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Proposed new D.C. United stadium up for study

New DC United Stadium June 2014

A new D.C. United stadium will be the subject of a feasibility study by Conventions, Sports & Leisure International to determine the economic viability of the proposed project.

CSL is no stranger to the world of feasibility studies when it comes to sporting facilities; many major projects in the NFL, MLB and MLS proceeded after a CSL study. The firm won the $200,000 contract after a bidding process.

As it turns out, CSL has already studied the issue once before and came away concluding that a new D.C. United stadium in the area would cost around $157 million — close to the current budget of $150 million:

CSL International bills itself as a “leading advisory and planning firm specializing in providing consulting services to the convention, sport, entertainment and visitor industries,” with expertise in conducting economic impact and other financial analyses. On its Web site, the firm lists having worked on more than 20 existing or proposed soccer stadiums — including, as it happens, a proposed D.C. United stadium.

The firm says on its site that it prepared that study for the pro-stadium Greater Washington Sports Alliance of a facility to have been constructed on Poplar Point — a parcel across the Anacostia River from the Buzzard Point site where the stadium would be built under the present proposal. But the Washington Post reported in 2012 that CSL International had in fact studied a Buzzard Point proposal that looked much like the one now under consideration, concluding that a stadium there would cost $157 million, not including land. That figure jibes with the current proposal, which entails the team playing for a roughly $150 million stadium while the city pays about the same amount to assemble and prepare the land.

Discussions about the new D.C. United stadium are heating up: as the D.C. political situation changes with elections this fall, some of the folks deciding the future of the stadium (probably starting again in September) are leaving office, and others are looking to move up the political ladder.

RELATED STORIES: Soccer may not matter when it comes to future of new D.C. United stadium; DC begins deliberating new United soccer stadium; New D.C. United stadium renderings posted, D.C. United, District reach agreement on stadium deal, District, owners close to new D.C. United stadium

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August Publications