Sport

February 10, 2010 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium

Introduction
 Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium is located at Capital Hill in the Washington DC. Its physical address is 2400 East Capital Street, SE, Washington, DC 20003. Stadium armory is the closet Metro station. The stadium serves as the home of the DC United in addition to being a hosting venue for music concerts, high school and college athletics and the other main events. The Washington Convention and Sports Authority are the current managers of the Robert F. Kennedy memorial stadium. The Authority also manages and owns the DC Armory, the Washington Convention Center as well as the Nationals Park and Festival grounds surrounding the stadium (Cooper, 2010).

History 
Robert F. Kennedy memorial Stadium was constructed in the year 1961 as the home ground venue for Washington Redskins, the National Football League as well as the Washington Senators, a Major League Baseball. Initially, the stadium was known as the DC Stadium but later renamed Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in the year 1969 (Cooper, 2010). Since then. several changes have taken place in the stadium regarding the teams using the stadium as the home ground. For example, in 1971, the Senators relocated to DallasFort Worth area and in the year 1996, the DC United, which was the main League football team, made the stadium their home ground. Later in 1997, the Washington Redskins left the stadium for FedEx Field situated in Prince Georges County. After thirty four years time away, baseball resumed in the DC in 2005. The Washington Nationals that had in the past been based in Montreal returned to the DC. This prompted the RFK stadium to be modified in order to contain the team. During the spring of 2008, the new National Stadium was opened (Cooper, 2010).

Stadium specifications 
Some of the details of the RFK stadium include It has a three and a half acres of natural grass field. The stadium has seven entrances for even crowd movement in addition to having club rooms for group and private affairs. The stadium is metro accessible for orange and blue lines and has an arena (open air) for extensive civic events (Chang, 2010). The stadium has a maximum capacity of 45,016 for baseball and 55,672 for football. The architects behind the work of the stadium include George Dahl from Dallas, Ewin Engineering Associates from Washington and Osborn Engineering from Cleveland. Currently the stadium is owned by the District of Columbia government under the patronage of DC Sports and Entertainment Commission. The construction of the stadium cost US  24 million (Ballparks 2008). Its physical dimensions are 60 ft (backstop), 335 ft (right field), 380 ft (right center), 408 ft (center field), 380 ft (left center) and 335 ft (left field) (Ball Parks, 2008).

Stadium Parking 
RFK Stadium has ten thousand spaces that are available in the parking lot. During the major events the packing lot fills up and public transport is often suggested. There is often a free offer for free packing by the Washington Nationals in addition to free motor-coach from and to the National Baseball Stadium. The buses operate endlessly beginning from1 12 hours prior to the game time up to 1 12 hours after the final inning (Cooper, 2010). The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) has come up with a Stadium Event parking control program in the area around the DC Armoury and RFK stadium. The regulations prevents vehicle owners without a legitimate Visitor Passes or Zone 6 parking permits from packing their vehicles on suburban streets whenever there is a event at the stadium or the DC armory. This is done to avoid any parking competition between the event goers and the residents. This is the reason why both venues are served by Metro bus and metro rail with their information being obtainable from WMATA website (District Department of Transportation, 2008).

Stadium Development 
In 2005, the Montreal Expos moved to the District in 2005 there was a feeling by many that the RFK stadium would be a temporary venue. At that time the stadium was creaky and old in addition to lacking enough facilities for player training, food preparation, premium seating and fan comfort. Finally the community came up with a  US 600 million funding plan which was mainly public financed with the aim of building a venue for a showcase team. It is this plan that gave rise to the National Park on 31st March 2008 (Sports Road Trip, 2009).

Revenue 
The stadium generates money from the charges of events that are held in the venue. For example, in 1999, the DC sports Commission used to charge the DC United US  60,000 per every season as rent. About ninety percent of the concession revenues collected also went to the DC Sports Commission (Brooke 1999). The stadium has had different tenants in different periods as follows 1962-1971, Washington Senators Redskins, 1961-1996 DC United, 1996- and Washington Nationals 2005- (Ball Parks, 2008).

Security Measures
Several measures have been placed to ensure the safety of those attending the events in the stadium. Some items that are not allowed into the stadium include containers (plastic, metal and glass), large bags, weapons, foods and drinks, professional cameras (video), whistles, pets among others. There are other strict rules that the fans must always adhere to. For example one can only get into the stadium through Gate A, B, Main, E and F and this should be 1  hours before the match begins (Bowl Committee, 2009).

Economic Impact 
In addition to the business owners who benefit from the activities that go on in the JFK stadium, the residents of DC are given more consideration when job opportunities in the stadium arise. The stadium has more than one thousand employees as supervisors grill cooks, runners, event attendants and staff as well as crowd management personnel (DDES, 2007). The RFK stadium site development will not only present an opportunity for commemorative and cultural uses that will attract visitors but will also address the needs (recreational) of the residents (National Capital Planning Commission, 2006).