I' happy to learn that the new Akridge development will feature shops and restaurants but, sadly, they are on the south side of Audi Field and won't be of much use for those of us walking in from the Metro stops north of the field.
The location is good. The stadium is relatively weak. The team sucks. Nothing more to say. Close the thread.
MacFarlane's original Poplar Point included a large hotel with shops and restaurants attached to the stadium (with its own team store and eateries). Along with apartments, businesses, a community college/job training center. The stadium may have been the starting center piece, but the whole proposal went a lot further. All of this development was WITHIN Poplar Point, with no displacement of then current businesses, shops and restaurants. Kevin Payne did a helluva a lot of quiet groundwork within the community. There was considerable support. I remember at a End of Season Fall Party (to fund then then team's charity United for DC) I was talking to a older black businessman from Anacostia who was supportive, said nearly all the other black small businessmen were behind it, and said that the mayor would listen to them and accept the deal. Unfortunately, Republicans from the plains states in some House sub-committee wanted to talk about girls snorting coke in school bathrooms, and the legislation for the land swap languished for 2 years. By the end of that time, the real estate crash happened, the pissing match started, and Nats park was leaving manure dumps on city planners' desks.
Whenever the issue of DC Statehood comes up, remember, some dipshit from South Dakota can ******** around with what happens in DC because it isn't even a Territory, it's a federal enclave carved out to satisfy George Washington's real estate speculation.
Funny, because to me the description is incomplete -- I've also seen people saying what's missing for them re: Audi Field, and other people telling them explicitly, in so many words, that they're wrong for feeling that way. Which, of course, is par for the course online so I wasn't surprised.
Since none of those three things are the main reason *I'm* unhappy with the team and the F.O., to my mind there's something more to say.
It's not about defending billionaires. They should have spent more money on improvements to the stadium, a full roof around the stadium, or even just finish the roof they already have. And they should still find a way to make tailgate space work. I just don't think spending tens of millions more solely for the purpose of building parking on some of the most expensive undeveloped land on the east coast was prudent or realistic. And it's pretty unlikely the city would have gone along with it either. And it's just my opinion but what we ended up with is vastly superior to some of the ideas you've thrown around in this thread like moving to Baltimore, a suburban site, or waiting on a better site to materialize.
I've never understood how the parking garages that the city built and paid for cannot be used for DCU games.
I 100% agree that the garages at Nats Park should be used for DCU games, as long as it's not a day where DCU and the Nats both play (which should be fairly rare by this point). It would solve a lot of issues, especially as that lot just south of AF is going away.
I don't know if anyone remembers back to the zoning docs, but the whole fan walk space was supposed to have a variety of activities including bands, entertainment tailgating. Instead, we have the obligatory giveaway tents from Audi, Continential, Monster, OrthoVA.
IIRC, all of that got shitcanned early on because one of the parcel owners, I believe Akridge, played hardball and then there was the Pepco easement and so on and so on.
Was it the Pepco easement that prevented the entire stadium footprint from shifting eastward? Just 30-50 or so more feet would have permitted the western walk space to include more eateries and fan stuff.
To the Southwest, there's a huge transformer station. Just as big as the one across the street to the North. To the East is Fort McNair, and DOD wouldn't allow anything being built OVER the sidewalk along the outside of AF.
I am not talking about anything in the stadium. I am talking about the relatively open space that is about half to three quarters the length of the stadium on the eastern edge where all sorts of stuff was promised in those docs and so far not executed upon. The space (bounded by 1st & Half St and Potomac & S St) and the land exists and does not appear presently earmarked for development.
you have it backwards - to the west is Ft McNair. The east side has the empty grass area which is slated to become a hotel. At opening the grass area (which truthfully was more straw than grass - another mistake made - waiting too long to seed it) did have picnic tables, a bandstand, cornholio boards and stuff). But even before the end of the season Leviathan and manglement essentially closed it off/abandoned its potential (and reneging on the "promise" of providing the SGs tailgate space), even if was to be only a few short years before hotel construction started.
Would be interested to know what the issue is. Do the Nats just absolutely refuse to open them? Has DCU even tried? Does the city have any say in it? Yeah, they make no effort here. I always wondered whether the team could try to get 3rd St closed for a few hours for tailgating or other events--the Red Sox have done this around Fenway for years--but they don't even try to use their own space leading up to Audi Field.
So this was the video the club published today on their Youtube channel and it really highlights the things about Levien that make stick with the club and hate him. Like he believes in a major, major way but the delivery of things down to the individual fan is just not there. the one thing that he's selling without saying here is that he wants us to buy into the project which is essentially rebooting DCU, but the club left a major piece out of the plan, which was building the team as part of the move as opposed to hoping it happened with Rooney
He's proud of himself for doing a real estate deal that will continue to pay him dividends after more of the properties in which he invested open up. That makes the video clip that he surely approved, but not "here's how I measure success when it comes to the club, the coach, the GM, and the players." This is a guy who is just fine with a decade of mediocrity.