NFL Teams Drawing Crowds For Training Camp Events

Large Crowd Turns Out For Ravens-Redskins Scrimmage

The Falcons on Saturday held “Midtown Touchdown,” their first “intown festival and practice” this season, according to Steve Wyche of the ATLANTA CONSTITUTION. Despite bad weather, the event attracted “more than 12,000, some of whom arrived just after noon to position themselves to get a ticket to stand in line for players’ and coaches’ autographs.” While QB Michael Vick “was the marquee target, former [Univ. of Georgia QB] D.J. Shockley might have been the most sought-after.” Morris Day & the Time performed (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 8/6)....Falcons Owner Arthur Blank slightly tore his rotator cuff after FB Fred McCrary “inadvertently ran into” him last week during practice (ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 8/5).

PACKAGE DEAL: A crowd of 47,258 attended Saturday’s free Ravens-Redskins scrimmage at FedEx Field. Redskins WR Brandon Lloyd, who played for the 49ers last season, said, “That crowd blew my mind. We didn’t get 50,000 people for our regular season games in San Francisco.” Concession sales “were brisk, and, at $25 a car to park, the revenue streams weren’t bad” (WASHINGTON POST, 8/6).

COMPOUND INTEREST: The Panthers’ Fan Fest at Bank of America Stadium on Saturday drew 20,045, which was the “biggest crowd since the team’s inaugural fan event” in ’96 (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/6). In Charlotte, Charles Chandler wrote the stadium’s new HD videoboards “are a classy upgrade. They’re colorful and add a lot of versatility to what the Panthers can do with ads and game information” (CHARLOTTE OBSERVER, 8/6).

CARSON DAILY: SI.com’s Peter King reported the Bengals’ “first and only live scrimmage of the preseason at camp” on Friday night drew 9,400 fans, the most that have “ever attended a training-camp scrimmage.” King wrote, “Talking to Bengals owner Mike Brown before the scrimmage, it was clear he felt none of this would have been possible without the early greatness and football charisma” of QB Carson Palmer (SI.com, 8/7).

IF A TREE FALLS: In N.Y., Rich Cimini reported the Jets on Saturday played a mock game at Giants Stadium “before 80,242 empty seats.” The game included the national anthem, the coin toss, an NFL officiating crew with a miked-up referee, a PA announcer, stadium music and TV timeouts. The scoreboard showed replays and commercials. To “simulate crowd noise, rock music was played” (N.Y. DAILY NEWS, 8/7).