Today was the press conference with Maryland authorities including Prince George’s County Executive Jack Johnson, Delegation Chairs Sen. Anthony Muse and Del. Melony Griffith. I missed most of it because I forgot it started at 11:30am, but it lasted quite a good long while. Goff has some notes up on his blog here.
Highlights include:
- DC United is hoping to by in the stadium by late 2011, or maybe 2012. That means they must be planning to break ground REAL SOON.
- Seating will be approximately 24,000 seats. One end will have a stage that will is covered by seats during matches (will they bounce like at RFK?).
- Stadium will cost $195 million. Of which DC United will cover 25% (my rough math puts the number at close to $50 million). They were very emphatic that no “existing” taxes will be used to pay for the stadium. I’m going to assume, that means they will finance it by collecting taxes on the development after it’s all built. This leads me to believe it will be part of a larger development.
- DC United projects about 60 events per year (screw you Fenty, and your estimate of like 15-20 events per year). This icludes DC United games, Washington Freedom (women’s soccer), Maryland Terrapins, ACC Tournaments, and concerts.
Good news all the way around. Obviously, the best scenario would have been a stadium in the city and specifically at Poplar Point. But since that wasn’t happening, I’m just glad DC United will get a piece of land anywhere in the DC Metro area.