Saturday, January 13, 2007

Whispers of the Redskins return to DC


I've posted and laughed before about the District of Columbia's wish to lure the Redskins back to city limits. Maybe Daniel Snyder wants a chuckle, too. Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher reported last Thursday that the secretive Redskins owner quietly met with city officials about a stadium deal. According to Fisher "Three top D.C. officials say that Snyder had meetings about his stadium project with outgoing D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission Chairman Mark Tuohey and Williams, in the final days of his administration."

"I would love to have the Redskins back," said Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large). "I am not interested in the scenario we had with baseball. The checkbook is not open for every sports franchise that wants to come to Washington. But I'm all for a stadium if we don't have to pay anything." (Emphasis mine)

Dream on. After watching the baseball deal, Snyder isn't coming back without a gimme from the city. Here's a thought District residents, rich people don't stay rich spending their money. They stay rich spending other people's money. Your money!

The story suggests the city would cede development rights on adjacent property to Snyder. Six Flags on what is now Langston Golf Course anyone?

FedEx is twice as large as old RFK. That's twice the parking, twice the congestion, twice the tailgating, twice the noise and twice the pollution of a 57,000 seat stadium. Sell that one to the neighborhood. Oh no, no, no. Pennsylvania Avenue, East Capitol Street and Benning Road weren't built for that much traffic.

Amazing that governments will do nothing to keep a sports team when they have them, yet will do anything to get a team back.

This story keeps coming up. It has legs and seems to be going somewhere. The Redskins themselves refute the story as reported in Tim Lemke's article in the Washington Times.

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