In the year since D.C. United announced their intention to build a new stadium at Buzzard Point, they've attracted a fair amount of critics, many of them on the City Council. The biggest point of contention seem to regard the complicated land swap and specifically, the transaction that would allow developer Akridge to take control of the city-owned Reeves Center. Mayoral candidate David Catania is the latest to voice his grievances about this particular part of the legislation and he probably won't be the last. But since the list of complaints has already gotten quite long, we've rounded up the statements that D.C.'s elected officials have made about the D.C. United stadium deal. Tip us if we somehow left one out.
"I don't think it's a necessary ingredient in my perspective for building a soccer stadium. If what Mr. Akridge wants for the property he owns in Southwest is X amount of dollars for that land, we can give him X amount of dollars. We don't have to sell the Reeves Center to come up with the X amount and then give him the Reeves Center." —David Catania
"Why are we taking one of the five most valuable properties the District owns and mixing it into this? I think we should have an auction." — Jim Graham
"I get concerned about the land swap idea, especially for the Reeves Center with the numbers that I have heard being bounced around about what people think it's worth. I think that it's worth a lot of money. So if they come back and tell me that it's not, that it's worth half of what everybody thinks it's worth, then I think that that's a deal that deserves some scrutiny." —Muriel Bowser
"Without a new public infrastructure for transit, I will not support this." —Tommy Wells
"I write to formally reiterate my concern about a key aspect of the D.C. United Stadium deal as it relates to Ward 5. As I stated in the Mayor-Council breakfast on September 24, I must insist that the industrial uses currently occupying the land at Buzzard Point not be relocated to Ward 5." —Kenyan McDuffie
· All D.C. United Coverage [CDC]