Ironically, there is articles recently saying that they are ripping up seats in FedEx Field to create a party deck (a section of standing room only "seating") and it is being surmised that the demand for season tickets are dwindling and that the 22 plus year string of sell outs for the Redskins (that is 11 plus years longer than Snyder owned the team) may be in jeapordy.
Goodbye, FedExField Seats; Hello, Party Deck: Redskins Removing A Lot of Seats - Washington City Paper
Even if it is purely business decision to increase stadium revenue, it does support my argument that the Redskins fans were extremely loyal to the Redskins long before Snyder bought the team and even sold out seats before Snyder during a stretch of the 90s where they went 4-12 (1993), 3-13 (1994), 6-10 (1995), 9-7 (1996), 8-7-1 (1997), and 6-10 (1998). All those years were sellouts and before Snyder bought the team. This shows Redskins fans will follow the team no matter how bad they are, not because they are suckered in by flashy free agents with two 10 win seasons in 11 years of Snyder (with a 2-3 playoff record during that time).
Yes, RFK stadium held much less people. But FedEx Field opened in 1997 and sold out two years before Snyder bought the team and two non-winning seasons.
Also, forgot to mention that Snyder has no shame in milking the Redskins fans. There is nothing he won't charge for. He charges fans to park at and to attend training camp practices. Kraft could easily do that and other things to generate additional revenue, but he doesn't believe in charging fans for everything he can.
Maybe Snyder has learned though since he has hired Bruce Allen to run the show and taking away responsibilities from his lackey Vinny Cerrato. Maybe Snyder learned what Kraft learned in the late 90s. Being a great businessman does make you qualified to run a football operation and it is better to hire the best to run the show and stay out of football operations as much as possible.
It is the first time I have ever heard anyone label Snyders poor football decisions as smart business strategy. I'd love to see an explaination why Snyder loved trading away high draft picks for stupid reasons as sound business stretegy.