A new report on NFL attendance is sure to cause some confusion for many people, especially when it comes to the Washington Redskins.
According to the Sports Business Daily, the NFL has seen a drop in attendance this past season so drastic that it’s hit its lowest point since 2004. The report details an increase in the television audience, and a significant decrease in ticket sales.
However, the report does point out that two NFL franchises saw a big leap in ticket sales, both jumping up over five percent from the prior year. Can you guess who those two teams are?
- Buffalo Bills — Up 6.0 percent
- Washington Redskins — Up 7.3 percent
The Bills are easily explainable, based on their significant boost in production. But the Redskins? How in the world did they see an increase in ticket sales? The fans were literally so fed up with the team this year that it culminated in the firing of team president Bruce Allen, and the hiring of a new head coach.
We think we have an explanation. Remember, this report doesn’t differentiate between which team said fan is rooting for, just the overall number of tickets sold. Remember all those games where Eagles fans, or Patriots fans, or Giants fans vastly outnumbered Redskins fans in FedEx Field? That explains it, right?
The Redskins fans were so eager to do anything but attend games in Landover, MD this season that they were willing to basically give their tickets away for free on the secondary market. It was not uncommon for opposing fanbases to be able to find tickets to games for less than $15 and at a solid vantage point at that.
While the raw numbers paint an increase in revenue for the Redskins, fans of the team know that it’s anything but.
