D.C. United's new stadium won't open until during the 2018 season

D.C. United fans will have to wait a little longer to enjoy their new stadium.

The club is set to receive the land from the District of Columbia this weekend at Buzzard Point, where they will build a new stadium three blocks from Nationals Park. But new projections for construction show the stadium won’t open until June of 2018, rather than at the start of the season, according to the Washington Post.

That puts completion of the new stadium three months into the 2018 season, assuming no complications cause delays. The league will be forced to schedule D.C. United to play away games to start 2018 until their stadium is ready, and they have ruled out a return to RFK Stadium during the 2018 season. D.C. United have previously said they expected the stadium to be done by spring of 2018, in time for the start of the season.

MLS teams have played long stretches on the road during stadium construction or renovations seven times before. Toronto FC are the most recent club to do this, playing their first eight games of 2016 on the road while their stadium was expanded. But if D.C. United have to wait until June, that would put them around 13 straight road games, if the 2018 schedule matches this year’s.

That the club is finally taking ownership of the land for the new stadium is a huge milestone in a process that has dragged on for years. The club has been looking for a place to build a soccer-specific stadium in Washington D.C. since as far back as 2006 and the Buzzard Point plan has been a discussion for the past six years.

In that time, the renderings of what the new stadium will look like have been scaled back from lofty early designs showing a large single roof around the stadium to the most recent designs, which offered a more modest overhang on just two sides.

D.C. United currently call RFK Stadium home, but the 55-year-old stadium is visibly in decay, and the dimensions are not ideal to host crowds for soccer matches. There has been talk of demolishing the stadium after D.C. United are no longer a tenant. The city has also proposed turning the land into the home of the Washington Redskins or the Washington Wizards, but nothing has been decided.

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