When D.C. United played its last game at RFK Stadium in 2017, the club commemorated the event with a weekend’s worth of events. Dubbing it “last call at RFK,” the festivities included a legends game, appearances by luminaries from the club’s past and a host of other festivities.



There was a feeling of permanence. Fans tore seat backs off of their frames and hoisted them aloft, with a few managing to smuggle them out of the stadium. Others lingered well past the final whistle, gazing up at the stadium’s sloping roofline and reflecting on two decade’s worth of memories. At the midfield stripe, I crouched down and ripped out a handful of turf, which sits in a box on my shelf, like the ashes of an old family member.



In reality, though, it would not be D.C. United’s last call at RFK Stadium, as the club continued to use the venue as a training base. For the next two years, in fact, the club’s players would return to the...