About 2,000 of the 15,000 premium club seats at the
Redskins' new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium were "still not sold"
for yesterday's inaugural game, according to Thomas Heath of
the WASHINGTON POST. The seats, priced at $99-199 per game,
are for sale under five, seven, or ten-year leases. Home
games "will continue to be" on TV despite the unsold seats,
since club seats do not count under the NFL blackout policy.
Redskins' Dir. of PR Mike McCall said the seats "will be
sold by the end of the season" (WASHINGTON POST, 9/15).
REVIEWS ARE IN: In DC, Frank Ahrens reviews the new
facility, writing the "most important test of any football
stadium is how well, and comfortably, it lets the fans watch
the game. Here, Cooke Stadium shines"(WASHINGTON POST,
9/15). But in Baltimore, Vito Stellino called it, "Giants
Stadium with more premium seats. It has a dated, obsolete
look with no special touches" (Baltimore SUN, 9/14).
PRIVATE VS. PUBLIC: In Baltimore, Jon Morgan wrote on
stadium financing, adding while it's "too soon to declare a
trend," private financing has "sneaked" into several stadium
deals. NFL Senior VP/League & Dev. Roger Goodell said that
while all-private financing is "possible ... it's very
difficult to structure a stadium deal that does not have a
public component to it" (Baltimore SUN, 9/14).
