By Logan Walker, Staff Writer
Ever since they first became a Major League Soccer team, D.C. United has played all of its home games at the old Washington Redskins stadium, Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, otherwise known as RFK.
Throughout the years as D.C. United played at RFK, there were numerous criticisms surrounding it. For example, when the Washington Nationals played at RFK from 2005-2007, criticisms regarding the playing surface and the dimensions of the field surfaced.
The earliest proposal for a new stadium came in 2006, as they proposed to build a new stadium at Poplar Point along the Anacostia River. However, plans for the stadium fell through when there were financial arguments as to how much would the city fund for the stadium, the contractors, and the club itself.
After the Poplar Point site fell through, the club then considered other options, like having a stadium in Prince George’s County and Baltimore. However, the club shut down all of these options, as they wanted to find a permanent home within the District.
Then finally on July 25, 2013, the District of Columbia and D.C. United reached on a tentative deal that would build a $300 million, 20,000-25,000 seat stadium at Buzzard Point. The stadium would be in relative location to the Nationals stadium and the Navy-Yard Ballpark Metro Station.
For the construction of the new stadium, D.C. United agreed to pay at least $150 million to build the stadium on the city owned land, which would be leased for only 20-35 years. The tentative deal also gave D.C. United the option to build restaurants, bars, and a hotel nearby.
When the city and the club came close to officially finalizing its lease agreement, D.C. United began discussing with county and state officials in Virginia about backdooring on the Buzzard Point stadium and building a stadium in Northern Virginia.
The Northern Virginia plan was intriguing, as the Loudon county economic development director, Buddy Rizer, said that building the stadium in Virginia would save the club $38 million and that the stadium would be ready for the start of the 2017 season, which the club said was not possible in D.C.
Like the stadium plans for Prince George’s County and Baltimore, the stadium plans for Northern Virginia fell through as city officials and the club signed off on the lease agreement and made it official that there would be a soccer-specific stadium at Buzzard Point for D.C. United.