While DC United has won two MLS championships since the
inaugural MLS season in '96, the team has "lost money every
year and is on pace to do so again even though its home
attendance is higher than ever," according to Brooke
Tunstall of the WASHINGTON TIMES. In its first three years,
the team lost an estimated $4M per year and sources say the
team will lose "about" $3M this season. United President
Kevin Payne: "We need to start doing things that enable us
to make money for a long time." Tunstall: "The biggest
hurdles preventing United from breaking even stem from the
league generating very little in its national television
deal and from a lease with the District government that puts
a stranglehold on its ability to create revenue." League
sources say that each team generates "less than" $500,000
through the league's ABC/ESPN TV deal and the team pays
"about" $60,000 per game under its lease to play at RFK
Stadium. Under the lease, the DC Sports Commission controls
the majority of the facility's revenue streams, of which
Payne said, "Under the current deal, after you figure our
share that we have to pay the league, the city makes more
money per customer than we do when you start adding in
parking and concession revenues." The "ideal scenario" for
Payne is to use RFK until a "soccer-specific stadium similar
to one in Columbus is built" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 7/20).
