The best place for the new stadium was Potomac Yards on the Virginia side just before crossing the 14th street bridge into DC. I think it was the most perfect spot, but, as we know, everyone had a hissy fit including the nearby residents, so it wasn't built there.
So instead of the stadium, there is now a ton of retail with all the big box stores with full parking lots. Every time I drive past it or stop there, I smile, because these nearby residents did not want a stadium that dragged in 50,000 spectators 8 times a year with an occasional concert and an occasional college football game. They did not want the traffic. So now, they have thousands and thousands of cars daily driving through the neighborhood instead. I think they took the wrong deal.
I read an article in the Post about 10 years ago and they interviewed a number of residents about the post stadium fight and what ended up eventually in the space instead. Everyone single one of them stated they thought they made the wrong decision.
Potomac Yards would have been a fine site, provided that a metro stop had been added as part of the deal. I presume that would have been done. But that option is now gone.
FedExField,[1] originally Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, is an American football stadium located near the Capital Beltway in Prince George’s County, Maryland. From 2004 until 2010, it had the largest seating capacity in the NFL at over 91,000. Currently, the capacity is 82,000.[3]