Alert: Stadium News, Speculation and Possible Truthiness XXV: The Secret Word is... Possibilities.

Weak sauce, isn't it? "Hope" is good, but not as good as cash.

 

That is actually, in a perverse way, the most positive Gray has sounded about the possibility. His tone was way more practical than usual, and the raw number of words is at least a little different than a guy for whom I can't remember the last time he uttered more than three sentences about the team. Lastly, the statement that he needed to meet with the team seemed new; in the past, the attitude of the Gray administration and of Fenty's later administration was that the team needed to come up with a reason to get in his front door.

Not that this is anywhere close to a 'stadium deal'--it's not even stadium talks. And DCU is in a bit of a holding pattern waiting for the economy to come around, as well as something of a Catch-22 where a stadium deal needs more investorship, and investorship is probably looking for a stadium deal to get interested.

I remember that latter scenario from the Dallas Burn back in the day, when the intimation was that either Tom Hicks or Mark Cuban would be willing to look at investing in the team if they already had a stadium, but a team with no owner wasn't very well placed to get one. (The combination of ambitious exurbs, first McKinney and then Frisco, easy access to tax increment financing, high school districts willing to front money for a facility they can use, and Lamar Hunt ended up breaking that logjam.)

 

You touched on a key point here, too: now, while the economy is down (and real estate values are low) is the time to make this kind of investment to maximize profitability. It is a cruel coincidence that this is exactly when most investors have the least capital to actually invest.

 

Absolutely. Real estate market is depressed, construction costs are lower, and the 'temporary jobs' people usually turn their noses at actually mean something. Whether we're talking government or private sector, if you had the cash, this would be a great time to get moving. If.

 

Yep. Remember that scene from "It's a Wonderful Life"? When others are panicking, Potter's buying...

 

The real estate market is not depressed in the core of Washington DC - where everyone wants United to build a stadium. That is one of the major problems with this project (well, non-project) - land is too valuable here. Even well after the real estate crash a few years ago. Not all markets are built the same.

The only positive about the downturn is some land (like Buzzard Point) might be available for a price, whereas in 2008 even finding the space to build an expensive stadium was tough. Even that large swath of Ward 8 was seen as land that couldn't be "given away" by Fenty in a sweetheart deal. Sad thing is, if United was able to bring that kind of plan to Gray's desk now - he'd probably be delighted (depending on that old "infrastructure" chestnut). Gray just told us what we should already know - if we want a stadium in the city, get a sh*tload of private cash together and talk to me then.

 

More from Stouffer

and a follow-up of his
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/penalty-kicks/2011/10/dc-united-and-rfk-stadium