Stadium and investors are team’s hot topics
On the eve of a new season in which D.C. United hopes to bounce back from the worst on-field performance of its 15-year history, equally large questions loom off the field over its future as a franchise.
United remains in pursuit of both a new stadium — either inside the District or in Baltimore — and additional investors to bolster its ownership group. But team president Kevin Payne said one element of the equation isn’t required to make the other happen.
“They’re not necessarily linked,” Payne said. “I’m sure prospective investors will want to understand what the plan is for a stadium. I don’t think anybody would be enthusiastic about us remaining long term at RFK under the current circumstances, including us. That’s not going to happen.”
Payne said the team has considered “at least four sites” for a new stadium inside the District but declined to give specifics.
There are indications that the team has zeroed in on a one-block wide Akridge-owned lot at Buzzard Point in Southwest. Others intend to try and persuade both the team and the District’s new mayoral administration that a stadium would best serve as a development catalyst elsewhere. The team has toured Capital City Market near Florida and New York avenues in Northeast.
“There are solutions that we could collectively present to D.C. United versus what you see in Buzzard Point or any other location,” said Bruce Baschuk, chairman of developer J Street Cos. and of the NoMa Business Improvement District.
United has threatened to relocate to Baltimore if it cannot reach a deal with the District.
A feasibility study published in December said a Baltimore stadium would generate between 780 and 940 jobs and up to $6.4 million in tax revenues, but if simultaneous development around the stadium didn’t take place, the economic and fiscal benefits presumably would be less.
The study also cited a survey that said a vast majority of Baltimore businesses were not likely to purchase suites or club seats, the kind of amenities RFK Stadium lacks and United has cited as part of why it needs a new facility.
Payne disputed the survey’s validity.
“That wasn’t any kind of an aggressive, comprehensive or particularly scientific survey,” he said. “The whole thing is a hypothetical. We’re not too worried about if we were to relocate, whether or not the business community would support our team in Baltimore. I think Baltimore is a town that supports its sports teams when its teams are run well.”
Payne also remains confident he’ll be able to secure financing no matter the location.
“I don’t blame the fans for being concerned about where are we going to call home,” Payne said. “I know it’s been as challenging a situation for them as it has for us, and I think either the District of Columbia is going to decide that it’s important to keep us here or the city of Baltimore’s going to make a case that’s so compelling that we may choose to move.”
