Training camp hurdles have diehard Commanders fans flummoxed

NFL training camps represent a fresh start for most teams, but the Washington Commanders aren’t most teams.

Fans who turn out to see the team’s first practice Wednesday already have had to jump through more hoops than followers of most NFL teams — from a new lottery system for tickets to fewer public sessions.

Up Interstate 95, Baltimore fans could claim tickets on a first-come, first-served basis to watch the Ravens practice at their facility in Owings Mills, Maryland. The 16 sessions, capped at 1,000 fans per day, were snatched up in just four minutes after going online.

The Commanders, though, gave fans until July 13 to sign up in advance for tickets — and even then a spot wasn’t guaranteed. Those who entered the lottery had to pick from eight dates for the sessions being held at team headquarters in Ashburn, after years of training camps in Richmond.

It’s a more restrictive approach for the franchise — now in the first year of the “Commanders” rebranding.

But for a team looking to start anew — and for a team that ranked 31st in attendance in 2021 — fans say the lottery is just another misstep in a long line for a franchise struggling to reconnect with its market.   

“I’ve never gone through a lottery to get an opportunity to go to training camp,” said Tony Brula, a lifelong fan who lives in Manassas. “I put my name in and didn’t get in. It’s like another shot to [fans], after all we’ve been through with this franchise.”

Staying home

The Commanders’ path back to Ashburn had been in the works for quite some time. The team held most of its summer practices at its facility last summer after the team spent only five days in Richmond. The year before, in 2020, Washington stayed home because of the COVID-19 pandemic — as all teams did. 

The team’s relationship with the city of Richmond had frayed over the years. Throughout the eight-year deal, attendance fell significantly, and Richmond officials became disgruntled over the payment the city had to fork over to the team to be there — arguing it wasn’t beneficial for taxpayers. The team returned to Richmond in 2021 under a revised agreement that paid the city $100,000, but coach Ron Rivera made clear this offseason that the arrangement wasn’t appealing to the team in the long run. 

“The problem with the short [travel] period is it’s not, from what I’m learning, it’s not financially equitable,” Rivera said in March. “You’re there a short, brief time, then you gotta move everything and get yourself set up again.”

The Commanders’ preference to hold camp at their facility falls in trend with the rest of the NFL. Only six teams this season chose to go on the road for camp — meaning 81% of the league stayed home, according to the NFL. That’s a sharp increase from 10 years ago when 59% of the league stayed home. In 2000, 22 of the league’s 31 teams traveled.

As teams have shifted to staying home for camp, most franchises have found ways to welcome their hometown fans. 

Only three NFL teams have training camps with no fans (or very few) allowed: the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Las Vegas Raiders and the Philadelphia Eagles. In the Eagles’ case, the team does hold an event for fans to watch one summer practice at Lincoln Financial Field. The Raiders invite select personal seat license holders. 

Other clubs vary on how many sessions fans can attend and how they can go about securing tickets. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, for example, allow only season-ticket holders, corporate partners and select others to register for camp. The Seattle Seahawks charge a $12 per-person transportation fee since fans have to park off-site. 

The Kansas City Chiefs and the Buffalo Bills take a Ravens-esque first-come, first-served approach.

Washington’s lottery system? That appears to be unusual. Of the 29 teams that plan to host fans for camp this year,  the Houston Texans are the only club besides the Commanders that implemented that type of setup to claim tickets. The Chicago Bears used a lottery last season, but switched back to a first-come, first-served format this year.

For the Texans, Houston requires fans to submit a form — including dates they would like to attend — to gain potential access. But unlike Washington, Houston opted against setting a deadline for the fan applications.

Washington’s eight available dates, too, were among the fewest in the league — ahead of the New York Jets (7), New England Patriots (6) and Tennessee Titans (2) of those to make practices available to the public. But on top of the dates that the Commanders made available to the general public, the team also gave an additional four dates exclusively to season-ticket holders. 

Asked about the lottery system, team President Jason Wright said in a statement that the Commanders were committed to “delivering a personal and interactive experience” to fans, but also providing the coaching staff and players the chance to “get into a rhythm” for camp. 

