Oh Give Me a Home

The news that United has lost its stadium suitor in PG County will no doubt be greeted with gnashing of teeth, a pre-millennial apocalyptic foreboding which, once descended, can not be lifted by any sort of rational thought. I can understand this frustration. United simply can not continue to pay the rent at RFK with MLS footing the bill, the other Investor/Operators/Owners-in-all-but-name won't simply let that continue. But, well, the absence of a good plan right now doesn't equate to doom and despair and St. Louis United. So when should we worry?

Quite simply, we worry when St. Louis or another non-expansion city announces they are putting a stadium deal on the table and backing it up with legislation. At that point, we can assume the back channel deals have gone down, the pieces are in position, the threat is real. While United can not stagnate in stadium limbo indefinately, MLS also can't risk alienating a reasonably faithful fanbase without a certain stadium deal in place somewhere else. In a way, expansion benefits United, as most potential locales are working with expansion groups for stadiums.

The other concern would, of course, be indications that Mr. MacFarlane intends to sell the team, perhaps to a consortium that thinks they can get a stadium deal together. Most believe V-Mac intended to use the United stadium deal as an entry point into a commercial real-estate development in the greater DC area, and I'm not sure he has an interest in real-estate development in, let's say, St. Louis. His focus is on this region. But he is, ultimately, a business man, and if this area is telling him "no deal that way" then we're a sunk cost, and he knows how to deal with sunk costs.

So, while I'm not concerned now, either of these developments would concern me. Significantly. And that's when I cover myself with a burlap sack and dust off my "THE END IS NEAR" sign.

Coming Clean on Everything

APOLOGY 1: To everyone who played along with the joke yesterday, my thanks. If there is some chance you didn't recognize this post for what it was, my apologies. I'd like to think that in misleading you, I pointed at a greater truth, a truth in spirit. Or not.

APOLOGY 2: I suppose I owe an explanation for my absence? Yes, I do. The truth is that my job overwhelmed me for several months, and by the time I started to surface for air I realized that the season was a few months away, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to continue writing. Bob kept things going, and perhaps it was time for me to move on? Then, well, I realized I needed to talk about this team, had to, would go crazy if I didn't. And thus...

APOLOGY 3: I have a hard time supporting the various efforts for the United Stadium in PG County. Not that I don't want United to get their stadium. I do, and if PG is the only place it can happen, then so be it. I spent much of my youth growing up in PG. But I feel in my bones that I want United in DC. Irrational as that may be. It's like this -- there's a hot friend of yours that you're interested in. You know that if things moved beyond friendship that there'd likely be too much drama and angst and things could very well end badly, but hey, you still have hope, right? Then the friend comes to you and asks you to set him or her up with someone else. You think that someone else is a pure "I'm settling" move, but you do it, because you're still friends with this person and you are smart enough to recognize all the potential pitfalls that are being avoided. But part of you is crushed, right?

That scenario, of course, has never happened to me.