D.C. United President Kevin Payne‘s appearance on WAMU Radio’s “Kojo Nnamdi Show“included his comments on the possibility of a new stadium, which Steven Goff transcribed on his
Finding a new home, Payne said, is “absolutely vital. It has to happen. We are not asustainable business at RFK [Stadium], but it will happen. I am absolutely convinced of that, that we will end up with a home that is appropriate for our team and our fans. I think we will enter a newrenaissance at that time. Right now it’s difficult for us to compete against some of the other teams in the league because we just don’t have the revenue opportunities at RFK. I think inthe new building we will. …
“We are talking to Baltimore and we are talking to D.C. People need to remember that [for several years], we were all struggling with a global financialcollapse, the fallout and hangout which continues today. So it wasn’t the easiest time to be having conversations about a public-private partnership with the District. We are having very goodconversations with the District now and I feel very encouraged. At the same time, we have been treated very respectfully by Baltimore and the Maryland Stadium Authority, and we’re having seriousconversations with them as well. Our position is that we need to have a new stadium. For our business, that is something that has to happen.”
Demolishing RFK Stadium and rebuilding onthat site is a longshot because: “It would be very complicated to tear down RFK. First of all, it’s very costly for any stadium structure to be torn down. It’s more complicated inthe case of RFK because of its name. There are many people in Washington, D.C., who see it as a monument as much as they see it as a sports facility, so it’s a very complicated issue, andit’s not one that we’ve really explored very seriously. I don’t think it’s something in our future.”