Report: P-Nats agree to stadium deal in Fredericksburg, Va.

The Fredericksburg City Council announced it has reached an agreement to build a multipurpose stadium at Celebrate Virginia South that would move the Single-A Potomac Nationals to the site after playing in Prince William County for decades, according to a report in the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star.

The stadium plans to be operational for the 2020 campaign, beginning April 1, 2020, and will cost $35 million to build. The agreement reportedly calls for the Silber family, which owns the P-Nats, to "finance, build and maintain" the stadium, which is expected to seat 5,000 fans.

The city of Fredericksburg, Va., will be considered the anchor tenant, making payments of $1.05 million each year for 30 years back to the club.

The Silber family also announced that it will change the team name and nickname to something that will include Fredericksburg and possibly Nationals. Fredericksburg Nationals seems to be the logical choice. The stadium will be available for use for 183 days to the city for high school, college and amateur athletics, as well as concerts and other major events.

Pfitzner Stadium is 33 miles north of the Celebrate Virginia North shopping center, which is near the intersection of U.S. route 17 and I-95 in Fredericksburg. With no traffic, that would take 36 minutes to traverse. From Nats Park, the drive is 54 miles or 54 minutes without traffic. With traffic, the drive would take between 1 hour, 20 minutes and 2 hours, 10 minutes leaving at 5 p.m., according to Google Maps.

This is a big deal for the Silber family, which has not been able to negotiate a new stadium deal with Prince William County for years.