DC United Stadium In PG County

A Fan's Perspective by PJ

On Monday DC United top brass held a press conference with PG county government officials announcing their intention to build a new 24,000 seat soccer specific stadium in the county.

I'm cautiously optimistic about this development. I'm going to miss the bouncing seats at RFK, but it is literally falling apart. The lights go out during games. There are potholes in the parking lot large enough to swallow an SUV. More importantly, DC is never going to be profitable there. Victor Macfarlane, Kevin Payne and company are business owners. They're not doing this to lose money. In the long run no profits equals no team, so I don't know how anyone can deny the need for a move to a soccer specific stadium.

I and every other DC United fan would prefer the stadium to be in the city. Urban stadiums are just cooler, they're centrally located for the entire fan base, and they look great on TV (see Toronto). On top of that the team is DC United. It feels sort of wrong for them to play in the suburbs.

That said, I'm amazed at how enraged of a lot of fans, particularly those from NOVA, are about the potential move. It isn't like DC United didn't do everything they could to build a stadium in DC. The DC government has made it clear that they don't care about DC United getting a stadium. DC United has spent a ton of time and money on community outreach. They've worked with the city for years hoping to revitalize the Poplar Point area. And they've put up with constantly changing bid requirements for that redevelopment. Meanwhile, the city council is busy focusing on dreams of luring the Skins away from one of the most profitable stadiums on earth. A soccer specific stadium in DC is simply not going to happen. The only conclusion is that DC needs to look for a stadium in Maryland, Northern Virginia, or, god forbid, another city.

This is where a lot of fans lose me. If you read the comments on Goff's blog you'd think this is the end of the world. Admittedly, the comments on a blog are generally not the place to look for reasoned and considered discourse (my man Chest Rockwell excepted) There also are a lot of people saying reasonable things. Still, I'm surprised at how angry some people are. A lot of Virginians are pissed. Check out some of the comments:

"Total Joke. Good bye DC United. The end of a (great) era. No way I am driving out to PG county for games…how would I get home (ie I like to have beers at the game which makes metro a great option) There goes the spirit of the crowd. It has been said, but ask the Redskin fans to compare the two experiences. Thanks for a losing team and bad stadium location Victor." – kramva

"the fact is since dc united started fans from NOVA have been pulling the freight and been the majority of what is widely considered the best fan base in MLS. We just got hosed. Good luck with "changing" your fan base kevin payne. Let us know how that works out for you." – restonhoops

"I think 24,000 seats in PG will be plenty. The Wizzards/Capitals move to town & the Redskins apparent interest in returning is telling. McFarlane is brilliant, but even he can't make a wasteland 'urban'." – SWTrevor

Now, don't get me wrong, I understand Virginia / Maryland rivalry. As a proud Marylander I get angry every time I cross the Potomac. So I would certainly be disappointed about a move to Virginia. Hell, I live in PG County and I'm still disappointed about a move to PG County. But it isn't like the team is moving to the SoccerPlex way out in Germantown. They're looking around Morgan Boulevard. We're talking about four metro stops. It's next to the Beltway. This is adding 15-20 minutes if you're coming from Virginia. We're not talking about Bridgeview or Frisco. We're not talking about FedEx field, which goes out of its way to make the Metro inconvenient and seats 90,000 traffic clogging fans. If the stadium was being built in Arlington I'd be upset about visiting the former confederacy more often, but I wouldn't cancel my season tickets.

To be clear, my defense is conditional on picking one of the metro accessible sites. The stadium needs to be metro accessible by foot.

Finally, we're still a long way away from singing "How Many Trophies Have You Won?" at dejected Red Bulls fans in a new stadium. So until that glorious day, everyone needs to calm the hell down and hope that DC gets an appropriately sized, modern, metro accessible stadium sometime in the near future.

¡Vamos United!

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Christian Gomez Goes Back to DC

Christian Gomez can pick his drum back up and get reacquainted with the Barra Brava because he is on his way back to DC United. Colorado and DC have completed a trade that sends Gomez, Mike Graczyk (GK), and an international slot to DC and Ivan Guerrero, a 2010 2nd round draft pick, and a DP slot to Colorado (with Colorado picking up about half of Gomez's salary).

Looks like Colorado won on this trade at first, but the more you look at the trade, I think it is more even than it originally comes across. DC picks up an international player slot, and trades Guerrero for Gomez while only picking up about a $60,000 cap hit (Guerrero made $140,000 while DC United should only have to pick up about $200,000 of Gomez's $385,000 salary). Other analysts might highlight the exchange of the DP slot, but that was going to go back to Colorado after this year anyway, so if United wasn't planning on using it, why not give it back? A lot of this depends on Gomez regaining his form of course (At least he'll be on the field more than Gallardo). As for Colorado, they drop an expensive player they didn't plan to use, gain a solid veteran, and now have the option of adding a DP. Not bad.

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MLS Signings and Player Moves

There have been a few signings, moves and trades in American soccer the past couple days so I am just going to jump right into them. Scott Sealy is no longer an MLS player, having signed with Maccabi Tel Aviv FC yesterday. Toronto FC dealt Todd Dunivant(pictured above) to LA for allocation money (I thought TFC needed defenders?) and re-signed Rohan Ricketts after already re-signing Carl Robinson and Danny Dichio earlier in the season. Currently, the TFC website only lists 5 defenders in all on their entire roster. DC United GK Zach Wells is apparently considering retirement and San Jose just signed a big forward in Cam Weaver(kind of lessens the blow of losing Sealy).

My thoughts on the above moves are as follows. I am already liking Bruce Arena's influence on the Galaxy as he acquires more modestly priced defenders to shore up his defense (no more Abel Xavier). Toronto has a talented midfield and attack, but they are definitely lacking in defense and goalkeeping (they did draft Stefan Frei, but I am sorry Greg Sutton is Pat Onstad's far less talented twin). As a DC fan, I could care less about what Wells does as long as we sign our second round pick, Milos Kocic, to a contract. Concerning San Jose, I don't see them winning the league, but they have done a pretty good job of building a pretty solid roster. That being said, I am not totally sold on Cam Weaver becoming the impact striker they definitely need.

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Monday MLS News and Notes

This past weekend, Landon Donovan made his Bayern Munich debut, going 90 minutes in a friendly against Al Jazeera and recording an assist in a 3-2 win. Kansas City showed other MLS teams how you should negotiate, by signing Claudio Lopez to a new, non-DP deal. Lopez had a slow start last year but finished strong, and should be a valuable asset to the Wizards especially now that he isn't a Designated Player. Gonzalo Peralta is returning to Argentina after an injury plagued season with DC United and the Red Bulls will be playing a team comprised of a few players you may have heard of, on June 14th. Finally, there may be trouble with the stadium for the Philadelphia MLS team. At least the DC mayor has come through with the stadium he promised to DC United fans, o wait, hold on a second.......

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DC United Making Moves

Before the start of last season, DC United looked to be the favorite to win the Supporter's Shield once again. Skip ahead to a year later and most analysts aren't even penciling them into the top four in the Eastern Conference. As a result DC is focusing on keeping the players that performed well for them last year, and they have taken two steps forward in that regard by resigning Marc Burch as well as Santino Quaranta (Clyde Simms and Devon McTavish have already signed contract extensions). Despite their lackluster performance last season, with the addition of a quality center back and a couple young talents through the draft, DC United could be return to their usual place among the MLS elite. That is of course if Marcelo Gallardo, Luciano Emilio, and Fred can all stay healthy. Now we we just have to wait and see what happens with veteran Bryan Namoff's contract situation (O and if Ben Olsen makes a miraculous recovery).

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