Is It Worth It?

Opening FedEx Field for the Washington Football Team Could Be A Tough Question For The Alsobrooks Administration—And For All Of Us

Gov. Larry Hogan eased restrictions on outdoor sporting venues Oct 16. He announced that he’s relaxing Maryland's Covid-19 restrictions on venues to allow spectators at 10% of a venue's total capacity.

The Washington Football Team had already begun allowing up to 250 audience members into the stadium.

But this opens the door for Football Team to open the door for more fans to attend the games – some 8,200. But, faced with an international health challenge, the final decision to allow hundreds more fans in to watch games is up to the county executive.

As difficult as it may be, county residents may stand to lose more than they have to gain in opening the stadium to more fans.

Prince George’s has not moved from Phase 2 of the reopening plan. Therefore, strictly from a public health perspective, the county is no closer to having any greater volume of people congregating than Phase 2 would bear in any other circumstance. So while churches, family get-togethers and businesses continue to observe the safety protocols of Phase 2, it seems unbalanced to allow more expanded opportunities for a stadium when the public health circumstances are no different just because it’s FedEx field.

Allowing people to come into the stadium will likely bring fans from different parts of the region. That means a greater influx of potential carriers and people who are not sensitive to mask wearing, social distancing and general hygiene principles that the county has worked so hard to get residents to adhere to over these past seven months. In fact, part of the reason that the county is and has been at greater risk with regard to the disease is because it is a natural corridor for transient people.

This brings risk to county communities and families. Particularly the homes of multi-generational families--which is common for working class people in the county--where stadium based incomes are critical but should not be deadly. It brings risk to elderly and health compromised families based upon the work of one of the few members of the family who can work and does so at or near the stadium. In Prince George’s, where working-class families are common, this is a relevant consideration when considering opening the stadium to hundreds of people who don’t live here and don’t have those same circumstances or considerations.

The gains are relatively few. The Washington Football Team is going through an immense amount of transition - in the front office and on the football field. Sure, it could mean greater work for the service personnel and staff in and around the stadium. And certainly, allowing more fans at a time when the football team needs all the friends it can get, may prove to engender stronger ties between the organization and the county. But in the age of Coronavirus, everything accomplished is in small measure compared to what a typical year would be. And so, the additional beer sales and political partnering may or may not add up to be enough to be worth the county’s potential long term risk.

Besides, what does it say to seven months of shepherding folks around the idea of being safe only to open the doors to more potential risk to watch a losing football team?