WP - Washington's Team Belongs In D.C.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/09/AR2006060901365.html

Baseball is back in Washington, and football may follow. Even though the Washington Redskins' stadium is not even 10 years old, D.C. officials plan to approach team owner Dan snyder this summer about building a new stadium in the city, according to the May 5 Washington Business Journal. Why would he consider this? There are two great reasons for him to bring the Washington Redskins home.


What do you guys think? Personally, i don't think this is a bad idea. With Snyder as our owner, imagine what kind of venue the Redskins could have. And he might be willing to dish out more money to pay for it instead of letting the taxpayers suffer. I wouldn't mind seeing a new stadium built.

Well, from the standpoint of someone who isn't from VA or MA, it doesn't really bother me that they play in Landover right now. But I guess it would be fitting to move the stadium back to DC. Just seems a bit unecessary.

I love the thought of the skins playing in DC (though I agree with Tripp that it doesnt bother me that we don't). This would definitely be an opportunity for Snyder to showcase his $$ value and build a great stadium and a different location would be nice since our current one isnt the greatest. The only problem is that I don't know if we could keep the stadium as big as it is now in DC, which isnt good since I love selling out a 90,000+ seat stadium.

The guy makes some good points. I don't think Snyder wants a publically funded stadium - even if it is just the land - simply because he wants all of the profits. With a team as profitable as our Skins, this is huge. Now, if he is given the opportunity to purchase land in DC and sell FedEx at the same time, I think he would definitely jump on it. I could easily see him building a 125k+ seat stadium with a retractable roof.

I would like it because Fed Ex just isn't that nice a stadium. The best thing about it is that it holds 90, 000, but we all know that RFK at 55, 000 was louder and more intimidating. And Fed Ex was built before the real trend towards high quality modern stadium architecture got going. He could build a real gem, with good sight lines, the most modern DIGITAL replay scoreboards, good food, etc. And it would be another good thing for the distrcit, which needs it more than MD. BUt my guess is given the city's politics, it'll never happen. (But I thouhgt Joe Gibbs would never come back, so what do I know! ;))

I definitely do not seeing this happen any time soon (the next 10 years). I mean Fedex is still relatively new as far as stadiums go and it seats 94,000 or whatever. I doubt Snyder wants to invest all that money into building another stadium as of now. I could see it happening down the road though.

I would like it because Fed Ex just isn't that nice a stadium. The best thing about it is that it holds 90, 000, but we all know that RFK at 55, 000 was louder and more intimidating. And Fed Ex was built before the real trend towards high quality modern stadium architecture got going. He could build a real gem, with good sight lines, the most modern DIGITAL replay scoreboards, good food, etc. And it would be another good thing for the distrcit, which needs it more than MD. BUt my guess is given the city's politics, it'll never happen. (But I thouhgt Joe Gibbs would never come back, so what do I know! ;))

I agree! Fed Ex was built right before the new Camden Yards versions of football fields were built. I hate to say it but the Linc looks like a sweet stadium.

Can you imagine a DC football stadium lit up on a Monday night, Skins vs Cowboys with the Washington Monument and the Capital building in sight? It'd be sweet.

If it were to happen, something would needed to be done about the acoustics. RFK sounded a LOT louder than Fed Ex with 90k. I'm not an architect, I dunno how it's possible...but it needs to be done :)

As far as the sentiment of the initial post...to me it doesn't really matter where they play, just as long as they're in the area and keep the name the same.

The city just wants to be greedy and to get a piece of the action.

It's stupid and wasteful.

NOT HAPPENING.

-FedEX has $350mill of debt still, and who the hell is going to buy it? 90k seat stadiums are exactly in high demand. The costs of tearing it down or remodelling it into something else would be insane too. and even if he get's the billion for it, he spent 800$mill in 1995 dollars so its a loss, AND you really think maryland isn't going to want any of that money? was the land leased or gifted to him or did he actually buy it outright?

-why would anyone want 125k stadium? with the crazy ticket prices (which will be even HIGHER to pay off the new stadium) it'd scream TV blackout. The skins SAY they've got a long line for tickets, but with the high prices, that's not necessarily true.

-Ths city is terrible to work with. Anyone know WHY the skins are in landover? it's cause the DC council couldn't agree on anything when cooke offered to pay ALL the costs of a new stadium. we saw how retardedly they dealt with the nats purchase, and now all of a sudden they're going to be model citizens and cooperate? sorry, no.

-stadium costs. synder would have to spend over a billion dollars making a new stadium on land he wouldn't even own. with the debt and the marginal to huge loss taken on selling FedEx to some ghost buyer, its a very expensive proposition that really offers synder nothing that's worth the hassles. If the district isn't going to throw money in (which its not) it's really not a good deal financially for him. recouping over 1-1.5billion dollars in ticket sales would take DECADES and the extreme prices of tickets would drive some people back to watching the skins on tv.

-The Traffic. The current stadium's traffic situation sucks and DC would be 10x as bad... and instead of clogging up the middle of nowhere, all of DC/MD/NoVA would be screwed up on sundays.



this article is purely speculation built upon the boredom of the offseason, but the idea is stupid from inception.

Developers would love to get their hands on that Landover property. Top dollar would be realized if sold.

I think Snyder could fill a 125k seat stadium and still have people on the wait list. Easily. Ticket prices for regular admission in the lower bowl are currently only $100 per seat. That's not that expensive.

I also don't believe that traffic would be screwed up for the whole region. If a stadium were to be built in the district, it would most certainly revolve around the proximity to Metro.

Stadium Costs. I don't think Snyder how much a stadium would cost if it means that his yearly net would go up. So what if it would take longer to pay off if you were pulling in a few more million right now to spend?

You're right about the city. It is run by a band of idiots.

I'm not saying that this is going to happen, but I don't think it can just be brushed off as being simply stupid. There are conditions that could make this happen.