News: Screw you Lucy - Buzzard Point Stadium News Thread

We will have hit rock bottom if it becomes either SEAT or Skoda Field.

 

The best parts on my Audi were stamped VW, no kidding

YUGO United! Has a real ring of truthiness, don't it?

 

I drove a Seat Leon across Spain after the rental agent said it was way nicer than a VW Golf. It was not. Of course it was also my first time driving a manual (after only a 2 hr lesson). I made my fiancee cry on multiple occasions with my driving "ability". I'm pretty sure it almost caught on fire after I struggled up a hill. Good trip. Luckily she agreed to marry me before we left Barcelona.

 

Washington DC: How the Audi Stadium can improve DC United's form in MLS
http://stadiumdb.com/news/2017/06/w...di_stadium_can_improve_dc_uniteds_form_in_mls

 

FWIW, there was some kind of old flythrough rendering of the venue on display in RFK. I assume it's the same thing that has been shown at those Union Market preview events.

 

key up celluloid heroes, it's an LA thing and something that would never cross our FO's itty bitty imaginations

 

Uh-huh.
Just to be fair, if our FO had done something like that, we'd be hammering them for the stupidity of having us sign something that will never see the light of day again.
Take lots of pics now, LmfAoFC fans, that's the last you'll ever see of the fricking thing.

 

To me,
It's not so much the thing LAFC did, but the fact their HQ is using the stadium construction for what it is... marketing gold.

 

They had one of those in the Meadowlands for Jimmy Hoffa, right?

 

Betcha a nickel they will have a nicely presented replica or photo in a prominent spot, near the busts of Cobi Jones, Cienfuegos, Landon, and that Brit with all the tats. It's LA,

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/washingt...d-lands-120m-from-two-banksto-cover-some.html


D.C. United has a mortgage.

The Major League Soccer team has landed $120 million, via two forms of financing, to pay for its share of Audi Field, the $300 million, 19,000-seat stadium now under construction at Buzzard Point in Southwest D.C.



Audi signed a multiyear naming rights deal for D.C. United's new stadium.

According to trust and loan documents filed with the D.C. Recorder of Deeds, D.C. United has obtained a $95 million loan from Goldman Sachs and another $25 million in financing from EagleBank. The latter is through the District's PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program, which offers financing in exchange for energy saving building improvements. The PACE loan is repaid though special property tax assessments over a 20-year period and the amount financed does not count as company debt.

D.C. United declined to comment on the financing.

The soccer club and the District agreed in 2015 to share the stadium costs — D.C. would pay up to $150 million to acquire and prepare the land while the team would pay roughly the same for vertical construction.

D.C. United, which is leasing the land from D.C. for $1 per year, agreed to privately finance its piece, though it will receive property tax abatements and exemptions totaling at least $40 million over several decades. Audi signed on as the stadium sponsor in February.

That a major Wall Street institution like Goldman Sachs is willing to lay out so much for an MLS stadium is a mark of how far the league has come in its 21-year existence, our sister publication Sports Business Journal recently pointed out. In earlier years, soccer-specific stadium financing was structured more like a personal loan, with the ownership group backing the deal if team revenue was not sufficient to cover the loan. Newer loans are more like those in the NFL, NHL or MLB, with lenders willing to risk that their investment will be backed by revenues.

Goldman Sachs, meanwhile, has emerged as a sports facility power player, financing deals such as the new Yankee Stadium in New York, Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, and British soccer club Tottenham Hotspur’s new $900 million home in London, among others. In MLS circles, the bank lent L.A. Football Club $145 million for its new Los Angeles home.

D.C. United qualified for the PACE financing because of its environmentally friendly stadium features, including its aim for LEED Gold certification, LED lighting, stormwater conservation and solar panel installation, said Kenley Farmer, associate director ‎of D.C.'s Department of Energy & Environment. DOEE has arranged for about a dozen PACE loans since 2013, she said.

Site work has been underway at Buzzard Point for more than a year, with construction kicking off after the D.C. Zoning Commission approved the stadium design in February. Want to see progress? Check out the site cam that takes a new picture every 30 minutes. Turner Construction is the general contractor.

The team has set an ambitious timeline for construction as it hopes to leave aging RFK Stadium for Audi Field during the 2018 season. When it opens, Audi Field is expected to lead the transformation of Buzzard Point, which remains a gritty industrial neighborhood The stadium is expected to generate about $1 billion in economic activity and create 1,000 construction and permanent jobs, while developers have lined up to build new residential projects around it

 

I'd expect the ownership to finance the stadium. It's unusual for anybody to pay for major construction projects in cash. It's good that they seem to have gotten good financial terms where the stadium revenues are the collateral rather than ownership having to put up collateral out of personal assets like for the SSS's built in the 2000's.

 

Last night down by the cheesesteak stand, some reps had a drawing of what appeared to be a seating chart for the new stadium. I asked if it was the real seating chart (since my rep has said actual seat reservations won't occur until October for STH). I was told it was a "draft" but that the "real" seating chart would be released "soon." (Reported for accuracy of conversation but not the truth of the matter related by the rep.)

 

I'll miss the surroundings, i.e., Lot 8 and the tailgates.

 

I was told last night that in 2-3 weeks I would be contacted to talk about next year. But I am on the field so maybe that's why. I hope they have some sort of final or nearly final seating plan by the time they expect me to give them any money or a commitment.

That stadiumdb article reads very oddly. Was it written in some other language and translated or something?

 

OK, but paving the Audi entryway with bricks engraved with the names of long-term supporters would be even cooler. That way, we can show newbie-friends our name "in stone".
LAFC fans will only be able to point to the center circle and say "my name's on a chunk of cement buried 10 feet over *there*". Not as impressive.

 

At my job we're not building stadiums so I'm not sure what is a "standard" structure for this sort of real estate project, but we're generally around 30% equity/70% mortgage for our deals. They're only at 20% equity. Point is it's quite possible IMO that it's not cutting corners (sorry to disrupt the narrative) but just normal deal structure where it wouldn't make sense to take on the additional interest on $30M

 

Oops, but it's LA not the first time everyone gets mentioned in the credits regardless of the depth of involvement.