Cavan Wilk, a member of La Barra Brava and a contributor to Greater Greater Washington, has written quite a bit from the urbanist/development perspective on potential stadium solutions for D.C. United. Now, in a move that would certainly set Martin's Terrapin Heart aflutter, he's proposing a stadium on the University of Maryland campus.
Apparently, Ludwig Field isn't big enough for the mighty soccer Terps, and a soccer stadium is in the campus plan, but the university doesn't have the money to build a stadium. What they do have, though, is land and a location within walking distance of the Metro and (eventually) Purple Line light rail, which is exactly what Kevin Payne & Will Chang are looking for.
The extra little bit of plausibility comes in the guise of the Maryland Stadium Authority, the same group that has studied the economic impact of stadium construction in Westport, Baltimore. Y'see, they could just as easily study and help with the finances and logistics of a stadium in College Park, so if the University is game, then the state just might get on board, too.
So the proposal is simple: UMD provides the land, DCU and the MSA provides the stadium; the school and the team split use of the stadium, and split the revenues. The relationship would potentially look a lot like the one between the Galaxy and Cal State-Dominguez Hills. Everybody wins. (Except Baltimore, but that's really a bonus in my book.)
Go give it a read, then come back and let us know what you think in the comments.
My thoughts? In a perfect world, we'd get a stadium within the DC urban core. In my nightmares, the team leaves the area entirely. This is a lot closer to the former than the latter, and so if the team can't work something out with the District, I certainly won't complain about a stadium at UMD.
Before we get our hopes up, though, this is obviously coming from a fan and writer, not from anybody connected to the team or the university. Still, if Chest's Twitter feed is any indication, we as a fan base need to cling to whatever hope we can.