Washington Post: D.C. United considering a Virginia stadium at this late hour

D.C. United fans, while still harboring a small sense of unease, have been mostly happy about the on-going stadium plan for Buzzard Point. We forgot that this is the D.C. United stadium push, and nothing was ever going to be easy.

Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe is making a last-minute bid to persuade D.C. United to build its new stadium in Loudoun County, and the team’s ownership — despite having spent more than two years negotiating a deal for a D.C. stadium — appears to be listening.

Officials from the team have apparently toured a site in Loudoun County and a site in Woodbridge, and Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe has been bullish in his attempt to lure the team to his state. McAuliffe has been very aggressive in his economic development agenda, and so his involvement in this is not surprising.

The mostly likely outcomes is that this is the team posturing, trying to gain some leverage against Muriel Bowser and the DC government, who have been changing the deal as passed multiple times since its original passage in December. Jason Levien is not Kevin Payne, and he has negotiated shrewdly throughout this whole process. I highly believe that the end product will still be a D.C. United stadium on Buzzard Point, but the team has to do its due diligence to protect itself.