As temperatures rise in Washington, D.C., so, too, do political tensions over the Commanders’ bid to build a $3.8 billion domed stadium on the grounds of their former home, RFK Stadium.
The euphoric feelings that existed less than three months ago, when the Commanders and owner Josh Harris first unveiled their plan to return to the District, have given way to frustration and doubt. Already facing an uphill climb to secure sufficient D.C. Council support for more than $1 billion in public funding for the project, Mayor Muriel Bowser is now sounding alarms about a potential collapse of the deal.
“I think that everybody should be treating this urgently,” Bowser said on WTEM-AM. “Nobody should have the nonchalance that I’ve heard from some, the ‘Oh, what’s a month? What’s two months? What’s three months?’ I think it introduces a level of uncertainty and risk that’s intolerable for most business organizations.”
Asked on the radio show to rate her worry about the Commanders’ deal on a scale of zero for “not concerned” to five being “very concerned,” she answered with a four.
“When you’re a big-city mayor, you’re concerned about everything—I’ll put it at a four,” she said.
Bigger Issues
Core to the dispute is a decision last week by the council and its chair, Phil Mendelson, to separate consideration of the Commanders’ funding from a broader deliberation of the upcoming D.C. budget. That, in turn, threatens a provision in the deal for the council to approve funding by July 15 to preserve a planned 2030 stadium opening. Mendelson has argued that the July 15 deadline is not realistic, particularly given the due diligence needed to review the agreement, and that the Commanders won’t realistically need public funds until early next year.
In the meantime, the Commanders hosted a dinner earlier this week for council members in Georgetown to answer questions and help build support for the stadium effort. It’s currently thought that there are four solid “yes” votes on the council for the stadium funding, three short of the needed threshold.
Stadium and arena battles, however, are nothing new in the nation’s capital. Delayed council approval of the funding for Nationals Park more than two decades ago nearly derailed MLB’s relocation of the Montreal Expos to become the Nationals. Much more recently, Ted Leonsis planned to move his NBA Wizards and NHL Capitals to neighboring Alexandria, Va., in a new venue before reaching a deal last year with Bowser to renovate the teams’ current home, Capital One Arena, instead.
Harris, meanwhile, is also proceeding with plans to build a new arena in the South Philadelphia sports complex and begin a WNBA expansion franchise there, both in partnership with Comcast Spectacor.
