As the Washington Redskins' 2017 season limps to a close, owner Daniel Snyder is said to be disappointed with the team's performance and angry over the public debacle that resulted from the firing of general manager Scot McCloughan in the spring.

His marketing team, meanwhile, is tracking less-than-rosy data on game-day attendance; season ticket sales; TV ratings; and the confidence (or lack of it) of premium-seat holders in "team executives," "the team's overall visions/strategy" and "team performance in 2017," via a recently circulated email survey.

But Snyder doesn't plan to fire Coach Jay Gruden regardless of whether the team finishes 8-8 or 7-9 after Sunday's regular season finale at the New York Giants, according to a team official and associates familiar with his thinking. Nor does he intend to replace team President Bruce Allen despite evidence of his unpopularity, believing that continuity is the best course.

[Brewer: The Redskins are building toward something. What that is, we don’t yet know.]

Barring a humiliating loss to the 2-13 Giants and an 11th-hour change of heart, Snyder will retain Gruden, who has three years remaining on his contract, and grant Allen a ninth year as his chief football adviser. If so, it would represent a departure for the often-impetuous owner. Since he bought the Redskins and their Landover stadium for $800 million in May 1999, Snyder has cycled through eight head coaches and 16 starting quarterbacks. Meanwhile, his investment has roughly quadrupled. As of September 2017, the Redskins were valued at $3.1 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Heading into the 2018 offseason, Snyder's focus, according to the team official, is on strengthening a roster that had three players selected to the Pro Bowl; resolving the uncertainty at quarterback (Is Kirk Cousins worth the $34.5 million a third franchise tag would cost to bar his departure? Is he worth the still-costly gamble of an NFL transition tag?); and figuring out how to prevent the plague of injuries that ended the season of more than one-third of the Week 1 starters.

Former Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann wasn't part of the closed-door deliberations that led to what was a relative easy decision to retain Gruden, 50, whose four-year record with a victory Sunday would be 29-34-1, with one division title. But Theismann's thinking on the issue — as well as on retaining Allen, 61 — mirrors that of Snyder's, as characterized by the team official.

"I know people call me an impossible optimist when it comes to this team, but I think you stay the course," Theismann said in a telephone interview. "To make wholesale change at this stage would be foolish.

"This is a football team that's got 19 guys on [injured reserve]. Kirk has had an incredibly solid year under duress; there were times when they dressed eight linemen, and three of them had joined the team that Wednesday. The litany goes on and on," Theismann said, ticking off needs at safety, inside linebacker and wide receiver. He also noted McCloughan's ouster and the promotion of Doug Williams, the Redskins' former Super Bowl MVP-turned front-office executive, to senior vice president of player personnel.

"If nothing else, you could call this a season of change, with tremendous inconsistency in every aspect," Theismann said. "There has been so much change at so many levels, it's very difficult to evaluate this football team. To go in and make changes based upon the year this team has had, I think, would be foolish. You're changing for change's sake."

Troubling numbers

The Redskins would end the season on a three game-winning streak with a victory at MetLife Stadium, where the Giants are three-point underdogs. But whatever encouragement that represents can't mask other business concerns.

Among the metrics the Redskins are tracking:

● Attendance. There were plenty of empty seats at FedEx Field this season, as well as a notable number of fans sporting opposing teams' jerseys. The venue's capacity has been reduced at least three times — from more than 91,000 to roughly 79,000.

● Ticket sales. For years, the Redskins boasted of 200,000 fans on their waiting list for season tickets. This season, as The Washington Post's Dan Steinberg reported, a fan could buy season tickets on the team's website in multiple locations and enjoy a $100 merchandise gift certificate as a thank-you gift.

[The Redskins still have a season ticket wait list. (The wait time is like 17 seconds)]

● Television ratings. Viewership in the Washington area for the Dec. 10 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers was among the lowest for any game in Snyder's tenure. It earned an 11.8 household rating in the D.C. market — only slightly better than the 11.5 rating earned by the simultaneous Rams-Eagles game. Earlier that Sunday, the Giants-Cowboys game on Fox earned a 14.4 rating in the D.C. market; later, the Steelers-Ravens game on NBC's "Sunday Night Football" earned a 16.2 rating in the D.C. market.

Much of the decline falls at the feet of Allen, the team president and son of the late Redskins coach George Allen, who remains Snyder's most trusted confidante on football matters.

Snyder hailed Allen as "the personification of an NFL winner" in announcing Allen's hiring as executive vice president of football operations and general manager on Dec. 17, 2009. "Our fans know his heritage; we know his abilities. He is the right person to lead our club," Snyder proclaimed in a statement.

But Allen's eight-year tenure has included two head coaches, six starting quarterbacks and a 52-74-1 record, making some believe the value of Allen's famous name might be tapped out. Many fans view him as a liability rather than an asset, and they voiced their sentiments via a "#FireBruce" campaign on social media following McCloughan's ouster in March.

Allen remains respected around the NFL, according to two people familiar with the league's inner workings. He has been active and vocal in representing the Redskins, along with Snyder, at NFL meetings, including when Allen vehemently voiced his displeasure with the salary-cap penalties imposed by the league on the team in 2012. It appears that episode hasn't been held against Allen by owners and top executives with other teams.

Allen declined to be interviewed for this story.

A fan asks: 'Is it worth it?'

Kevin Schultze, 49, a lifelong Redskins fan whose four season tickets have been in his family for three generations, initially shared Snyder's enthusiasm over Allen's hiring.

"I was excited," said Schultze, a Washington-based consultant from Chevy Chase. "We lived through the Coach Allen days; he did so much for our team. I thought it would be good. And I was happy in how he included the alumni, which Daniel Snyder did not do a good job with in the past. I do give the credit to Bruce Allen for having the homecomings and getting [running back John Riggins] and Darrell Green back. But as I've seen time go by, I am not happy at all."

Schultze's gripes are twofold: the failure to sign Cousins to a long-term contract and a game-day experience that only seems to worsen.

He said he has filled out numerous Redskins surveys, suggesting more parking-lot attendants to ensure fans who don't tailgate hours in advance don't have to negotiate with fellow fans over moving their grills and lawn chairs. He has seen the character of his seats in Section 101 change, with friendly faces replaced by visiting teams' fans who shout "Defense!" when the Redskins' offense is on the field.

"I spend $6,400 a year for four seats and parking; that's a heck of a lot of money," Schultze said. "As time goes by, fewer and fewer of my friends and family will go with me. Eventually you say, 'Is it worth it?' "

So as Gruden seeks an 8-8 finish and the front office turns to the offseason, Schultze, whose family started going to Redskins games in the 1940s, is weighing giving up the season tickets.

"There are two barometers: If Bruce Allen stays, I would be more likely to give the tickets up," Schultze said. "I lay all of this game-day experience at his feet, and it hasn't improved since he has been here. Also the general direction of the team, which has not been good.

"And if Kirk Cousins goes? Are you kidding me? After all these years we didn't have a quarterback, and because you didn't have a wherewithal to look ahead, we're going to lose him? That's what I'll be looking at. I will be evaluating the Redskins like they evaluated Kirk."

Mark Maske contributed to this report.