After purchasing a standing-room only ticket for $6.58 on StubHub the night before, I set out for the Redskins-Rams game at FedEx Field on Sunday morning with two goals: 1.) Gain access to the club level, and 2.) Don’t freeze. The second goal would be a cinch if I achieved the first goal. The first goal was dependent on finding a guy in a suit holding a stack of envelopes.
Last week, a reader alerted me to a post on the ExtremeSkins message board on Redskins.com, in which fans recounted stories of receiving “relocation passes” for club level seats at home games this season. These fans’ experiences were more or less the same: Arrive 45 minutes to an hour before kickoff, walk up to the 400 level and look for an envelope-toting ticket representative wearing a suit. The fan who wrote the original post reported seeing at least a half-dozen ticket representatives on the 400 level for the first home game of the season.
After making the one-mile walk from the Morgan Boulevard Metro station, it was nearly 12:15 by the time I entered Dan Snyder’s fun house. Fearing that my window of opportunity to secure a relocation pass was closing, I hustled up the ramp to the 400 level. I didn’t have to look far for Willy Wonka. There, outside of Section 448-449 was a guy in a suit, holding a large stack of white envelopes.
I approached him and asked if the envelopes were for seat upgrades. He asked me where my seat was and I showed him my standing-room only ticket in Section 441. He then asked me how many tickets I needed. I told him one, and he handed me an envelope with two club level tickets in Section 326, which is in the end zone along the visitors’ side line.
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The envelope also included a premium seating account executive’s business card and an informational sheet about the year-round benefits of premium club membership, including chalk talks with Redskins front office executives and legends, and private mixers with players, cheerleaders and alumni.
I walked about a quarter of the way around the 400-level concourse when a fan walking briskly toward me spotted my envelope and stopped me to ask where I’d received my relocation pass. I pointed him toward Section 448-449.
“If I find him today, it’ll be the third time,” said Kevin W. from Bowie, who has attended every home game this season. “It’s real nice down there because when it’s cold, you can go inside during halftime and keep warm. That’s what everyone does.”
As I headed down the ramp toward the club level, I met Moses Saldana of D.C., who has had season tickets in Section 404 with two friends “since Donovan McNabb was here.”
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“They asked us if we were in, and I was,” said Saldana, who held a relocation pass in one hand and couldn’t recall the Redskins giving out the passes in previous seasons. “We’ve done it for every game except the Giants game and the Seattle game. We always try to get here an hour or 45 minutes before. That’s what I tell all my friends now. Just buy a cheap ticket, get here earlier and you can probably be upgraded.”
Not everyone was actively seeking out the stack of envelopes, however. Sted Wolf of Owings, Md., who attended the game with his son and two of his son’s friends, was headed to his seats on the 400 level when a ticket representative approached him.
“It was just a total surprise,” Wolf said. “My first thought was this was a scam because I’ve been caught in that sort of thing before. I said, ‘What do I have to do?’ And he said, ‘Oh, we’ll just give them to you.’”
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Redskins fans weren’t the only ones who benefited from the passes.
Brian Cullen of Brooklyn has been a Rams fan since the days of Roman Gabriel because he liked their helmets as a kid. He attends as many games as he can when the Rams play on the East Coast and watched St. Louis lose at Philadelphia earlier this season. Cullen purchased a 400-level ticket to Sunday’s game on StubHub for $7.99.
“I walk in and they tell me about this,” Cullen told me. “This is fantastic. I said, ‘How much is it?’ And she said, ‘It’s free.’ I said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me because I parked for free at the Metro station.’ I get everything for $7.99! They probably want you to buy the stuff down there.”
Down there is the aptly named StubHub Club Level concourse, a fully enclosed, glass atrium featuring marble floors, TVs, leather chairs, tables, and yes, plenty of stuff to buy. In addition to concession stands such as Johnny Rockets, Ben’s Chili Bowl and Phillips Seafood, there’s a Hooters, the MGM National Harbor Club, multiple bars and Redskins team stores.
I arrived at my seat shortly after kickoff. It was in the sun, which meant I could sit outside and satisfy goal No. 2, at least for the first half. Rather than risk missing something exciting — and on this day, a Redskins first down would’ve qualified — I took advantage of my premium club member-for-a-day status and ordered off the in-seat menu. Two minutes later, a server arrived with my crabcake sandwich and a soda. (Even on the club level, the Redskins don’t trust fans enough to leave the bottle cap on your drink.)
