Transit Talking Points
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This is a parking giveaway, not a stadium deal. Over 40 percent of DC’s contribution to the proposed stadium ($356 million) is for building parking garages.[1] Parking garages will take up nearly as much land as the stadium itself – about 15 acres.
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$356m is a big number… what’s that mean to an average DC resident? Every DC taxpayer will be paying to subsidize the construction of these parking garages: over $1,100 per DC household and over $500 per DC resident.[2] Each parking spot will cost $52,000.[3]
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All cost, no revenue. The Commanders will receive all parking revenue, which would go for more than $70 per spot on gamedays (based conservatively on what is charged for parking at Northwest Stadium). Meanwhile, DC is responsible for building and maintaining the garages, and collects no property taxes.
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The 3 largest parking garages in DC history. The 3 proposed parking garages – two with 2,500 and one with 3,000 parking spots – would be the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-largest parking garages in DC. The next largest is Union Station with 2,194.[4]
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More parking than any other DC sports stadium. The garages at Nats Park have roughly 1,250 spots for a stadium of 41,546.[5] That’s 1 parking spot per 33 stadium seats. Applying that ratio to RFK would mean fewer than 2,000 parking spots, not 8,000.
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More parking than the global stadiums the Commanders wish to emulate. According to the Commanders’ head of Real Estate, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London and Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid are inspirations for a new RFK stadium design.[6] Tottenham Hotspur Stadium has a capacity of 62,850 and provides zero parking for general admission fans.[7] The new Bernabeu stadium will include a total of approximately 2,500 parking spots for a stadium capacity of 85,000.[8] That’s 1 parking spot per 34 stadium seats.
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8,000 houses for cars or 2,500 houses for people. The proposed parking garages will take up about 15 acres of land, which based on densities of neighborhoods like NoMa and Navy Yard could provide 2,500 new apartments.
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Sitting empty. The stadium itself will sit empty or at best, underutilized, for more than 90% of the year. And so will the parking garages. The empty parking garages will not generate revenue and serve only as a massive concrete barrier between the existing neighborhood and the new development.
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Who wants to go through the hassle and cost of parking if there’s no tailgate? Tailgating is a central part of the gameday experience, but tailgating cannot happen in parking garages. Demand for parking will be dramatically reduced, especially with good transportation alternatives.
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Big crowds need mass transit. It’s called mass transit for a reason! The Metro (and buses) are much more efficient at transporting large crowds. The Blue/Orange/Silver lines can transport upwards of 25,000 people per hour in each direction. A single train can move 1,000 people. Compare that to getting the same number of cars out of a parking garage and through local streets!
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For those who must drive, park [tailgate] and ride. It is true that not all fans live within easy access of a Metro station, and that’s why WMATA has park-and-ride. There are approximately 17,000 WMATA-owned parking spots within a 30-minute ride of RFK. Some parking lots, including the existing 1,869-spot lot at Landover could even support tailgating.[9]
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A transportation investment that pays off for the stadium and residents. If DC wants to invest $356m in transportation infrastructure, it should put it towards a new Metro infill station at Oklahoma Avenue. In Metro’s original designs, Oklahoma Ave would have received a station, but neighbors protested due to the amount of proposed parking surrounding the station (sound familiar?). Instead of parking garages that get used rarely and not by residents, an Oklahoma Ave station would provide benefits every day to an underserved area with a large transit-dependent population. The new station would also serve new residents in the RFK development as well as fans on gameday.
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[1] $356m for parking, $500m for “horizontal” construction and utilities. This does not include borrowing costs.
[2] $356m for parking (excluding borrowing costs). US Census Population Estimates, 2024.
[3] OurRFK Economic & Fiscal Impact Analysis
[4] Colonial Parking
[5] Audi Field + Nationals Park 2024 Traffic Operations & Parking Plan
[6] “Commanders go international for possible designs in new DC stadium”
[7] Tottenham Hotspur: Travelling by Car
[8] “Stop construction! Real Madrid suffers another setback with Bernabeu”