
DATE: Monday, September 15, 1997            TAG: 9709150171

SECTION: SPORTS                  PAGE: C7   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY HARRY MINIUM, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: LANDOVER, MD.                     LENGTH:  141 lines

OPENING TO MIXED REVIEWS GIVEN ITS ``OPENING-DAY JITTERS,'' MOST FANS WOULD PROBABLY AGREE THAT JACK KENT COOKE STADIUM IS A DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH.

Levie Justin has loved the Washington Redskins since before the days of Sammy Baugh. ``I've been a fan longer than I can remember,'' she says.

At 93, she can be excused for a lapse of memory. But she'll never forget why she's so passionate about the burgundy and gold.

Justin, who now lives in Ophelia, just north of Williamsburg, is originally from Lynchburg. Her son played high school football there, but was killed during World War II. She's been watching the Redskins, whose games were the only NFL contests televised in Lynchburg for years, since.

``He's been watching football through my eyes all of these years,'' she said.

Those eyes were smiling Sunday when Justin made her first trek to the Redskins' new digs. She was one of 78,270 fans who came to brand-new Jack Kent Cooke Stadium to watch the Redskins beat Arizona 19-13 in overtime.

Yes, the traffic was murder, escalators jammed and the smell of wet paint and drying plaster was ever present. Yes, the ticket prices are much higher, and everything from peanuts to a small cup of yogurt cost and arm and a leg.

And, yes, the acoustics aren't quite what they were at RFK Stadium. Even with 21,000 more voices, the decibel level wasn't what the Redskins have come to expect at home.

But the facilities, from the restrooms to the concession stands, are light years ahead of RFK Stadium.

The $170 million stadium has open-air bars where thousands of fans stood under the end zone scoreboards and drank beer, 280 opulent luxury suites, 15,000 luxury club seats and two oversized television boards, where fans could watch every replay in clear, living color.

``The stadium is just beautiful, just a wonderful place'' Justin said.

The traffic was not. Two hours before game time, cars were backed up an hour on the beltway exit leading to Landover. Buses full of blue-collar fans and limousines full of corporate heads were equal in the eyes of the traffic demons. They all had to wait.

Some were sent in the wrong direction by police and stadium employees unfamiliar with the new facility.

Great Atlantic Tours of Virginia Beach chartered 12 buses to carry 700 fans to the game, most from Hampton Roads. Great Atlantic president John Martin took his drivers on a mock tour of the drive to the stadium Saturday to make sure they knew where to go.

Sure enough, on Sunday that route was blocked. Bus driver Amos Rawls was directed by a policeman to a road leading to Baltimore. He made a U-turn, found the stadium, then was directed by a traffic cop into the path of a moving car.

Only Rawls' quick foot on the brakes prevented an accident.

``Opening-day jitters,'' Martin quipped.

The game attracted political VIPs galore, most of them Democrats, from Vice President Al Gore to Maryland Gov. Parris N. Glendening. But there was also a Republican from Virginia, Gov. George F. Allen, who was accompanied by his wife and mother.

Allen, son of the former Redskins coach of the same name, spoke emotionally of Cooke, the 84-year-old Redskins owner who died six months before his decade-long quest for a stadium was realized.

``This stadium was his vision,'' Allen said. ``Everything from the sight lines to the colors to all of the amenities, every detail, were all part of that vision. This is Jack Kent Cooke's stadium.''

Not every fan was happy with how that vision was carried out. Bill Ray, a former Maury High football star who owns a Virginia Beach trucking firm, is a first-time season-ticket holder who bought two club seat season tickets and attended with his son, Jeff.

The seats cost $2,790, which Ray says was supposed to include wider seats and prompt service from waiters.

He said the seats don't allow enough fanny room, and the waiters were nowhere to be seen. Only occasionally did he see someone hawking peanuts or yelling, ``Get yer beer here.''

``I felt they didn't deliver on what was advertised,'' he said.

Jake Vandergrift, a long-time season-ticket holder from Annapolis, was even less happy with his seats. He says long-time season-ticket holders were shipped to the nosebleed seats because they wouldn't pay the hefty price for club seats.

``You've got people who've been with the Redskins since they played in Griffith Stadium who thought they'd be taken care of,'' he said. ``I'll bet their phone lines light up Monday. People are not happy.''

William and Mary student Tripp MacDonald, sitting near the top of the stadium, was happy with his seat. It was the view that ticked him off - like hundreds of other fans in the upper decks, half the field was blocked from his sight by a railing.

``I have to stand up to see,'' he said.

Other fans groused about concessions prices. It cost $7 for a crabcake sandwich, $5 for a glass of beer and $6 for the cheapest cigar. In the club seats, you could munch on an all-you-can-eat dinner for $24.95, plus tax.

George Pearson, a retired Pepsi Cola driver from Virginia Beach, fondly recalls the vendors who hawked their wares outside RFK Stadium. ``You could buy a sausage and take it into the game,'' he said. Not at Cooke Stadium, where vendors aren't allowed in the parking lots and neither coolers nor bags were allowed in the stadium.

Yet most fans seemed more satisfied than not and the atmosphere was festive.

In spite of long waits in concessions lines, the fans didn't miss a play. There are hundreds of televisions in the concourse and concession areas. The Redskins' radio broadcast was piped into the restrooms.

There is a Redskins Hall of Fame, where fans could purchase T-shirts, caps and view photographs from years past.

The crowd was colorful, and at times emotional. Jim Hodges, a Virginia Beach resident who rode a Grant Atlantic bus, said his group cheered when they passed RFK Stadium.

WTKR sports director John Castleberry says a group of Norfolk fans handed him a cup of dirt, which they asked him to pour in the end zone. The dirt was from the RFK Stadium end zone, they said.

Large numbers of fans wore hog masks. There were three women dressed in habits, though it's doubtful they were nuns - the habits were burgundy and gold and the women were drinking beer and chain smoking.

Jason Hesiak, a Virginia Tech student from Chesapeake, wore a Redskins jersey ... and helmet, sans chin strap.

Thomas Warren, a Washington resident, carried a sign advertising ``Roasted Cardinal Wings.'' Stapled to the sign was a Cardinal wing.

``It's really a chicken wing,'' he said with a wink.

At game's end, after Michael Westbrook hauled in a 40-yard, game-winning touchdown pass, most seemed to go home happy, including Ray, the Virginia Beach fan unhappy with his club seats.

``I'll probably buy the seats again next year,'' he said. ``I'm a diehard Redskins fan.'' ILLUSTRATION: LAWRENCE JACKSON/The Virginian-Pilot

Jack Kent Cooke Stadium seats 21,000 more fans than the Redskins'

previous home, RFK Stadium, did.

Sonny Jurgensen, a link to the Redskins' past, was introduced at the

unveiling of the new stadium.

Michael Westbrook's game-ending touchdown catch sent those fans who

stayed until the end happy.

Photos

HUY NGUYEN/The Virginian-Pilot

``I don't know how this could have been any more emotional,''

Redskins coach Norv Turner said.

The Redskins' victory set off a wild celebration by the players in