The D.C. Council has approved spending nearly $170 million to help build a stadium for D.C. United of Major League Soccer.
Most of the taxpayer funds would go toward buying or acquiring land for the stadium on Buzzard Point in southwest Washington. Some would go toward infrastructure costs and tax abatements. The team would then spend about $150 million to build the stadium itself.
The bill was approved unanimously Tuesday after a last-minute dispute between the council and Mayor Vincent C. Gray about how to fund the project. The city’s attorney general argued that the council’s funding mechanism was illegal, but D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson disagreed and said it was important to force the mayor to pay for the stadium plan. Mayor-elect Muriel Bowser, Ward 4 Democrat, abstained from voting on the funding mechanism.
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