The Washington Football Team will revisit its fan decision if the pandemic improves in the fallGETTY IMAGES
Washington is the latest NFL team to announce that fans “will not be allowed to attend home games due to concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Adam Zielonka of the WASHINGTON TIMES. The team in a statement said that the decision “‘will be re-evaluated by all parties’ if the pandemic improves during the fall.” Team Owner Dan Snyder indicated that the team is trying to “find ways to make our fans’ presence felt in new and innovative ways for 2020.” The team added that it “reached out to season ticket holders to offer ‘financial alternatives’ to make up for the games they could not attend” (WASHINGTON TIMES, 8/12). In DC, JP Finlay notes the “obvious reason” why fans will not attend games is due to safety concerns, but there are some “less obvious reasons why no fans for the 2020 season is a good thing for Washington.” The franchise's name change “would have created significant issues at home games when some fans inevitably would wear old jerseys and other gear showing the old logo that the team is working hard to scrub from its home stadium." Additionally, the team has to “physically remove the old logo from almost every corner of a 70,000 seat stadium,” and that “takes a ton of work.” Washington now has “ample time to rebrand their home stadium and make sure nothing gets overlooked” (NBCSPORTSWASHINGTON.com, 8/12).
STADIUM NEWS: In DC, Alex Koma noted Democrats in Congress for months "have held firm: there's no way they'd clear the way for a new football stadium on the federally owned RFK Stadium site" without seeing Snyder's team change its name, but it is "not a sure thing that lawmakers will leap into action even with the team's pledge to retire its racially insensitive moniker." Key congressional leaders said that they "still have too many concerns about the team's management to open up access to the RFK land." U.S. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) is "backing legislation that would allow DC to buy the 190-acre stadium site." But U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) in a statement said of a potential move to the RFK Stadium site, "While the owner has removed one hurdle to achieving those larger goals, I remain concerned about the team's reputedly toxic management culture and do not believe they have regained the benefit of the doubt." To Norton, the team's "promise to unveil a new nickname once the 2020-21 season wraps up isn't worth much until a new name is in place." Norton: "I don't think we will see any movement in Congress before there is a final decision on the name itself, and we don't have that" (BIZJOURNALS.com, 8/11).