A fan directly in front of me stood up when the Rams faced a third down, and there was a smattering of boos after the Redskins went three-and-out, but the overwhelming feeling I got from the fans seated around me in the club level, many of whom had also received relocation passes, was apathy. The loudest cheers of the first half were for a missed extra point by Greg Zuerlein and a 41-yard pass to Roy Helu that was called back by a penalty. It felt like a preseason game.
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And, after two quarters, it was also the most pleasant in-stadium experience I have ever had at FedEx Field. I had season tickets in the 400-level in 2009, a season in which almost every home game, including a boo-filled 9-7 win over the Rams and The Swinging Gate Giants game, was enough to make you not want to come back. I was in the standing-room only section for Robert Griffin III’s first home game in 2012, and while I’m all for standing (not that I had a choice) the entire game and being loud, the noise created by fellow fans incessantly banging empty aluminum Bud Light bottles against a metal railing is not a pleasant one.
“I’ve noticed there’s a difference in the types of fans in the club level and in the upper level,” Saldana told me. “When I’m down there and trying to be a fan, I’m making sure I’m not using any profane language, I’m not blocking any seats. But when I’m yelling and trying to get into the game, I know some people around me don’t appreciate that. They’re there mostly to enjoy the game. I guess that’s why they paid more, so they don’t have to be in contact with the average fan.”
Inside the climate-controlled concourse, fans watched other games on TV. They drank. They charged their phones. They played Madden NFL 15 on one of the dozen Xbox consoles in the EA Sports Players Lounge. In one game, a man playing as the virtual Redskins with virtual Robert Griffin III at quarterback trailed the Rams 3-0 at halftime, which was somehow an improvement over the actual game taking place outside.
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William S. and Emma S. of Burke, who were watching the third quarter of the Redskins game at a table, told me they became club level season-ticket holders seven years ago after using their son’s tickets one game and deciding they loved the experience. I asked them if they still enjoyed coming to games.
“We’re getting ready to leave,” Emma S. said.
“It’s fun because we’re basic Redskins fans,” said William S., as muted boos could be heard from outside after Tavon Austin returned a punt for a touchdown. “To be a Redskins fan, you have to be used to anguish. It doesn’t matter who the quarterback is, who the coach is. You look at it and say, when I can predict what the next play’s going to be, I know that those pros on the other side knows what’s going on here. There’s something wrong.”
There’s nothing wrong with the Redskins giving out relocation passes to fellow fans, according to Emma S.
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“As long as you’re not sitting in my seat, I don’t care,” she said. “I think it’s a nice thing to do, especially on a day like this. We’ve given our tickets away.”
Other fans I talked to said the relocation passes, which are presumably issued in hopes of convincing fans to purchase premium seats in the future, made good business sense and were a nice gesture by the team.
“It is what it is,” said Laverne Johnson, who received her club level tickets for Sunday’s game from a friend. “I mean, who are they playing? The Rams. There are so many vacant seats. Why not let people come down? Even if I had paid for the tickets, I wouldn’t have a problem with it. But I’m a very giving person.”
But some club level season-ticket holders, who pay roughly $300 per game per ticket, were unhappy to learn that access to the club level was available in the form of relocation passes for the price of a sandwich on StubHub.
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“When you pay full value, it seems somewhat unfair,” Jose T. of Herndon said. “I got contacted by one of the sales agents to renew my season tickets and I refused to do it. I’m not going to do it anymore. It’s been seven years. The team obviously is not improving. Snyder’s still doing what Snyder does best. The last straw for me was when they closed down the Montecristo smoking lounge this season. They turned it into an eatery because they said they weren’t making any money. The Redskins not making money. Come on.”
“I feel cheated,” said Reggie Thorpe of Silver Spring, who has had season tickets in Section 306 with his wife, Towanda, for the last four years after owning season tickets in the 400 level for one season. “I paid full price for that. Years ago, when I was in the rain and cold, I couldn’t get in here.”
A Redskins spokesman had no comment about the relocation passes and declined to answer whether they will be available for the final two home games of the season.
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“I’m done,” Thorpe said, as the Amish Outlaws played a postgame concert, another perk for premium club members, in a tent outside the concourse. “The product sucks. Dan Snyder sucks. Bruce Allen sucks. The product sucks on the field. And now you’re letting people from the 400 level come down here without paying full price? For what?”
As bad as the Redskins have been this season, Saldana said he and his two friends have no intentions of giving up their 400-level season tickets.
“Not at this point, especially if we get free upgrades,” he said. “One of the reasons I keep coming is I get upgraded to a better seat. I don’t know if they’ll continue this next year, but it’s a good deal for right now.”
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