Friday, January 25, 2008

The Leap Frogger

By Chris Pittman

So, I don't think I have to say how I felt today when I read that Emperor Fenty is planning to present the Redskins with a proposal to return to The District and build a 100,000 seating dome on RFK (our current stadium). This was rumored to happen quite awhile ago, it's just that I think most fans (both United and Redskins) assumed that D.C. United's future would be resolved before anything was made official. Ahh how naive we all are.

To be honest when you step back and think about it, none of this is all that surprising. I mean look at the decisions Fenty has made in every dept. since taking office. He's sort of what I would call a leap frogger. He not only thinks ten steps ahead, but he (in most cases) just skips the nine in between so as to seem that he's getting alot done, when in actuality he's getting nothing done. It's not a bad political technique, I mean the guy did win every ward running on that policy. You have to give it to the guy, he's ambitious and he wants to change things. Whether he's going about it in the right or wrong manner has yet to be seen.

To come back to the point, Fenty lied to us. And Yes, I know all politicians lie, it's an obvious fact, but very rarely do politicians have the guts to do it so blatantly as Adrian Fenty did. He stood there in front of 26,000 people and petitioned for our vote in the promise that he would make a United stadium at Poplar Point a priority. This was said not only for the sake of the team, but also for the sake of the residents of Ward 8. He's a smart guy (I think). He knows what a development with a stadium will do for that ward. He knows that not only is it beneficial for United to stay within The District, it's also better for the District itself. He stood there, made his speech and stole the hearts of every United fan and Ward 8 resident in attendance.

Now nearly a year later and still no decision on Poplar Point after terminating direct talks with United six months ago Adrian Fenty is beginning to court Dan Snyder in hopes that they can build a stadium on top of ours. I am disgusted, and I say that being a lifelong Redskins fan. It's no secret that if the Redskins were to consider coming back to the district it would take alot of public money to make it happen. Snyder will not leave a 10 year old stadium unless The District shows him the money.

Didn't we offer to pay for our stadium in full? This is an un-even game of leap frog, and I'm afraid we're about to get hopped over.

1 comment:

KJ said...

Very nice job on the Blog. I hope you keep it up. I have finally started my blog as well. If you are going to add a links section to your blog, please feel free to include a link to mine. It can be found here: http://www.unitedblackandred.blogspot.com/

As for this, well we all kind of knew this was coming. Its only a matter of time before DC makes a play to get the Redskins back. I am a lifelong Redskins fan myself, however I have to say, that this still burns me up. Granted, the Redskins left because of DC's own ineptitude and unwillingness to entertain the idea of a new stadium for the Skins. DC Shot itself in the foot big time by turning down a fully PRIVATELY funded NFL stadium within its borders, then turns around and publicly funds a 611 million dollar baseball stadium? Can we say backwards? But thats just how DC operates it seems. D.C. United is definately getting the shaft from DC, espeically given that D.C. United has been the sole tennant to prop up the DCSEC / RFK. If it were not for D.C. United, DC would be losing lord knows how much money on the RFK site. DCU has been diligent, and a good tennant in Washington, yet for some reason the city still feels the need to turn around slap them in the face, then tell them they arent worth a new stadium, even AFTER all of the money the district made off of United renting RFK for 12 years? Give me a break. Fenty is a JOKE!