Will DC subsidize a new Redskins stadium?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With it seeming likely that the Skins are headed back to DC, is there any chance that we end up paying for a new stadium through taxes and special tax districts created to pay for Dan's boondoggle?

Is the Pope Catholic?

More to the point, does the Mayor shovel taxpayer cash and other favors at her cronies?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope not. They can pay for their own stadium.

This. The NFL is in decline, most especially the Redskins. I used to be a huge Skins fan, but now I say good riddance. Let them wither on the vine in MD OR they can fund their own stadium. Not one tax dollar should be spent on a stadium used 8 times a year.

No, it isn't: TV ratings have rebounded and are up 10 percent over the past two seasons, and the league is on the verge of signing new TV deals that will bring in billions to the game. NFL football is really the only reliable thing left for broadcasters. And it will take merely one good season -- hell, one middling season -- for the mouth-breathing Redskins fans to forget the mediocrity of the past two decades and come back into the fold.

This isn't to say tax money should be spent on a new stadium. It shouldn't. But that cretin Bowser seems hellbent on making this happen, despite the optics, because the developers who line her pocketbook will be the ones who benefit. Frankly, any decision she makes should be framed around "does it benefit developers" thinking.

Just like the up-zoning of neighborhoods and Comprehensive Plan changes that she is trying to rush through. It would be an incredible windfall for her developer friends. But of course.

Wait for Bowser et al to assert that paying for a new 'Skins stadium is all about affordable housing.

[Anonymous]

We’ll probably pay for improvements to the area, roads, etc., even if the team pays the whole cost of the stadium construction. There’s really no reason for the public to pay for any of it. But since the city paid 100 percent of the costs for the Nationals and for all of the infrastructure for D.C. United, it’s hard to imagine Snyder wouldn’t insist on at least some handouts. Unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm going ot buck woke DCUM and say I hope so. But ideally a little bit of DC $$, not a lot. I think DC is better with the football team in the city.

I agree. I still support the Redskins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC will insist on the team changing its name from the Redskins, and that's not happening as long as Snyder owns the team.

Snyder has owned trademarks for the Washington Warriors for years, ostensibly for an Arena League team that has never materialized. He’ll change the name if someone makes him or offers him enough money to do it.

[Anonymous]

OK, OK, twist my arm. I'll change the name of the team and not take one cent of public money to build the new stadium. Just give me the empty land around the stadium to develop with a rubber stamp on the permits and no taxes for 99 years.

Because I'm an honest guy, I won't give one penny to any politician. Of course, being a good neighbor means giving the mayor's office, the city council and others big stacks of passes into the luxury suites so they can invite their friends and family. Deal?

[Anonymous]

NFL ratings were up big this year. Huge contract renewal next year for TV. Wanna bet if it's more or less than the current one, since the league is in decline?

100.000000% chance that DC helps to subsidize the stadium. Lot's of ways for them to do that but it will get done and it will get done without Danny being strong-armed to change the name. Faced with the choice, DC will take the team, people will complain and they will be in a new stadium on the RFK site by 2027

[Anonymous]

[Anonymous]

She's pandering to the same crowd that demands unfettered illegal parking in front of churches on Sundays, all of whom are Redskins fans.

[Anonymous]

I hope so. I don’t live in DC so am happy to see you spend your tax dollars. Actually, if put in the right area could further drive economic gain for the city similar to Nats field and Audi and The Anthem and Cap One.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I sure hope not. They can pay for their own stadium.

This. The NFL is in decline, most especially the Redskins. I used to be a huge Skins fan, but now I say good riddance. Let them wither on the vine in MD OR they can fund their own stadium. Not one tax dollar should be spent on a stadium used 8 times a year.

No, it isn't: TV ratings have rebounded and are up 10 percent over the past two seasons, and the league is on the verge of signing new TV deals that will bring in billions to the game. NFL football is really the only reliable thing left for broadcasters. And it will take merely one good season -- hell, one middling season -- for the mouth-breathing Redskins fans to forget the mediocrity of the past two decades and come back into the fold.

This isn't to say tax money should be spent on a new stadium. It shouldn't. But that cretin Bowser seems hellbent on making this happen, despite the optics, because the developers who line her pocketbook will be the ones who benefit. Frankly, any decision she makes should be framed around "does it benefit developers" thinking.

Just like the up-zoning of neighborhoods and Comprehensive Plan changes that she is trying to rush through. It would be an incredible windfall for her developer friends. But of course.

Wait for Bowser et al to assert that paying for a new 'Skins stadium is all about affordable housing.

LOL - the Comp Plan that the city has been working on for 4 years!

[Anonymous]

The votes aren't there on the DC Council to pay for a new stadium right now and Jack Evans was one of the strong yes votes and Charles Allen whose Ward the Stadium is currently in is vehemently opposed.

If this ever really crops up there is going to be a big racial divide on this on both the Council and in DC.

There are a lot of African Americans who look upon the Washington team's glory days with a great deal of nostalgia for both the team and the old Chocolate City with Marion Barry as Mayor.

And a lot of affluent whites, many of whom are newcomers to DC, don't care about football or the team and have no knowledge of the history.

And the cities changing demographics happen to overlap with new stadiums for the Wizards/Caps, Nationals, DC United and the Mystics though only the Nationals and Mystics stadiums were fully publicly funded but most residents have no idea what was publicly paid for nor any knowledge of how on the spectrum of wasteful spending on sports facilities football stadiums have by far the poorest return since they are used so rarely and require so much parking. But that won't matter - the sports teams that are most popular among affluent whites got stadiums and there is going to be a lot of anger when the football team doesn't get the same.

One wrinkle in all of this is that by law the RFK site has to be used for sporting events and as referenced above all of the other teams already got new facilities so what else can be put there.

Congress can amend the law but Snyder will potentially be able to bribe his way out of the law being changed if there is a real path to a publicly funded stadium in DC.

[Anonymous]

No chance. The mayor may want it but no way the council will approve funding. The city is changing and most new young people are against it too.

[Anonymous]

Latest reports say it’ll be back in Raljon. Dumb PG county if they agree to help finance ... again. Make shorty pay for it himself.

[Anonymous]

I detest public financing of these facilities. Furthermore, a football stadium is the worst kind of facility to finance since it sits empty most of the time.

I wish states, counties, and cities teamed up to say “no” to billions of public dollars being flushed down the toilet. I suspect they have more collective leverage with sports leagues and team owners than they realize.