It's All About the Pitch for United

Team Takes Stadium Appeal to SE Residents

D.C. United wants to build a soccer stadium at Poplar Point in Anacostia. The team says the project also would include a hotel and housing. (By Bill O'leary -- The Washington Post)

The audience of 500 in Ballou Senior High School's auditorium wanted to know one thing from the president of D.C. United: How would a soccer stadium benefit them?

Kevin Payne had prepared for that question, so he had quick answers as he talked about displacement, jobs and contracts, offering assurances that the $1.5 billion project in Southeast Washington would have something for everyone. There would be a hotel, job training center, community soccer fields and housing -- including a percentage for first-time home buyers and preference for local residents. Payne said the project would rival the entertainment district that has sprung up around MCI Center.

"The ball, the sport will bring a stadium," he told the crowd, as he held up a soccer ball, "a stadium that is an integral part of a new neighborhood."

Deals for new stadiums in recent years for the Baltimore Ravens and the Washington Redskins, and now the Washington Nationals, have been struck between team negotiators and politicians, who, with varying degrees of success, tried to sell residents on the plans.

But United, while quietly working the political angle, took its quest for a new facility to the streets, inviting residents to lunch and hosting dozens of meet-and-greets, including the Ballou event that incorporated gospel singers, teen models and the school marching band. United players handed out soccer balls and signed autographs into the evening.

United officials hope the campaign will ease the approval process and help extend the team's fan base in a part of town where few people have played or followed the game and don't count themselves fans. United is starting a youth soccer league there in the spring to change that.

"The purpose of these meetings was just as much to hear what the folks in the neighborhoods wanted," Payne said. "They don't just want housing. They want opportunity."

That is certainly the case. "Our kids don't know soccer," said Addie Cook, president of the Fort Stanton Civic Association, who often petitions the city to fix the lights, leaks and broken water fountains at her recreation center. If the project results in more places for children to play, though, Cook said she is willing to listen.

The proposed site is at Poplar Point in Anacostia, just across the river from where the Nationals' stadium is planned. The surrounding area is devoid of soccer fields and soccer programs. There also are few jobs for residents of nearby neighborhoods, including Anacostia and Congress Heights. Double-digit unemployment is the norm, and Vera Jamison wants the 8,000 construction and 2,500 permanent jobs projected for construction and operation of the project reserved for residents.

"We definitely have to get these guys off the street corner and put them to work," said Jamison, 64, who has lived in Congress Heights for 25 years. "They need the work -- not all these other people coming into the community."

The Anacostia Community Land Trust, a competitor for the land where the stadium would be built, is hinting to city officials that it might be willing to partner with United, a sign that the team's effort is making headway. In fact, D.C. Council member Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) switched from stadium opponent to proponent and is working to combine the stadium with the proposal from the competing group, which is pushing for low- and moderate-income housing for Southeast residents.

United draws fans from throughout the region, including Richmond and West Virginia. But not many of the team's fans come from the neighborhoods closest to the 100-acre site.