This is a real good news and bad news situation for the Washington Commanders franchise, owner Daniel Snyder, and any other potential new owner or investors who may or may not be out there.
Here is the good news: the Commanders saw the third-highest gain in per-game average attendance at FedEx Field, with a 10.15% leap for the 2022 NFL season, according to an analysis of published box score attendance by Sports Business Journal.
Only the Detroit Lions (23.1%) and Jacksonville Jaguars (10.8%) saw higher jumps than Washington, who just beat out the Super Bowl runner-up Cincinnati Bengals (9.8%).
And, hey, it is also good news that Commanders were not among the five NFL teams who played all their home games in America that saw their average home attendance drop: Minnesota Vikings (down 0.02%), Denver Broncos (down 0.41%), Carolina Panthers (down 0.77%), and Chicago Bears (down 1.66%), per SBJ.
There is more good news for Snyder and his fellow (for now) owners: the average NFL crowd grew to 69,422 (up 3.25%), according to SBJ. That means more money for revenue sharing pouring into the league’s coffers.
Ok, time for the bad news. According to the analysis, 31 franchises sold at least 92% of their capacity for the season. Only Washington fell short of that. And they fell short of that by a significant margin with just 85.9% capacity.
And not only did Washington finish dead-last in the average number of tickets sold per game, but they also finished dead-last in average attendance with 58,106.
The Bears, who finished the season a league-worst 3-14, were next closest averaging 59,823.
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But, nonetheless, a good jump from 2021 when Washington floundered with an average of 52,751 people and 64.3% a season ago.
Of course, those numbers are well down from recent highs as FedEx Field enjoyed an average attendance of over 80,000 for each game for the 2006-2010 seasons and averaged over 75,000 fans each game for the 2011-2017 seasons. The franchise ranked in the Top 10 in the league for each of those seasons.
In 2018 the average cratered to 61,028 (74.4%) before rebounding slightly to 65,488 (79.9%) in 2019.
Of course, 2018 was also the one year Brian Lafemina served as President of Business Operations and that was when the team acknowledged the season ticket waiting list no longer existed. Perhaps that could be an explanation.
Follow @BenKrimmel and @Team980 for more.
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