Construction crews break ground on $300M DC United soccer stadium

Dive Brief:

Demolition has begun at the site of D.C. United’s new 20,000-seat, $300 million waterfront soccer stadium, the Washington Business Journal reported. The stadium is expected to be completed in time for the 2018 Major League Soccer season.
Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said the stadium project will produce 1,000 construction and long-term jobs for which local residents will be given preference. Officials also said that 50% of the commercial space in the stadium’s vicinity will be reserved for area businesses.
DC Deputy Mayor Brian Kenner told the Business Journal that the stadium should be a $1 billion boon to the area, as the anticipated one million visitors will generate millions in tax revenue. Kansas architecture firm Populous, which also designed Nationals Park, designed the soccer stadium.

Dive Insight:

Central to the District’s stadium plan is the development of the Buzzard Point neighborhood along the Anacostia River. DC officials said the stadium is another feather in the cap of Ward 6, which has seen recent large-scale projects intended to draw residents, visitors and business.

D.C. United, which is sharing the cost of the stadium with the city, might also build a practice field at the site of a former hospital and future home of a Washington Wizards and Washington Mystics sports and entertainment venue. DC officials recently proposed that the current RFK stadium site play host to such a facility. The soccer team currently uses RFK as its home field.

However, not everyone is happy about the new project. As construction crews worked to raze the site, protesters gathered around to express their concern about the environmental and financial impact construction would have on the area’s children and sick and older residents, NBC Washington reported.

In other major soccer stadium construction news, Mortensen Construction has been tapped to build Minnesota United’s new $250 million MLS stadium in St. Paul, MN. The state Legislature recently approved a property tax exemption for the 12-acre stadium site. Populous, the designer of the D.C. United stadium, also signed on to design the Minnesota United facility.