Nats And United

There is a new and interesting story about how the Nats and DC United will be sharing RFK. Apparently, the United cannot play on a dirt infield, meaning that "grass trays" will be carted in and installed when the United need to play in RFK. The process will take 72 hours to prepare RFK for a United home game and another 48 hours to return it to the Nats' home field.

That doesn't leave a lot of room for the United to play a lot of home games. The Nats need at least a 5 day road trip in order for the United to play a home game. Here are the list of possibilities (based on the Nats' home schedule):

May 4-11
May 22-27
June 15-21
July 10-16
July 27-30
August 10-21
September 14-18

That's only 7 windows, only a couple of which are probably long enough for 2 MLS games. Since the United have 18 home games per year it seems like the United will either have ridiculously bunched home games or are going to have to find another place to play besides RFK for a number of their games.