Let me preface this rant by stating that when I go to a pro sports event, I don’t expect to get off cheap. I expect some gouging to occur- especially to pay for some of the big name contracts the 'Skins signed even if they weren’t the smartest idea (cough Deion Sanders cough). I was wholly unprepared for what I saw last night and I was bummed.
Since I had to meet several friends I drove to the game rather than metro and try to meet up somewhere. I know that they get ya on the parking fee, but I had no idea that to park anywhere within walking distance of FedEx field it now costs $25. $25 to park- not in San Francisco, or NYC, or Tokyo, but fucking RalJohn, Maryland for a preseason football game. Parking elsewhere and walking to the stadium isn’t an option since they prohibited pedestrian access from the mall- due to “security issues” (very similar to their “liability issue” at training camp). “Security” being the same reason they give for not allowing in outside food & drinks.
What I came away with from last night’s game is that the only “security” they’re concerned with is Dan Snyder’s financial security. I could live with the exhorbant parking fees. I could deal with the overpriced concessions (At $6 for a draft Budweiser, do you know how much it would cost to get a family of four even slightly buzzed?). The final straw is that they now show full length ads on the jumbotron between plays. Not replays, not analysis, not even those hilarious cartoon races that we’ve all come to love- full length ads. I no longer felt like a fan. I was solely a consumer, a captive audience for the shilling of wares, a demographic to be marketed to.
I wish they’d just eliminate all pretenses and rename the place “Astroglide Field”.