5 things Dan Snyder got critically wrong as Commanders owner
By Jonathan Eig
Commanders put money above all else under Dan Snyder
Dan Snyder was dealt one bad card when he took over one of the most valuable franchises in sports. FedEx Field (then called Jack Kent Cooke Stadium) was an albatross.
Fans of Mr. Cooke are happy he didn’t survive to see how badly it turned out – a cold, impersonal eyesore with poor accessibility. And a very long lease.
But Snyder made multiple PR mistakes in trying to maximize the revenue that the stadium could generate. He didn’t allow any outside food to be brought in and then jacked up the prices on all concessions.
He bombarded everyone who entered the stadium with product after product after product, constantly selling whatever could be sold. Snyder continued adding seats, which resulted in some longtime fans being shifted without their knowledge or consent.
In a vacuum, none of these things may have been all that bad – or all that different from what was happening at other stadiums. But they came as an avalanche and left a very bad taste.
Early on, that taste grew sour in the parking lot of the old Landover Mall.
One of FedEx’s many problems was limited parking. A lot of fans found a convenient solution, parking up Brightseat Road in the Landover Mall parking lot. They could park for free, then make a short walk down what is now called Sean Taylor Road into the stadium.
The Landover Mall tenants didn’t mind. There was ample parking for the underused mall, and an influx of a couple of thousand fans on Sunday might lead to more business before or after games.
But Snyder saw this as a cash cow opportunity. Suddenly, in the middle of the season – with neither warning nor public discussion – Prince George’s County law enforcement declared it illegal to walk on a public road into the stadium. They said it was a matter of “public safety“.
Conveniently, Snyder and the team had acquired parking facilities at the old Capital Centre. Since it wasn’t within walking distance, the team provided a “free” shuttle service. The fee for parking there was $25.
When fans realized that they could no longer park for free and walk into the stadium, but instead had to fork over $25 and ride a crowded shuttle, there was an outcry. I myself wrote a letter to the Washington Post, which resulted in an immediate phone call from a team executive to try and placate me.
No amount of placating worked. Everyone saw this as a disingenuous money grab in the guise of fan “safety”. This would begin a legacy of treating the team’s supporters as ATMs, which reached a low point during the housing crash of 2008 when Snyder took fans to court over unfulfilled ticket contracts.