Stadium Vote expected by Dec 7, is soccer part of the package?

I think the understanding is that little to no taxpayer money will be used to build the SSS except for some of the infrastructure like sewer, roads, etc. (if needed) The only votes that would come up should be in planning and zoning for the stadium.

 

Garbaggio make some very good points.

And I wouldn't be so sure that there won't be a significant public investment in the new SSS/venue - not as significant as $550 million, and with a hefty investment from AEG, but still enough to raise eyebrows in this city.

Even if the city is only asked to float the bonds to finance the constuction through a TIF formula, there could (will) be opposition - especially when coupled with the NIMBY sentiment Garbaggio talks about.

 

They need to approve the stadium site for Poplar Pointe before the crackhead gets into office or he'll stop it for sure.

 

By crackhead, surely you don't mean Marion Barry, surely he's not running for mayor any time soon. And of course if he does run, the Residents of DC won't elect him Again, no, that's cleary not going to happen....

 

Barry just got elected to represent Ward 8, and along with Brasil loosing the City Counsel is now tilted in favor of the anti-development NIMBYs who'd rather keep SE DC as a slum than build there. That's why the vote for the stadium is Dec 7 if it was Jan 7 it would lose for sure.

 

I think Jack Evans won't let it fail.

 

Actually, MB just ran for and won Ward 8 by a huge margin, MB got something like 75% of the vote. So yes, he might get back into the Mayor's office in the future. More than sad, it is tragic, but DC tends to be a polarized area, and if they determine that they like someone, it really doesn't matter what that person does.

I agree that we need to strike while the iron's hot on the Stadium issues. The NIMBYs will definitely rally to derail it as they see it as a chance to do something that they couldn't do against baseball. I don't want them saving their self-esteem at DC United's expense. The time to act is now, so I hope all of our limited political weight is being put towards expediting all of the political hurdles ASAP.

-Digital

 

1) Barry squeeked in with 96% of the vote in Ward 8. He'll win easily for Mayor whenever he chooses to run.

2) It's not that he and the other council-members are anti-stadium. They just don't want it to be 100% publicly funded. The city chipped in for "infrastructure" for MCI, but Pollin did the rest. That's the way it should be. Call the MLB bluff and let them try and find another metro area that is willing to come up with 100% public funding. I doubt they can, and if they could, it wouldn't have the demographics the DC area does. MLB made DC look like a bitch in those negotiations because Tony wants a stadium to be his legacy.

3) A SSS, funded by AEG, will have little or no problem sailing through any council. Especially since Barry will likely be mayor again by the time it's being built, he'll be hot to put it in Ward 8.

 

Don't overestimate Barry's intelligence. He'll likely listen more to the woman who said blacks don't play soccer than he would to the bean counters telling him the revenue will be good for the city. He likes to be the "people's politician" and will do stupid things to keep that moniker.

 

So is RFK to be torn down? Are they building the new stadium in one of the parking areas? Or is it on a different site?

 

From a Washington Post story:

"After the Expos and D.C. United moved into the new venues, Tuohey said the 43-year-old RFK Stadium, a Washington icon that was once home to the Redskins and the Senators, "probably is going to be torn down."

Tuohey said the stadium would be "expensive to maintain and run," adding that a long-range planning group is now studying future uses for the RFK footprint.

Poplar Point is a little-known 110-acre area across the Anacostia River from the Washington Navy Yard. It boasts great views of the Capitol and downtown, a Metro station and 60 acres of rarely visited meadows. As part of its ambitious initiative to redevelop the Anacostia waterfront, the city wants to create a major riverfront park on Poplar Point and surround it with a new neighborhood of residences, businesses and other attractions.

City officials said a soccer stadium and other athletic facilities could easily fit into the vast area and serve as a public attraction that would spur additional mixed use development."

For a view of the relationship of Poplar Point to DC and RFK:

 

Thanks. That was quite a thorough response.

 

Reports are that the council is steamrolling ahead with the proposal and the anti-stadium groups are losing out in a big way. I'm beginning to believe that it would have been a good idea for United to tack on a "rider".

Tim

 

I'm sure I'm missing something obvious here, but why are they talking about $500 million for a 40K seat baseball stadium and only $25 million for a 25K seat soccer stadium? How can there be a $475 million dollar difference?

 

For starters, the Baseball site is an urban site that will need a lot of demolition and reconstruction. The soccer site is essentially open fields. The civil bit of the construction is likely a major component of the $500 million. Second, there are significant infrastructure improvements with the baseball site, including highway/road reworking. As far as I know, the soccer site will be minimal road and infrastructure improvements. Next, there's parking. The baseball 40K parking in a relatively cramped area is a lot more expensive undertaking than 25K in an open space. So, you've got to put a lot more money into that.

Finally, the baseball stadium will no doubt be completely over the top posh. If they don't have corinthian leather smoking chairs in every luxury box, they'll never attract the fat cat lobbyists and Republican establishment they're dying to suck up to.

Tim