Stadium News XVI:: Yes Virginia, There is NO Santa Claus

No.

 

FFS, roll up those sleeves and get to it, c'mon chang/mcfarlane/co., we need our own stadium!

at the least, can we get a solid deal that won't actually hurt us at RFK?

 

You're right. My reaction was inappropriate for an unstickied thread.

 

Even better than deconstructing FedEx totally to make an SSS, you could do what Vancouver is doing with BC Place and their fabric roof plan.

You could lower the roof to make FedEx Field into a 25-30K SSS (what's the capacity of just the lower level?) and then if you wanted a 90K World Cup venue or venue for international tourneys, friendlies, etc., you lift the roof to the top of the stadium and you're done.

The company that does this: http://www.tenarafabric.com/gallery.html

Before:



After (very rough Photoshopping):



I'm not factoring in the economics of building versus retrofitting in this render. Just food for thought.

 

Now its on to Loudoun County. That would be sweet.

 

No. No it wouldn't be.

 

That roof cost $200 Million.

 

Agreed. No metro and henious traffic. Not to mention nearly an hour from DC.

 

A. Why the hell does DC United need a full roof?

B. Fed Ex Field's actual Field is too small for international play. I doubt United would sink money into a facility that's not going to bring the National Team.

C. The best plan for Fed Ex includes TNT and/or C4.

 

What they would need to demolish are the first 4-5 rows all around the field - Thats a lot of retrofitting - I think its probably better to build the stadium on the parking lot grounds closest to the Metro

 

Contingency is probably New Carrollton

 

• As has been pointed out, FedEx is too small for a regulation soccer field. There are concrete walls preventing it, so it's not as if you can just remove some temporary bleachers
• From your rendering, half the punts in a match would hit something in that roof assembly
• $$$$

 

However, in light of the never ending stream of NO F^CKIN REAL NEWS about a stadium, we've got to admit that equus did successfully offer up some 'thought food' for us to chew on, although I'm not sure much thinking was required.

Having now chewed and spit it out, what non-news and idle speculation shall we focus on next?

 

Don't even think about it. Fed Ex Field is an unbelievably disastrous & dumb stadium that is horrific to drive into and out of on game day. It's a catastrophic monument to the raging egomania of Jack Kent Cooke. Gulag architecture. The only reasonable thing to do with the Big Jack, from a sports standpoint, is to implode it, hopefully sooner rather than later.

 

Uh...thanks. I think.

Seriously, I hope the powers-that-be can get their collective $#!+ together and get you guys an SSS to be proud of. You deserve it.

 

You thought correctly...the thinking part referred to us, not you.

 

With Dan Snyder standing at the 50 yard line.

 

Wouldn't it be a lot easier to drive to if only 25,000 people were going?

 

It's a very dreary, unimaginative stadium located on a relatively inaccessible parcel of land. Well, they did put in a Metro station within a reasonable walking distance of Fed Ex Field. Greenbelt (which is near the Capital Beltway, a Metro Station and the major north/south MARC/Amtrak train lines -- and would be more accessible to fans coming from Montgomery County, MD, Baltimore, Northern Virginia and the District) would be a far better location.

Really, the Big Jack in and of itself isn't that special. Ravens Stadium (a/k/a M&T Bank Stadium), which is about a half-hour north or so north on I-95 is far, far, far superior in style & quality even though both stadiums were built about the same time. Which is another way of saying that Jack Kent Cooke built Fed Ex Field on the cheap. The smart thing for D.C. United to do would be to start from scratch.

 

Stadiums are almost always easier to tear down then re-fit. I don't see us ever playing at FedEx. But things are so bad with the stadium silence, god only knows where we'll be playing in a few years.

 

Particularly since they do it all by themselves.

From an Aug. 27, 1999, Washington Post story:

 

You completely ignored my question, though. I'm not a fan of FedEx field whatsoever but it's impossible to argue that it would not be substantially easier to get in and out of with 25,000 people going instead of 90,000.