REDSKINS OWNER SCOUTING SITES FOR NEW STADIUM

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 26, 1992                   TAG: 9201260165
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: C11   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FAIRFAX                                LENGTH: Medium
REDSKINS OWNER SCOUTING SITES FOR NEW STADIUM
Washington Redskins owner Jack Kent Cooke reportedly has scouted several tracts in Fairfax County as backup sites for a planned new stadium if negotiations with Washington, D.C., officials break down.
Cooke faces a March 2 deadline in his talks with D.C. officials on plans to replace the team's aging Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in the city.
The Washington Post quoted several unidentified sources in Saturday's edition as saying a Cooke aide met with Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas M. Davis III last week.
One site discussed at the meeting is near Fair Oaks Mall in the western half of the county, the sources said.
The newspaper quoted sources who said Cooke likely wants some leverage in his talks with D.C. Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly.
The sources also said Cooke may be concerned about more stringent environmental requirements and other concessions he would have to make to build the stadium in the city. Cooke and Kelly are discussing a site adjacent to the old stadium in the city's northeast quadrant.
Cooke has threatened in the past to move the team to the suburbs if city officials stymied his stadium plans. Cooke wants a larger, more modern stadium to increase revenue.
"We've always had a backup," Cooke told the paper in a brief telephone interview from Minneapolis. "There's nothing new about that. Mayor Kelly knows it. . . . My first choice, as I've always said, is the District of Columbia and it still is."
Kelly and her husband paid their own way to Minneapolis last week after the mayor was criticized for accepting Cooke's offer of a free trip to the Redskins' Super Bowl appearance there.
Cooke said he and Kelly discussed backup options for the stadium during the flight Friday to Minneapolis.
"When people negotiate they always keep their options open," said Artis Hampshire-Cowan, a city lawyer involved in the talks. She said traffic congestion makes Fairfax an unattractive site.
"Location, location, location, we're it," she said.
Cooke and the city have said for months they are close to agreement on a $150 million, 78,600-seat arena.
But delays in reaching a final deal prompted Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. to impose the March 2 deadline. Federal land is needed for parking if the stadium is built on the city site.
Davis would not comment Friday on whether he met with a Cooke representative.
"I'm sure he's looking for some backup. He's not a dumb guy," Davis said.
Davis recalled a resolution suburban governments signed in 1987 pledging support for keeping the team in the city. "We're not interested in getting into a war with the District," he said.
Still, Davis said if Cooke is serious about Fairfax, the county would welcome the team. "We'd change that in a minute if we really thought we could get them out here," he said of the resolution.
Keywords:
FOOTBALL

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB