Something has been rotten in the state of DC United for years now, and the stench is only getting more and more pungent. However, now MLS has sent out a survey to residents of Baltimore, asking them about their potential support of an MLS club. Everyone knows that MLS is talking about DC United potentially moving there, and with United in DC, the chances of Baltimore getting their own MLS club are slim. This is going to be the decisive year for DC United. If no progress is made in or around the District, I would bet that United will announce a move to Baltimore before the beginning of the 2013 season.
The hypocrisy of the DC government also makes me mad. Apparently, there is no money for the only team that was won championships for Washington in the past 20 years and for a sport that most would agree is on the rise in the United States. However, they are investigating spending hundreds of millions of dollars to build the Redskins a practice facility in the District, something that wouldn’t bring any direct revenue. I guess they think that if they can build the Redskins a practice facility next to RFK, it will be easier to tear down RFK and build a new Redskins stadium there in the future.
Despite all of this, I am ever the optimist. I am in life, and I am in sports as well. I know that, despite his other failings, Kevin Payne is doing his best to try and keep United in DC. I would hope that the potential investors who want to see a pathway to a stadium before they commit would actually use their influence to help that process along; any investor who can provide that help would obviously be welcomed into ownership. And I still believe, and will until the moving trucks are driving away, that United will find some way to stay in the DC area. If they do move to Baltimore? I’ll probably still root for them, since there’s no one else nearby. But it won’t be the same, and would be a tragedy for the most successful club in MLS history to move.
If any of you haven’t yet (and I can’t imagine that you haven’t), please go to Keep DC United and, at the very least, sign the petition. If you live in the District, call Mayor Gray, call your council member, and do what you can to try and make them realize that people love DCU and want them to stay. I thought about saying this will be my last post about stadia/moving until something solid happens, but I know that’s not true. I’ll most likely post every tiny rumor and clutch at every straw that may indicate that United is staying. Dum spiro, spero.
Before Extra Time 