D.C. United Moving To Bowie, MD? Not Quite
by Martin Shatzer on Dec 9, 2011 9:23 AM EST
in Stadium News
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PrintAre you guys ready for a laugh?
Go ahead and read this quote from a man named Gerry Evans, who is part of a group representing the Major League Lacrosse franchise the Chesapeake Bayhawks that is looking into building a 25,000 seat stadium in Bowie, MD.
"There's no reason why the stadium couldn't be used for soccer," Evans said. "We haven't had much luck reaching out to D.C. United, but we've tried."
So let me get this straight… There’s a group that wants to build a 25,0000 seat sports complex within 10 miles of D.C., and United isn’t taking their calls? This sounds like a miracle. A sudden turn of events that could quickly change United’s fortunes. And they’re going to ignore it?
Here’s the response from United’s VP of Communications Doug Hicks, who spoke to Ben Giles, the author of the article for the Washington Examiner.
We've not spoken to anyone, either at the Bayhawks or with P.G. County," Hicks said. "That said, our focus right now is on the District of Columbia and Baltimore."Something sounds fishy here. So who is this Gerry Evans anyway?
Oh wait. He’s THAT Gerry Evans. He’s the Gerry Evans who is sometimes known as Gerry Millionaire. Because he’s the highest paid lobbyist in the state of Maryland. Evans also happened to have been sentenced to 30 months in prison back in 2000 for fraud, and for purveying "a culture of corruption" in Annapolis.
Evans has since been released from prison, and went right back to lobbying. His group was apparently instrumental in legalizing slot machine gambling in Maryland, and now his attention has turned to the Maryland Stadium Authority, and a quest to make Bowie, MD the lacrosse capital of the world.
The stadium authority board must vote to conduct the study, and it's not clear what it would cost. Evans said he's gathering a group of private investors to help pay, though the project has no developers lined up at this time.The study would also examine the possibility of a lacrosse complex without the stadium.
"If the Bayhawks stadium can't move forward for whatever reason, we still want to move forward and build more fields to bring more sports to the area," Peters said.
So as United fans, what should we think of this new development?
Well on hand, we could say that it’s nice that D.C. United is being considered by other groups. It can’t be a bad thing that whenever anyone is thinking about building a large sports complex in the DMV, the United name enters the conversation. And it should be said that, despite his flaws, Evans gets shit done.
On the other hand, this sounds awfully shady. Evans represents the Bayhawks, not United. Perhaps he’s just throwing the United name into the conversation because he thinks that will help inspire the Stadium Authority to vote in favor of conducting a feasibility study. Also, Bowie isn’t quite the most ideal location for United to move. A good location must meet the following two qualifications in my opinion: (1) within 5 miles of the Capital Beltway and (2) within 1 mile walking distance of a Metro stop. Sure, Bowie is connected to the WMATA system via buses, but its not quite what we’d consider ideal. But maybe its still better than Baltimore.
At this point, it’s hard to call this any sort of a positive development for United. As of now, the team doesn’t appear to be quite desperate enough to get themselves involved in another political mess in PG.
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Here's what Evans would like you to believe. Apparently, he's a novelist.
It was 6:30 AM when Kevin Payne flicked the light on to his office at RFK Stadium, and used his sleeve to brush some mouse droppings off his desk. The silence was ominous, and rather chilly. It seems to get colder every December at RFK. Another year with D.C. United missing the playoffs. Another year in this shitty old office. "It never felt this cold back in the 90s," Payne said to himself.
Payne noticed that the voice mail indicator light was lit on the phone on his desk. Who could that be? Perhaps Soler offering another lopsided trade? Perhaps Hanauer rubbing the Sounders’ Open Cup success in his face again, for the third time already this month?
You have two new messages.
"Hey Kevin. It’s Chad. Listen, I’m here in Africa. I’ve been a couple places, seen a few things. Some of these guys play soccer but some of them don’t. Oh yeah, and there’s no one here named Gonzalo, so I don’t see how we can sign anyone. What do you want me to do?"
Goddammit Chad.
Message deleted. Next message.
"Yes, Mr. Payne. This is Mr. Gerry Evans calling on behalf of the Chesapeake Bayhawks of Major League Lacrosse. I’m calling you because we’ve been in touch with multiple stakeholders and investors interested in building a 25,000 seat stadium right off Route 50 in Prince George’s County Maryland. I have a great number of contacts who are a part of the Maryland Stadium Authority and can facilitate the construction of this stadium. We are envisioning D.C. United having a great deal of input in the design of the stadium, and having first priority in scheduling games and other events. Is this something the team would be interested in, or are you already set on moving to Baltimore? Please give me a call back. Thanks."
Message deleted. End of messages.
Payne was caught off guard by this message. Although finding a new stadium for D.C. United had been a key concern over the past several years because the organization has been incessantly losing money and was at risk of being moved by the league, researching new ideas for stadium locations was really low on Payne’s priority list. Evans sounded like an upstanding citizen, and clearly someone that any individual with good sense would want to conduct a significant amount of business with, but Payne decided not to call him back. "Gotta straighten out Ashton", Payne said to himself.
Managing Editor for BlackAndRedUnited.com. Weekly Columnist for SB Nation D.C..
by Martin Shatzer on Dec 9, 2011 11:44 AM EST reply actions 4 recs
That's it
I’m fully convinced that day-to-day life at RFK exists only in detective noir style. Like, you walk into the offices, and immediately everything goes black and white, there’s slow jazz in the background, and men all wear fedoras and use words like dame.
