show up on the correct side of history by publicly supporting the release of the report and justice for those who endured the trauma firsthand. To do less would start their tenure off on the wrong foot.

I also consider it one of the easiest things to complete on this list. It is only a matter of Harris, Rales, or Johnson supporting the release of the report in the first public presser.

 

[Boone]

The NFL publicly committed to releasing it. If they don't, they will be hell to pay. I don't think they have any choice. Now - whether we get a full transparent report or some sanitized bullshit, I guess that remains to be seen. I think it's kind of shameful that they seemingly have withheld it's release until Snyder is out of town.

 

[Neophyte]

I suspect that the new owners will quickly take a name change off the table. I think that's a bad move personally because I believe the vast majority of fans want a change, and saddling us permanently with a name most don't like or want sucks. But it may have been something the league felt strongly it didn't want to happen, and while maybe not a pre-condition of ownership, a strong preference...

I'd like to hope these new guys have some balls, but this is a corporate enterprise so I'm probably going to be disappointed. Again.

Although I really want it and consider it a priority, I didn't vote for it because I can't see it happening ahead of the 2023 season unless the new owners decide to go back to calling the club the Washington Football Team (Redskins is off the table completely). Honestly, even going back to the former name would be tough to do in just 3 months.

I think the best we can hope for this year is the owners saying they are considering a name change or that there will be a name change, and if it were me, I don't think I would tell anyone I was considering it until a decision had been made. Announcing it is being considered is only setting yourself up to disappoint a lot of people when a final decision is arrived at.

 

[Boone]

Oh - I don't think an immediate change is on the table. At best they would say we would like to find a name that fans embrace to a larger degreee - but it would be a year or more before that would happen. I don't think it's going to happen - period. It's easiest to go with the current moniker knowing even if fans strongly dislike the name and how it was selected, they will give up bitching about it eventually. I hate that kind of defeatism and cynicism but it's what corporate America specializes in.

 

[SilentThreat]

 

[MikefromOH]

Please no..

 

[SilentThreat]

Please no..

Please no what?

 

[MikefromOH]

No Doc Rivers.