The Miami Dolphins overcame a slow start to earn a 17-10 victory in Week 1 in front of a Washington crowd that featured plenty of aqua green jerseys.
Dolphins fans invade Washington, make FedEx Field ‘almost a home game’ for Miami
Dolphins owner Stephen Ross said the game on Sunday in Washington “was almost a home game” thanks to the number of Miami fans in attendance.
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Shortly after the win, Dolphins owner Stephen Ross marveled at the amount of fans the team had in the crowd at FedEx Field, despite being about 1,000 miles from Miami. He told the Washington Post in the Dolphins’ locker room that he “felt it was almost a home game.”
Dolphins quarterback Ryan Tannehill similarly raved about Dolphins fans that traveled for the season opener and said it's the most Miami fans he has ever seen in a road game:
“It’s awesome,” Tannehill said. “You know, I always enjoy playing on the road and when you have the kind of fan base that we did out there today, it makes it even more enjoyable. I feel like our fans always travel well wherever we go in the NFL. I feel like we have a good number of fans. But that had to be probably the best road showing that I’ve seen from our fans. They made an impact on the game. They were getting the Dolphins chant going throughout the game and making noise when we were on defense. And when you can do that in an away stadium, it’s huge.”
The announced attendance for the game was 76,512, which was well above the league average for the first week, but shy of FedEx Field’s capacity of 82,000. A significant amount of that attendance appeared to be visiting fans, though:
Dang pic.twitter.com/TZFb1Voahi
— Dan Steinberg (@dcsportsbog) September 13, 2015 After finishing in the bottom five of the NFL in attendance in 2011 and 2012, the Dolphins bounced back with a ranking of No. 21 in attendance in 2013 and No. 14 in 2014, averaging 70,035 fans per home game.
Washington is heading in the other direction with the team even setting a record for lowest attendance in December 2013 when just 56,247 fans showed up to watch a game against the Kansas City Chiefs. While an average of 77,964 fans per home game in 2014 was still near the top of the NFL, seats have been removed at FedEx Field in three of the last five offseasons.
In 2007, Washington led the NFL with 88,090 fans per game, but the team has been to the playoffs just once since then and has just seven wins in the last two seasons. While Washington is still in the top five in the NFL in attendance annually, the discontent of fans is likely the reason, in part, why so many tickets were available to Dolphins fans.
The Dolphins will have another road game in Week 2 against the Jacksonville Jaguars before back-to-back home games against the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets.
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