WASHINGTON — The Council of the District of Columbia went deep into the night to hear from its constituents about the Commanders’ proposed $3.8 billion domed facility at the site of RFK Stadium, but the bill is on track for passage due in no small part to the political evolution of the council’s chairman. 

The council began two days of hearings on legislation to build the stadium and redevelop the RFK property with about $1.1 billion in public funds, with Tuesday’s session devoted entirely to testimony from the public. More than 500 citizens registered to be public witnesses, and the council stayed in session for nearly 14 hours, not recessing until 12:01 a.m. Wednesday. 

The second session, beginning just hours later, will be centered on testimony from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and representatives from the Commanders. The sessions are happening just days after D.C. Council chair Phil Mendelson, following negotiations with the team, restructured the bill to redirect as much as $950 million in stadium- and development-related revenue back to the District. 

As the first hearing began, hundreds of residents on both sides of the stadium funding debate held signs and chanted in front of council headquarters. Many of the same arguments in what was called by one resident “the classic jocks versus nerds debate” then played out inside throughout Tuesday. Advocates championed potential job creation and redevelopment on Washington’s east side and the return of the team to its “spiritual home,” while opponents questioned the need for public money to support an NFL team estimated to be worth $6.3 billion. 

Amid that, several council members touted the stadium’s potential impact on a blighted area of the nation’s capital, even as they questioned certain deal points. 

“I see this as much more than a stadium, but an opportunity to build up people and community,” said council chair pro tempore Kenyan McDuffie. “I’ve heard from countless residents: Bring the team home.”

Counting Votes

The council is set to take the first of two scheduled votes on the stadium funding on Friday, with a second to follow in September. While some council members professed themselves on Tuesday to still be undecided, at least five solid “yes” votes exist on the council, two short of the necessary threshold.

“I am confident we will have the votes necessary,” Mendelson said. 

Changed Sentiment 

A 27-year veteran of the council, Mendelson, a Democrat, was firmly against more than $600 million in public funding toward the construction of Nationals Park more than two decades ago. He was one of six “no” votes in a razor-thin 7–6 decision to develop the ballpark and allow the Montreal Expos to become the Nationals—but only after the relocation nearly fell apart at multiple points. 

No other council member part of that baseball vote is still involved with the legislative body, leaving Mendelson as the longest-tenured official there. Over the past two decades, he has shifted from more of a fringe player known for casting protest votes to a deeply powerful centrist and coalition builder who has helped balance out the more leftward-leaning sentiments of the council, and he has led the body since 2012.

“As I have moved from the end of the council dais to the center, so has my ideology,” Mendelson said.  

Also helping shape the changed sports sentiment was the fundamentally different nature of the football deal. Getting the MLB club in Washington required a fully funded stadium, as the league owned the franchise at the time and had near-total leverage to completely dictate terms to relocation candidate markets. Commanders owner Josh Harris, conversely, is funding at least $2.7 billion toward the stadium. 

Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese both missed Sunday’s game between the Indiana Fever and Chicago Sky due to injury—and the game still drew viewership numbers the league would’ve only dreamed of less than two years ago.

Sunday’s game between the Fever and Sky drew 1.5 million viewers on ABC, the fourth-most-watched game on the network this year. The game tipped off at 3 p.m. ET. 

The numbers are down from the first two regular-season meetings this year between the two Midwest rivals. The Fever and Sky faced off in their respective season openers on May 17 in Indiana, and the game drew 2.7 million viewers on ABC—the most-watched WNBA game, regular-season or playoffs, since Clark and Reese were drafted. 

On June 27, the two sides sold out the United Center in Chicago for the first time and drew 1.92 million viewers on CBS—despite Clark missing the game due to a left groin injury. 

Despite the drop-off, the number shows how the WNBA’s continued growth since the arrival of the 2024 draft class has rubbed off on the rest of the league. The game was the sixth-most-watched regular-season game ever on ABC and about double the viewership average of the 2023 WNBA Finals (728,000). 

The numbers also mirror the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game less than two weeks ago, which drew 2.19 million viewers. Viewership dipped 36% with Clark out, but it was still the second-most-watched All-Star Game ever—and exponentially higher than 2023’s 850,000 viewers. 

The two sides will battle twice more this season, both times in Indiana. They play next on Saturday, Aug. 9 on CBS, then again on Sept. 5, in a game that will air on Ion.

