Locally
Dear PoP – What Neighborhood Do I Live in?
Photos From PoPville – Going Down
Reminder: Labor Day Weekend track work will close five Red Lines stations
Good Deal or Not? “several new mechanical and design elements” edition
Goblin Your 2010 Coolest Pet in PoPville!
Random Reader Rant and/or Revel
DC-Inspired Recipes: Peach Crisp Tart and Sangria for your Labor Day Weekend
GDoN Revisited by Hipchickindc – 726 Quincy St NW #1
Friday Question of the Day – What’s Your Favorite Museum in DC?
Photo Archives Caption Contest Winner
What the Helen of Troy is This?
Best Spot for a Morning Cup of Coffee or Mojito
House of the Day
The 5pm Post – Columbia Heights Clean up Sat. and Fusion Happy Hour Specials
District Table/District Burger Coming to 2200 Penn. Ave, NW in Foggy Bottom
Judging Buildings – Mini Garage
Blackout? What Blackout? Why Are Non-Soldout Redskins Games On TV?
For the ink-by-the-barrell platform of Washington City Paper, I wrote this week about the origins of the NFL's blackout policy. That rule allegedly requires games to sell out before they can be broadcast in the host market. Turns out the Redskins were as responsible as anybody for getting that policy put in place. Legendary Skins Coach George Allen even took personal credit for the blackout rule. Pick up a copy, read the column, wash your hands.
Color me crazy, but I'm beginning to think the league's gotten all loosey goosey in its enforcement of the blackouts.
But things weren't always that way. Looking over the old newspaper clippings about the genesis of the policy in the early 1970s, when Congress first forced the NFL to air sold out games in host markets, I was reminded that management used to view TV as the enemy. In fact, time was when NFL owners even tried to rig things to look like games weren't sold out -- Philadelphia Eagles owner Leonard Tose once put hundreds of lousy field-level seats on sale close to gameday hoping they wouldn't all be bought -- just to keep football off of television.
Things have changed. The blackout rule is still on the books. Nowadays, however, it sure seems like there's all sorts of looking the other way going on so that non-sold out games won't be blacked out.
The Redskins games, despite what the team tells you and what some trusting souls believe, are not sold out.
Dan Snyder, in fact, likes to say in press releases that the games have been sold out since 1966. Yet anybody who looks into the situation for more than a few seconds should realize that the Redskins don’t sell out home games. It’s almost a certainty, in fact, that the Redskins haven’t sold out even a single game during Snyder's 11-year reign as owner.
The Club Seats, at the very least, have been available to anybody with a checkbook since FedExField opened in 1997, so anybody who parrots the team's sellout streak line after seeing a sea of yellow seats show up on TV screens for more than a decade is a tool.
But the non-sellout status of the stadium has never been so obvious as of late. And we're not just talking about premium seats being available now, folks.
No, just a week before the incredibly hyped opening game with Dallas, the Redskins are rolling out last-minute seat-filling gimmicks as coupling their general admission season tickets with college football games held at FedExField, putting various ticket giveaways in place and offering discounted tickets to employees of giant corporations and dumping more and more Cowboys game tickets on the market.
So when tickets are up for grabs at face value from the FedExField box office next Sunday, as they are at every home game , and the Redskins/Cowboys game is nevertheless on TV in the D.C market, you'll know the NFL now knows TV, and not the live gate, is its best friend.
Morning Roundup: Last Weekend Edition
Photo by Amber Wilkie Photography Well, that's it. Summer's officially coming to an end, though with the almost 60 days above 90 degrees that we've had so far, that's certainly not a bad thing. As of next week, the District will pick up its somewhat regular rhythm, as Congress slowly makes it way back to town, everyone comes back from their extended vacations, and we finally get this whole local election thing over with. It's a bummer that we're that much closer to winter, but we gave this whole summer thing a try, and maybe we're ready for a break. (Of course, we'll probably have a freak mid-Fall heat wave, knowing our dramatic weather these days.)
Earl Downgraded to a Category Two Storm: The Post writes that Hurricane Earl has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm, and while it's currently hitting the North Carolina coast, everything should be somewhat in the clear for the weekend beach-goers in Maryland, Delaware and north. (Ocean City has closed its beaches until Saturday, though Sunday looks OK.) It may still be a somewhat nightmarish drive out to the beach, though, and TBD's got all the details you need to miss the traffic. In summary: leave at 5 a.m.
Gray Cost D.C. $2 Million in Fines: Mayor Adrian Fenty has made challenger Vince Gray's leadership of the Department of Human Services in the 1990s a key part of his re-election campaign, using Gray's stint as evidence that he's not fit to be the city chief executive. (A new TV ad admits that Gray isn't a bad guy, just a "bad manager.") The Examiner today digs into Gray's record, and finds that his slow reaction to a congressional mandate that the city close down the Cedar Knoll youth detention center over two decades ago cost the city over $2 million in fines. Gray claims that the deadline imposed by Congress was too tight to effectively move kids into other facilities.
Avoid the Red Line This Weekend: We may often complain about Metro being slow, but it well be very slow this weekend as five stations along the Red Line close down for repairs. WTOP writes that the Glenmont, Wheaton, Forest Glen, Silver Spring and Takoma stations will be closed Friday, Sept. 3 at 10 p.m. until Tuesday, Sept. 7 at 5 a.m. Shuttle service will be offered for those that use those stations.
Go-Go a No-No, Says Gray Volunteer: The City Paper is reporting that a volunteer for the Gray campaign has filed a complaint with the D.C. Office of Campaign Finance, asking that the go-go concerts put on by Fenty ally Ron Moten be regulated as if they were events put on directly by the campaign. James Abely argues that Moten works closely enough with the Fenty campaign that the event he puts on, as well as his publication The Otherside Magazine, should be considered campaign materials and subject to the $2,000 cap on donations.
Briefly Noted: I.M.P. adds MoCo to suit over Silver Spring Filmore venue ... New D.C. gang law gets tested in court ... Teens on Metro beware ... Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) called a "dinosaur."
This Day in DCist: On this day in 2009, a murder suspect walked out of the Washington Hospital Center and Metro asked riders to report on those pesky kids. In 2008, alcohol was ruled a factor in the death of two men on a double-decker bus, and more and more people were being cited for talking on their cell phones while driving.