That actually might make the raccoon poop worth it…
Vamos United; Boiler Up
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Black & Red United
The only way Bowie could approach "viable" as a site for United
The stadium would have to be close to the train station, maybe even on the campus of Bowie State, and MARC would have to agree to run trains from Union Station through New Carrollton to Bowie and back on game days, kind of like how Metro runs extra trains for Nats and Redskins games. The roads in Bowie don’t really look up to moving a stadium’s worth of people in and out of the area quickly, so transit will have to take up at least some of the slack.
Vamos United; Boiler Up
Support your local club.
Black & Red United
One quick problem
Bowie State is on the other side of Bowie from where this proposed stadium would be (by the Baysox stadium). The whole area around the stadium is developed with shopping centers and/or communities, so getting a train in there somehow would be as likely as the District saying they want to build a Livestrong-esque palace at Poplar Point free of charge for us.
50 and 301 are the relevant highways for that site, and they do carry substantial traffic into Bowie and my hometown Crofton. However, I would agree that they aren’t really prepared for 3x a normal Baysox attendance.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
by ChestRockwell on Dec 9, 2011 6:05 PM EST up reply actions
Does Major League Lacrosse have the type of money, draw, clout, etc to even do something like this?
Major League Lacrosse doesn’t operate in the Seattle area, but we have the National Lacrosse League, that the Washington Stealth play in. The team is popular, but does not have the resources to pull off anything close to what it sounds like Bayhawks are trying to do with a 25k capacity stadium. The league, too, operates on a shoestring budget. I can’t imagine that MLL is that different and the market is that different than what we have over here. That would lead me to believe even more that Evans is full of it.
They probably don't, but...
…if there is an area on earth that would support that big of a stadium for lacrosse, it’s suburban Maryland. Anne Arundel county is likely the most pro-lacrosse jurisdiction in the world (note: Bowie is just over the county line, with the proposed stadium site like 2-3 miles into PG county).
That said, your point is correct: MLL does not have this kind of pull. A high school soccer teammate of mine who also played lacrosse was, last I checked, on the Bayhawks. He still has to have a real people job, much like you see on smaller USL teams (particularly the lower-end players).
Evans is probably bringing up United to try and get the club to be the major mover on this Bowie stadium. What he may have forgotten was how badly PG county screwed United over; the odds of the club looking in Prince Georges again are very, very low.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
by ChestRockwell on Dec 9, 2011 6:55 PM EST up reply actions
I was reading about player salaries in NLL
Knowing MLS salaries I figured they’d be similar, I was wrong. Most players earn under $10k, star players earn something like $15-20k.
At any rate….I do hope a good permanent solution comes out for DC. Especially hope it’s a local deal and not another SJ to Houston kind of move.
by chrisperry1983 on Dec 10, 2011 3:12 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Havent we learned our lesson from
building stadiums way out in the burbs like Dicks and Pizza Hut Park?
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
For my own reference as much as anyone's
I looked up where some of MLS’s suburban stadiums are in comparison to the major city they’re supposed to draw from.
DSG Park doesn’t look to be that far away from Denver. A good comparison for DC might be Silver Spring (the side furthest from DC). The size of the Beltway and the reach of the Metro means that this would actually be a pretty decent location if we’re forced out of the city.
PHP is a long-ass way from Dallas. A rough equivalent for our area would be Columbia, MD, which is much closer to Baltimore than DC.
Bowie would be much more akin to DSG Park. Far from ideal, but better than a move to another city.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
by ChestRockwell on Dec 9, 2011 7:01 PM EST up reply actions
I've only been to Denver once, and not to go to a soccer game
But I remember the ride in from the airport (talk about a LONG way from a city), and passing DSG on the way in. It seemed like a long, long way from the city, particularly when the other sports venues there are right downtown. That said, I had a friend that lived in Boulder over the summer and he went to a couple games. He never had anything bad to say about the distance. He also went to Maryland for college, so I should ask him how it might compare to the DC area.
by Brendanukkah on Dec 9, 2011 11:51 PM EST up reply actions
DSG is 12.2 miles from downtown Denver
Rapids would have been much better off if it was built closer.
I went there for Quakes-Rapids conference final in 2010. Packed house for that game but talked to our liaison from their front office… he said that was one of the best crowd they’d had in years and talked about how all the MLS 2.0 clubs are successful b/c they are learning from the mistakes made by clubs like the Rapids like stadium location.
DSG isn’t even in suburbia… it’s not next to any neighborhood at all, it’s out in the middle of a bunch of giant open fields.
One thing I like about DSG is it has a very nice soccer store with entrances inside and outside the stadium with swag from all over MLS and all over the world. Good for brand building.
The Quakes are too shortsighted and penny-pinchign to even do something like that… there is a tiny bit of Quakes merchandise available inside the front office, which is hidden inside a generic office building. Unless you are a superfan who knows where the front office is you can’t get team gear unless you buy it at game day or online. Hell, Lew Wolff owns the freaking Fairmont in downtown SJ which has unused storefront space along the street and he refuses to put a Quakes team store there. Ridonculousness.
Win or lose, we'll always be there for you.
by johnjahafanclub on Dec 10, 2011 7:28 PM EST up reply actions
12.2 miles in the west is different from out here
Driving 12.2 miles away from DC in any direction and finding a big empty space is next to impossible. Everything is compressed. That’s something that struck me the first time I went to California: The cities are so spread out, and there are actual open spaces. I actually believe that this has a ton to do with the more laid-back approach people have out west.
Here, a DSG-esque stadium placement would still be in a real municipality with people, places, and things in it.
All that aside, obviously every team in MLS would be better off in a downtown location.
On the subject of team stores, United put one on the ground floor of RFK a couple years back, which was a very smart move.
Writer on SBN's DC United blog Black and Red United | @ChestRockwell14 | KEEP UNITED IN DC
by ChestRockwell on Dec 10, 2011 8:50 PM EST up reply actions
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