“We will continue to engage all our fans to ensure they have every opportunity to watch the team gear up for the inaugural season as the Commanders,” Mr. Wright said. 

Memories dashed

Troy Dodd remembers going to Washington’s training camp as a kid with his family. Now that he’s a father — and has a 14-year-old son of his own — the central Virginia resident tries to carry on the tradition by making the annual drive to camp. 

But Mr. Dodd, like most of the fans he knows, wasn’t selected for this year’s lottery.

“That’s truly where I became a fan,” Mr. Dodd said, “was training camp.” 

That sentiment — that attending training camp was a foundational experience in becoming a lifelong Commanders fan — was a common refrain from those who expressed disappointment after being passed over in the lottery. Camp, they said, presented a prime opportunity for fans to interact with players and create their own memories. Mr. Dodd still recalls defensive tackle Dave Butz lifting him on his shoulders to take a photo when Washington hosted camp in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

The Commanders, to be clear, will have fans at practice this summer. But the crowds will likely be much smaller than the crowds in Richmond, which could host thousands. In 2013, the team’s first year in Richmond, the Burgundy and Gold averaged more than 11,000 fans per training camp practice. Washington officials, however, stopped announcing attendance figures after 2015 — when the daily average dropped by 44% from the previous season.

The team declined to provide an answer regarding how many fans would be permitted to this year’s practices. 

From 2003 to 2012, Washington hosted camp in Ashburn. But the area has dramatically changed since then. Fields that the team once used for nearby parking have been replaced by data centers. The team also built an indoor practice bubble in the 2010s, cutting into more space.

“I get it, Ashburn’s small,” said Jonathan Osman, who typically drives up from Charlotte, North Carolina, to attend camp. “But go back to Richmond. Go somewhere else. Put in seating. Whatever it takes where fans can have that touch point.”

All the small things

Joey Colby-Begovich, the team’s vice president of guest experience, tweeted what could be seen as a solution for those who didn’t get access to camp: The executive suggested fans come to FedEx Field for the team’s stadium practice on Aug. 6. 

The Commanders, like many other teams, host an annual practice at their stadium for fans. And they had plenty of tickets available, Mr. Colby-Begovich wrote. “The more, the merrier,” he added.

To Ted Abela, a longtime season-ticket holder known as “Tailgate Ted,” the message was from just another suit who doesn’t get it. 

A stadium practice, he wrote in reply, “doesn’t compare to the intimacy” of training camp. 

“If a team thinks it does they are mistaken and have never been to camp as a fan,” Mr. Abela tweeted. 

Not even Mr. Abela got selected through the team’s lottery, and instead was put on a stand-by list. His decades-long streak of attending training camp was set to end until he got word Monday that he was able to secure tickets after all. A player’s agent hooked him up, he said. 

Days earlier, Mr. Abela called out the team on Twitter — ripping the decision to host a lottery in a post that has garnered almost 300 likes and more than 100 replies. 

“The team is making it more difficult to be a fan,” Mr. Abela said in an interview. “They’re limiting interaction points where they should be embracing and opening up things more. And I feel like they think we’re dumber than we actually [are].”

As the franchise tries to move on from a series of scandals, there have been other, albeit smaller, instances that also have left diehards frustrated. 

Earlier this month, the Commanders faced backlash for a ballot that asked fans to vote for the final 10 selections for players who will be added to their all-time greatest list ahead of the franchise’s 90th anniversary.

But the ballot initially — and conspicuously — left off former Washington tackle Trent Williams, the perennial Pro Bowler who had a messy exit from the franchise two years ago. The team, which also botched the rollout of the anniversary by having several misspellings and errors on a website dedicated to the list, added Williams to the ballot days later. 

The incident marked at least the second time in which the franchise faced criticism for how it chose to honor the past. In October, the team was strongly criticized for abruptly announcing the jersey retirement of late safety Sean Taylor on a few days’ notice — leading Wright to apologize. 

“In a vacuum, when you take each situation differently, it’s really not that big of a deal,” said Chris Stone, a Maryland-based Commanders fan who hosts a podcast dedicated to the team. “But when it piles up on top of each other — that this organization seemingly keeps making mistakes, then it just becomes a bigger deal.”