I like grass too. I mean, like most soccer fans, I like grass. You know what I'm trying to say. While I doubt it would happen, the site of this year's Super Bowl is proof that grass can exist in a dome. It's the land that is valuable. There are already plans for mixed development and maybe a mall... I saw some numbers not too long ago, but don't have time to look them up right now. It may not make up the entire $1 billion+ required, but my point is that the man is sitting on piles of money. The money would come from bonds, the NFL, out of pocket and a million other sources, but the point stands.
Thanks, but either the picture I saw was too small for a decent amount of detail, or this is a different one, as that stadium looks more generic than DC's proposal, and it does not appear to have the hotel built into one side (the park side) But this is probably less a statement of what the stadium would actually look like, than just a rough indication of where it would be and the general environment around it.
-I am confused about the Redskins stadium. Its huge, lots of luxury suites, relatively new and not that far out in the suburbs. So why does the owner want to come back into DC proper? -That has got to be the biggest waste of money... who paid for that stadium and what year did it open?
Well, most stadiums have a 30 year life cycle (read it somewhere.) And this proposed stadium isn't going to be built overnight. With the DC government and federal government involved, expect a wait of about 10 years. Snyder is just getting the ball rolling. Snyder must think the RFK site is a great site for a new Redskin stadium. It already has the infrastructure built in minus the parking spots for 35,000 extra fans. However, the big difference between RFK and FedEx is that Snyder controls 90%+ of the parking at FedEx and DC controls all of the parking at RFK. Why he'd want to move is beyond me.
While FedEx is more modern than RFK, it was never considered a 'State of the Art' facility. It opened missing a lot of amenities and has continually been upgraded, and more and more seats have been shoe-horned in. It's a case of a owner (Jack Kent Cooke) not having enough money to really pull off his plan.
As I understand it: Snyder wants to host a super bowl. Rumor has it that the NFL has promised X amount of super bowls in the next 15 years if Snyder builds a retractable roof stadium.
It should be noted that while JKC built the stadium on the cheap, Snyder has invested quite a bit of money into the stadium after buying it. IIRC, he added a glass facade, seats, gutted and rebuilt the club level and added more options for pre/post game. FedEx is definitely his stadium now, he paid around $400 mil for it when he bought the franchise and he's added more to it.
Franco Neill and Richie Willaims fits in the FedEx seats wonderfully.There's more physical contact between the fans than on the feild, it's ridiculous how small those seats are!
Worst fan experience for me was this year at Fenway for the first time...I could barely extract my butt from that seat and my knees were ramming the shoulders of the person in front of me... Left in the 7th inning, thank God. Not a problem for our new stadium, however. Who sits?
Article on current negotiations. http://washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080130/SPORTS/326800461/1005
We pay the Stadium Authority rent in order for them to collect the lion's share of the revenue generated on game day. I believe Prometheus had a better deal being chained to a rock getting his liver eaten by a hawk every day. That about cover it for you?
I was actually curious for details like what percentage of revenue goes to who, how much money the ads generate, and mostly when will there be a new lease agreement and how long will it be for.
-------- United has made clear its desire to build a soccer-specific stadium. Doing so would allow it to control all of the revenue at the facility, including money from luxury suites. The team had proposed building a stadium with mixed-use development at Poplar Point in Southeast, but talks between the city and team broke down last year. The District is expected to select a developer to build on the 110-acre tract soon; all of the finalists for the project have included a soccer stadium as an option in their plans. Meanwhile, officials are also in early talks about a new stadium in Prince George's County near the Greenbelt or New Carrollton Metro stations. The team also could pursue building a stadium elsewhere in the District, including on land near RFK. In any event, the team likely will remain at RFK until at least the 2010 season and most likely beyond. ---------
VM (in his chat with Goff) joked that United was basically on a month-to-month lease. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2008/01/dcu_stadium_progress.html ------ Do you have a lease to use RFK this year? "We're kind of on a month-to-month basis. (laughing) I don't think they are going to kick us out, but one never knows. Maybe there will be a little sign saying, 'Victor, you are not welcome.' I'm just teasing. ------ The DCSEC/city likely want to keep their options open, should they want to be able to raze the old stadium to make way for the DannyDome as soon as (and assuming that) the Redskins decide to come back to the city.
This morning on Connecting with the Mayor on nbc4, they presented Fenty with a question about the NFL team coming back to the city, and what that would mean for RFK's current tenant, "the" DC United. Fenty didn't really have a decent answer, other than to say that they first had to take care of the Nationals stadium, then they "can take care of DC United, we want them to have a new stadium, but it has to make sense for everybody", and then they could talk about the Redskins. He said the city may be drafting an official letter during this NFL off-season to Snyder about the possibilty of building a new NFL stadium in DC. nbc4's website should have a link to this not-very-informative Q&A with Fenty at some point soon. link to today's Connecting with the Mayor on nbc4 http://video.nbc4.com/player/?id=212075
Not to mention the fact Zeus loosed the curse of females on the human race because of that joker. And just for stealing the Chicago Fire? I mean who wants them anyway? Bunch of wankers.
So basically the story is we're trying to get a bigger chunk of change from a sports commission that already lost its biggest revenue source and is scrambling to cover a deficit, we don't have a realistic alternate site to use as leverage and even if we did we're still stuck at RFK until 2010. I like our odds.
i don't think they've "lost" the Nats, they've just moved out of RFK. does not the DCSEC have some (if not a majority) of the control of the new Nats ballpark? hard to know what the details of the agreement are with MLB/Nats, but I do think DCSEC has a significant revenue stream from that new baseball stadium.