The Redskins ripped out roughly 10,000 seats from FedEx Field this summer for a very good reason: They weren’t selling.
In what the Washington Post describes as a “rare admission” that demand for their product is down, VP of Operations Lon Rosenberg said on ESPN Radio that the removed seats were those season ticket holders “were not wanting to buy.”
He went on to tell Dan Steinberg and Mike Jones of the Post that taking out the seats had nothing to do with ticket sales and more to do with improving the fan experience. Hmm.
Perhaps even more interesting, Rosenberg also says no decision has been made on building “party decks” for 2012 as the team announced earlier this offseason on their own website. They want to get that done, but it’s uncertain how exactly they will replace the removed seats.
Seating capacity topped out near 92,000 last year, rising more than 10,000 since 1997. It will be around 82,000 in 2011. It appears there are limits of fan demand and how many people you can squeeze into a stadium, even for a team as popular as the Redskins.