D.C. United is looking at sites outside D.C. for its new stadium, according to a recent team letter, the strongest response yet to Mayor Adrian Fenty’s decision to offer Poplar Point for competitive development.
In a letter to Fenty dated Oct. 1, United co-owner Victor MacFarlane and team President Kevin Payne declared a “strong preference” for D.C. United to leave RFK Stadium for Poplar Point, federal parkland east of the Anacostia River that will soon be controlled by D.C.
“However, given the uncertainty around the [request for expressions of interest], the unhurried pace of the negotiations with the federal government on the land transfer, and the fact that our current situation is not financially feasible, we have begun discussions with surrounding jurisdictions about alternative stadium sites,” MacFarlane and Payne wrote.
D.C. United, Major League Soccer’s most successful franchise, has angled for a new stadium on Poplar Point for years. MacFarlane, a developer, bought the team earlier this year with an eye on a major mixed-use development on the site.
But the Fenty administration has offered no indication that it prefers a stadium for Poplar Point, and in the middle of the year it issued its request for interest to the development community — putting the project up for competition.
The team letter listed the demands: 13 acres for a stadium and related uses, economics on par with other jurisdictions’ offers, a green development, a renegotiated RFK lease and a new stadium open by 2010.
A Fenty spokeswoman could not be reached for comment.
