Yesterday's setback for Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke's
plan to build a stadium in Laurel, MD, raised the possiblity of
Cooke's return to the District of Columbia, but DC mayoral
candidate Marion Barry said Cooke told him he "would not consider
it" (Brown & Koaleski, WASHINGTON POST, 10/14). Cooke told the
WASHINGTON TIMES his "only intent" is to appeal the zoning
decision of the Anne Arundel County administrative hearing
officer, "and win" (Flynn & Neufeld, WASHINGTON TIMES, 10/19).
Cooke's appeal "could be far more daunting," as the "stadium's
fate could be tangled in months of hearings and deliberative
meetings" (Justin Blum, WASHINGTON POST, 10/14).
WHITHER DC? Reaction to Cooke's possible return in DC was
mixed. Tom Boswell writes that the "answer is definiteley NOT
for the the District to open its arms, and wallet, to Cooke."
Boswell adds a better approach is to "expand and renovate" RFK
Stadium (WASHINGTON POST, 10/14). A WASHINGTON TIMES editorial
states that though Cooke may want a new stadium, a "government
that does not have enough money to run its own services should
not even think about paying for it" (WASHINGTON TIMES, 10/14). A
POST editorial states "it is worth pursuit" to examine build on
the current site of RFK Stadium (WASHINGTON POST, 10/14).