College Park Perspective?

DC Mayor Fenty has taken a shot across his bow with the announcement and article detailing Maryland's intention to try and lure DC United across the state line into Prince George's County. While DC United officials have yet to put the mayor over a barrel and tell him flat out "you are going to blow this and here is your deadline," they implication is clear. DC United is not going to wait forever. In a move similar to former mayor Sharron Pratt Kelly, Fenty has basically turned a deaf ear to United and appears to not be moving forward in any tangible way. The result with the Redskins was Jack Kent Cooke got tired of waiting and signed a deal with, you guessed it, Prince George's County to build his 90,000 seat stadium next to the Beltway. Hey, look at that map, College Park is right next to the Beltway, too. I could imagine a 25,000 seat stadium going up somewhere along Kenilworth Avenue, north of East West Highway. I used to live in that area and there is a gigantic park, Greenbelt Park, which extends from Kenilworth Avenue to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. You could imagine entrances/exits both to the BW Parkway and onto Kenilworth Avenue which is 8 lanes wide there, I believe. The College Park Metro Station is also a half mile from the south west corner of the park.

Not that I want the stadium to be in Maryland. However, it just shows that there are locations which make sense to DC United if DC continues to drag their feet. If the location is within walking distance of a Metro station, has access to nearby highways, and is able to be developed or will be subsidized by the local government, this could work. I would think DC has until the end of next year to make significant progress towards choosing a location DC United officials are happy with. And don't forget, Daniel Snyder is rumored to be very interested in moving the Redskins back to DC, possibly to the RFK site. You could imagine a scenario which goes like this:

1. Nationals Park opens, Fenty still upset about the fleecing of Washington, DC
2. DC continues to stonewall United
3. United looks at other options, continues to hope for movement from DC
4. Redskins announce their intention to scout out new locations for a state of the art, retractable roof stadium which will be Super Bowl capable and hold 100,000 fans
5. DC, unable to keep two thoughts in their head at a time, forgets all about DC United

Why would DC United wait around for that? Even though the mayor is a virtual lock to use opening day to pander to the fans and promise a stadium in the "near future", the promises now ring hollow.