One would expect a renewed sense of optimism from Washington fans heading into year three of Ron Rivera, especially in the organization's first season as the Commanders. But that doesn't seem to be the case, if training camp turnout is the key performance indicator.
If you missed it, the Commanders held a lottery for training camp, allowing fans until July 13 to sign up in advance for tickets. Those who entered the lottery were required to pick from eight dates of publicly held practice sessions in Ashburn.
Here's a synopsis of the selection process straight from the team:
"If you are selected as a winner in the fan lottery, you will be contacted no later than Friday, July 15th. You must confirm that you are still able to attend by July 20th at 11:59PM. If we do not receive confirmation, we will release your tickets. If you do confirm your attendance, you will receive additional information regarding practice location, time, parking, etc. via email, closer to the date of your selected practice.
"If you are not selected on the 15th, you will be automatically added to the standby list for your selected dates and will be notified within 48 hours of the training camp practice if an attendee slot becomes available. Fans will be chosen off the standby list in the order we received their lottery entry."
This comes after a decade of making all training camp practices open to the public — without a lottery of any kind — in Richmond, Va.
Some fans weren't selected. And if Thursday's sparse crowd is any indicator, many fans didn't even bother with the complicated sign-up process.
So, the conclusion here is either the process was so complicated that only a few dozen fans (generous guesstimate) showed up, or the Commanders made admittance so limited that they're only allowing a few dozen fans to show up.
Did we mention the tickets were free of charge?