It’s unclear whether the stars will be available for those games. Clark missed her 13th game of the season due to injury, and the Fever have not provided a timeline for her return. Reese missed her second straight game, though she is expected to return soon as she is listed as day-to-day.

While Major League Soccer owners are waiting to implement a major calendar shift to a fall-to-spring schedule, momentum continues to build around the change.

“One of the attractive things of the calendar flip—if that happens, it’s why obviously it’s been discussed and talked about and thought about deeply—it would be to align better and it would make everything more efficient,” MLS Season Pass lead play-by-play announcer Jake Zivin said on Front Office Sports Today during the MLS All-Star festivities in Austin.

Last week, after the league’s board of governors did not vote on the change like some expected, MLS commissioner Don Garber said he “would rather take our time and get it right.” 

Moving from its traditional winter-to-fall schedule to the fall-to-spring timing would match MLS with most of global soccer, including the Big Five European leagues of the U.K.’s Premier League, Spain’s LaLiga, Germany’s Bundesliga, Italy’s Serie A, and France’s Ligue 1.

“I think it would help with international breaks mostly, and the playoffs that won’t get interrupted by international breaks, and I think that’s very important,” MLS insider Tom Bogert told FOS Today.

Zivin highlighted how the shift would help align MLS with other leagues’ transfer windows. “If you talk to the chief soccer officers of all these clubs, there can be challenges with buying players or selling players because it’s misaligned with Europe,” he said. “You don’t want to part ways with some of your best players right now in the summer with 10 games to go if you’re competing for a championship. But it’s the offseason right now in Europe, so, that’s when they want your good player. If you align it, that helps the business aspect of it.”

The Flip Side

Despite the momentum, shifting the schedule wouldn’t be without its challenges.

“Everybody has their own ideas of growth and everything that they want,” Bogert said, noting the intricacies of flipping the calendar. “That’s difficult in a country as big as this because right now it’s hard to play in Austin in the summer and it’s going to be hard to play in Minnesota in the winter. So, there are details to be ironed out.”

Weather was a concern for Garber, too. “It’s getting hotter, and that’s clearly an issue, playing through the depth and the core of the warmest months in many of our markets,” he said last week.

Moving forward, it appears the earliest MLS could shift its calendar would be 2027.

Golf’s major championship season closes out this week in Wales, as the country hosts its first AIG Women’s Open—marking its biggest women’s sporting event ever.

Attendance at Royal Porthcawl Golf Club during practice and competition rounds is expected to reach at least 36,000—easily surpassing the record 21,186 fans who watched a March England-Wales women’s rugby match at Principality Stadium in Cardiff.

Recent attendance numbers for the Women’s Open include:

• 2024: 52,887 at the Old Course at St Andrews (Scotland)
• 2023: 51,000 at Walton Heath (England)
• 2022: 33,303 at Muirfield (Scotland)

This week’s tournament could be further boosted by interest in the LPGA’s newest rising star, Lottie Woad, who won her first start as a professional on Sunday at the Women’s Scottish Open, and is the betting favorite at Royal Porthcawl, listed between +600 and +800 at most sportsbooks.

New Borders

Royal Porthcawl, which opened in 1895, has hosted several major men’s tournaments organized by The R&A (formally known as the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews), like the Senior Open, Amateur Championship, and Walker Cup (a collegiate equivalent of the Ryder Cup), but never a top women’s event.

Wales is the first country outside of England and Scotland to host the Women’s Open, which was first played in 1976, and previously known as the Women’s British Open. The R&A has been experimenting with new locales for its championships in recent years. This month’s Open Championship in Northern Ireland is likely paving the way for golf’s oldest major to one day be played in Ireland for the first time.

Next year, the Women’s Open will return to Royal Lytham & St Annes Golf Club in England for a sixth time, and in 2027, it will head to Royal St. George’s for the first time. The famed English links hosted the Open Championship 15 times, most recently in 2021, when Collin Morikawa won his second major.

Money Matters

A record $9.75 million purse is up for grabs, a $250,000 increase over last year. Sunday’s winner will earn $1.462 million, a slight increase over the $1.425 million Lydia Ko took home for winning in 2024.

That continues the trend of prize money stabilizing in both men’s and women’s golf. Of the nine major championships this year (four men’s and five women’s), four offered no purse increase over last year’s editions. No majors decreased their prize money, though, each offering record or record-tying amounts.