Action Alert update
Dear Stop the Arena supporters:
The members of the General Assembly need to hear from you today.
They are beginning to discuss legislation that would give more than $1.4 billion to a billionaire to help him build a sports arena in Potomac Yard. It appears that a number of Democrats are willing to vote for this project as long as they get more funding for metro.
This makes no sense. Potomac Yard is a terrible spot to put a sports and entertainment complex and no amount of metro funding is going to change that. DC has a the transportation infrastructure to support this activity - we do not.
Roger Noll, the Stanford University sports economist had this to say about this latest stadium financing scam:
"All publicly subsidized football and baseball stadiums are money losers. A few arenas have broken even if the subsidy was low enough, but no facility with a subsidy of more than two hundred million has ever broken even. A subsidy approaching $1 billion is likely to be a disaster."
This entire process stinks. Transparency? Zero. The City is basically trying to get funding for this deal before anyone has the opportunity in Alexandria to say NO. The City has continually misrepresented the impacts and benefits of this project. The public engagement events the City is planning are a sham. Sadly, some key Democrats seem inclined to vote for this deal.
HERE'S WHAT WE NEED EVERYONE TO DO TODAY
Contact the following KEY legislators by email and phone:
SEND A SEPARATE EMAIL TO ALL 140 House and Senate Members too
(House and Senate Combined LINK)
https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:14181b41-9b11-4a79-add1-f978bd7ab0eb
MEDIA
Adrien Lopez, Coalition Member speaking at a protest event outside Capital One Arena sponsored by Don't Mute DC's Ronald Moten on Marttin Luther Kin Jr.'s Birthday
Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard Argues “This stunning lack of transparency calls for the utmost of skepticism and scrutiny.”
SIGN UP FOR EMAIL ALERTS AND FIND HOW YOU CAN HELP: We can defeat this deal if we all due our part to lobby Richmond and get our friends and neighbors to do the same.
The Coalition to Stop The Arena at Potomac Yard is a 501C4 organization
Founding members : Adrien Lopez, Andrew Macdonald, Matthew Morton, Eric Weiner, Shannon Curtis, and Rickey Dana