Getting some obstruction on the financing part.
While the DC United fan in me wants some help in getting the stadium built, the fiscal conservative in me gets upset when owners want to foist a large chunk of the cost on taxpayers.
If I were McFarlane and Chang, I would buy some land and build the stadium myself and then thumb my nose at everyone in DC and Maryland when they start raking in the cash from everything else. I would charge massive amounts of rent for say the University of Maryland to use the facility for games or the hosting of teh NCAA final four.
But of course, buying the land and building the stadium is hard, even for developers like McFarlane and Change. We will see what the Maryland General Assembly have to say next week.
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And it's not like they're looking for a cash handout. They're looking for a government guaranteed loan they expect to pay back largely through direct taxes.
I think the proposal hinges on the details of how they propose the payback, and how strong the odds look. The government can't take on much risk, but if it's a tight deal, they're going to want to undertake it, because there aren't many alternatives in this economy.
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