Washington, D.C. Mayor councilmember (sorry, got my “Taking of Pelham One Two Three” characters mixed up) Vincent Orange wants to build a 100,000-seat “superdome” on the site of RFK Stadium to lure the NFL team with the horrible nickname back to town. Yeah, you read that right.
The 100,000 seat domed stadium complex would provide the opportunity for the Washington football team to return to the District as well as host large scale events such as Super Bowls, Final Fours, the Olympics, and Fédération Internationale de Football Association (“FIFA”) Soccer. “RFK is an antiquated and deteriorating stadium, and with D.C. United set to relocate, RFK will become an even bigger financial drain on the city,” Orange said. “The economic opportunities and employment opportunities that would result from a state-of-the-art stadium in the District are limitless.”
This is beyond screwy, not least of which because the trend in the NFL is to want fewer seats, not more than any stadium on the continent. But Orange is thinking big! So big that he can’t even be bothered to think about how much it will cost or who will pay for it — though given that he’s indicated that he wants the whole thing built by the time the NFL team’s lease in Maryland is up in 2027, he can probably leave details like that to the next mayor.
So why the heck is he announcing this now? To get credit for thinking big, certainly, though it also undoubtedly gives a boost to the city’s 2024 Olympic bid, plus helps D.C. United in their talking points for their new stadium in Buzzard Point. (“We can’t stay at RFK! It’s going to be torn down to make way for the Enormodome!”) Plus it gave DCist the chance to use the best vaportecture illustration of all time, so it can’t be all bad.
Vincent Gray is the Mayor of DC. Vincent Orange is an on-again/off-again City Council member.
Chris is correct, he’s currently the one of the At-Large Member of the city council and not the mayor.
Also the bigger thing is he’s not just talking about the 100,000 seat stadium, but an entire complex with a PGA-caliber golf course, soundstage, indoor waterpark (with an Olympic sized pools) and hotels. (http://www.wtop.com/109/3498884/Superdome-proposed-at-RFK)
I’m guessing the golf course would be a rebuild of the Langston Golf Course north of East Capitol, but I’m really, really at a loss where the rest of it would go. The space there is limited unless you’re tearing down DC General, moving the District prison, and then moving into the surrounding neighborhood (which is currently gentrifying, with an “old and decaying” stadium anchoring the neighborhood no less). The southern half of the footprint is in the Anacostia floodplain and it would be difficult to build anything permanent down there (sports fields and parking yes, fancy hotel no).
My sincerest hope is that this is just a scheme for a consulting company get some money to do a study. Or maybe drum up some political support before the upcoming election in 2014. Besides, anything other than the stadium would currently be illegal to build based on how the land was deeded to the city by Congress.
Duh, yes, of course. (Corrected above now.)
There are several stadia in North America with capacities greater than 100,000.
Only if you count college football as a sport.
(Okay, or Azteca in Mexico City — I meant pro stadiums, but did forget about that one.)
Another politician out of touch with reality.
Olympic games only benefits the politicians who push for ’em,
NBC/Comcast and the contractors and others with the inside track.
They play and you pay.
So let’s use government funds to build a 100k stadium, when the privately built 90k stadium 10 minutes up the road has been artificially reduced to 80k because they can’t convince fans of an extremely popular football team to come to games. Oh, and he’ll be expecting all the control he currently has of the private stadium.
So they let RFK degrade into such disrepair because………?
Does the Washington NFL Team charge high prices? Seems like reducing ticket prices to fill the stadium would be a more fan-friendly way to approach things…
It’s not cost-effective, though. Not only do you have to pay to build and maintain an extra 20,000 seats that don’t earn you any more money, but you lose the chance to generate artificial scarcity that keeps ticket prices high. It’s very possible that an increase of 25% in capacity could lead to a >25% drop in market price for tickets.