Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: Where Newbies Go to Get Flamed

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Yeah, I think you're right.

My prediction: Whatever happens on stadium-or-move front, the real news is going to drop like a bomb. KP and Chang are likely doing their level best to keep all of this out of the media (it's only hurt them in the past). Other than being happy to let it out that Baltimore is wooing them they don't want leaks.

This year or next an announcement will come out of the blue that a new partner is on board and a tentative stadium agreement has been reached with DC, or...they're folding their tent and moving to Baltimore (or wherever).

Meanwhile, any tiny bit of near news gets us creating a dozen new pages in this thread.

With all that said, though, I'm just relieved that it appears that DCU is still making a serious effort in DC.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Picturesque? The Anacostia? How long have you been here?

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Accessibility is a valid criterion for choosing a site, but when you don't have sites to choose from and the accessibility is being overblown (20 minutes is not a marathon), the criticism is valid, especially since we don't even know if this is a viable plan, but we already have fans bemoaning accessibility which hasn't been determined yet.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Meh, whatever it's failings, the DC government isn't going to let potential visitors (and tax revenue) get scared off.

Anyway, looking at that route, the only place you'd need to put cop cars is along the Potomac Avenue stretch. The walk from the Metro down South Capitol is fine.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

I've seen the walk from the Metrorail station to Buzzard Point described as a marathon. Why would United even consider that location?

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Can somebody come get me when the first shovel goes in the ground?

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Accessibility is indeed crucial in choosing a site - moreso because it completely changes the program of a stadium that you'd eventually build.

Nationals Park is a great example - they horrendously over-estimated the parking they'd require. The run-up to the first games were filled with doom and gloom about traffic armageddon. Never happened.

The best part about Buzzard Point is the likelyhood that Nationals games and DCU games would never be simultaneous, therefore things like parking could be used for both facilities.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

That should be a HECK of a tailgate party!

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

[Refer back to the image posted by Lord Batu on the previous page]


The Waterfront-SEU Metro stop at 4th & M St, SW is just straight up 4th St (in the upper-left corner) - I presume the Navy Yard Metro stop is just the other side of M St right at the ballpark - They would seem to be the same distance to the pictured DCU stadium site - And the walk from Waterfront would be down through residetial/condos and along the wall of Ft McNair - A lot more pedestrian friendly

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

The Nats will schedule their games when they want, without regard to what DCU is going to do. And their lease gives them complete flexibility to do that.

So if the games won't be simultaneous, it will be because DCU either voluntarily agrees, or is forced, to schedule all their games when the Nats are on the road. Wasn't that one of the team's major complaints about the sharing arrangement though?

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

The walk to/from Waterfront-SEU is the one people were talking about as going through a dodgy neighborhood, not the walk to/from Navy Yard. I'm a regular participant on the MPD-1D mailing list; a lot of the traffic on the list deals with incidents in that part of SW.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Losers can't be Choosers.

Let's get a stadium deal done. There will be time enough to worry about the details later.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

The color of the seats is garish. I'll never go.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

When I lived at Fort McNair a LONG time ago 4th Street was a nice neighborhood. Then the redevelopment Nazis decreed that the whole area should essentially be razed in favor of large apartment buildings with green space between the blocks. The area soon went to hell. I think things are better now.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

No, the Nats do not have complete flexibility to schedule as they'd like. I don't know if that's due to lease restrictions or whether it was a voluntary agreement with the city, but during that first season the Nats agreed to have zero weekday day games as a means to help avoid the predicted traffic doom that never happened.

I'd also note that having games be non-simultaneous does not mean they can't be on the same day - Baseball game at 1:05, Soccer at 7:05. Easy as pie. Unlike sharing at RFK, you don't need to switch the field around - instead, you're talking about using the same parking spaces.

I don't think it would be that big of a deal. If a few games are simultaneous, then they'd find a way to deal with it.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

are they still running shuttle buses from RFK lots to National's Stadium on ballgame days? if United builds in SW (or in DC anywhere really), there would be the potential for shuttles from the RFK lots, one would assume (and more shuttles on days when both the MLB and MLS games coincided). (not that Metro trains, streetcars, pedicabs, driving, boating, biking, walking to Buzzards Point wouldn't/couldn't be able to handle the majority of the spectator traffic for events and match dates at a new stadium for United.)

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

No, they stopped that this past season.

That provision was again part of the feared traffic DOOM that never came to fruition.

For a DCU stadium, shuttles certainly would be an option - either from remote parking lots or from nearby Metro stations.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

I'd be happy to see both the Nats and DCU commonly have games on the same day. I think having that many sports fans out and about would be a great atmosphere. And it would certainly raise DCU's visibility if we were taking the trains with Nationals fans (not that DCU and Nationals fans are mutually exclusive).

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

http://www.crimereports.com/

I'm not in District anymore, using above looks like a lot of car theft near Nationals stadium
I'm ok with that - when I'm in town, I use the metro.

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Looks like transit riders could take the 71 bus from the Waterfront Metro station "down The Buzzard"

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Doesn't this bus eventually run all the way up Georgia Ave to Silver Spring?

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Thanks for that.

So it's easily sellable to folks who go to Nats games -- "the new United stadium is just two or three blocks from home plate."

 

Re: Stadium News and Speculation XXIV: In Buzzard We Trust?

Yeah, it's that line. Pretty long haul from SS, but might be a reasonable way for folks in Petworth or Shaw to get to a game.