New Redskins President of Business Operations & COO Brian Lafemina gives the team a "fresh face with extreme credibility and without loads of burgundy-and-gold baggage," according to Jerry Brewer of the WASHINGTON POST. Redskins Owner Dan Snyder "wants the franchise to become more transparent and connected to fans who are starting to stray because the team has been irrelevant for so long, the game-day experience is lackluster, and there have been too many embarrassing controversies." Lafemina "arrives with an honest approach and fresh ideas." He was "front and center" on Wednesday when the team announced new efforts to "appeal to fans, including the concession that there is no season ticket waiting list." When Lafemina "talks, you can sense humility and ambition." Brewer: "That's a tone that could bring some people back." The on-field product "must get better," but when a team is "trying to revive a fan base that has suffered this much, it requires your best efforts in many areas." Lafemina "has the potential to lead such an outreach." Lafemina, who worked for MSG for 22 years before joining the NFL, said, "This is one of the biggest sleeping giants of an organization, in any league. The market that we get to work and live in. The fan base that we have. The brand that is the Washington Redskins. The fact that we're on a path to go build a new stadium. When you get a chance to do those things in this business, you grab them" (WASHINGTON POST, 6/15).
SYSTEMIC ISSUES: YAHOO SPORTS' Frank Schwab noted the Redskins "ranked 28th in the NFL last season" in attendance at 88% capacity. The team "expanded seating to beyond 91,000 at one point, but it's about 82,000 now and still not filling up." There are "plenty of reasons for the dip, but the most obvious shift is that the team hasn't been very good for most of this century." The Redskins have "won one playoff game" since the end of the '99 season. But there are "other reasons." FedExField was "almost immediately outdated, and it's in a fairly remote area." And Snyder himself "is a problem." The team has "made an amazing number of public relations mistakes (a story about mistreatment of cheerleaders being the latest), as paranoia over media coverage has seemingly become as much of a focus for the organization as the product on the field." It is "hard to imagine a less popular owner than Snyder" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 6/14).
