The Washington Commanders badly need a new stadium, and they should have their pick of the three jurisdictions from which they draw the bulk of their fans. More than that: They should have those three jurisdictions elbowing one another out of the way.
The options for a Commanders stadium site: Bad, worse and nonexistent
And the only site that would be almost universally embraced — at RFK Stadium in D.C. — isn’t controlled by the people who govern D.C. Without fundamental change, it’s not just a romantic notion. It’s a non-starter.
So where are they?
“You don’t just build a stadium and find a site and start breaking ground,” Commanders owner Daniel Snyder told longtime Washington sports anchor Chick Hernandez. “It does take time.”
Well, at least they’re being realistic, right?
Wait, let me check my notes. … Snyder said that to Hernandez in 2014.
The issue is now urgent. The Commanders are required to play at FedEx Field, a dump of a stadium that is universally loathed, through the 2027 season. Here’s a prediction: They’ll be playing there in 2028, too. That’s how many political and financial hurdles they face.
There was a time when The Washington Post began editorials thusly: “Suddenly the local story of the summer is how one man with a lot of money, a beloved football team and almost hourly changes of heart is driving a metropolitan region wild.” That was 30 years ago, back when Jack Kent Cooke was looking to replace RFK and was being wooed by Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder and D.C. Council Chair John A. Wilson.
What would Snyder give to drive this region wild, even for a day?
Clearly, the Commanders are pushing the stadium issue to be at the forefront of discussion around the team. That’s not just because it’s important. It’s an attempt to obscure everything else swirling around the organization: the investigations by Congress and the NFL into the misogynistic workplace Snyder oversaw, sexual harassment allegations against the owner himself and allegations of financial impropriety.
Given those conversation options, why not have Ron Rivera, the head coach, tweet out a sketch from design firm Bjarke Ingels Group?
“Saw the designs of our new Command Post — our new team headquarters complete with meeting spaces, practice fields and training facility,” Rivera tweeted Thursday. “Looks amazing! Proud of what we are building.”
Left out: where they’re building it.
Here’s the problem with such distraction tactics: The politicians who need to sign off on the hundreds of millions of dollars the Commanders want to help fund a stadium and develop the area around it — they aren’t falling for it. Snyder’s problems are tied into whether he can find a proper site anywhere, much less lure competing jurisdictions into a bidding war. What he’s offering isn’t what Cooke could offer: a proud, championship-winning franchise that was a unifying force in the region. Rather, he’s offering an on-field product that has produced five winning seasons this century that carries with it more off-field baggage than moves through Dulles International Airport in a year. It’s a wounded asset at best.
Consider what Virginia Sen. Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City), a lifelong Washington football fan, told my colleague Laura Vozzella about the differences between the franchise for which Cooke was trying to peddle and the one Snyder is pitching now.
“That team defined our community for multiple generations,” Petersen said. “The Washington Commanders are not that team. They have no history, no tradition and no fan base. I do not consider them an appropriate economic partner for the Commonwealth of Virginia, because I don’t think they have the community support to survive.”
Or, as Petersen said Thursday during an appearance with JP Finlay and former Washington standout Brian Mitchell on 106.7 the Fan: “The irony is: Would this be easier to do with an expansion team? The answer might be yes.”
It’s not difficult to translate that to: Who wants to do business with this guy?
So what are the options? The team has pursued land along Interstate 95 in the Woodbridge area, more than 40 miles south on the Beltway and down I-95 from FedEx Field — news that broke Monday and was met, appropriately, with eye rolls. Depending on traffic, that could take residents of Prince George’s County — the core of the fan base — anywhere from 45 minutes to, say, eight hours to get to a game.
“What time should we leave for the Thursday night Commanders game against the Cowboys?”
“You mean, ‘What time Wednesday?’”
There’s a quarry near Dulles that’s a potential site. There’s another possibility in Dumfries near Potomac Shores Golf Club. The problem with all these Virginia options, other than that sheer geography risks alienating what remains of the existing fan base: Virginia legislators are working on lowering the amount of state funds that could go toward such a project to below $300 million — this from a legislature that early this year seemed poised to forfeit $1 billion in tax revenue if the stadium came to the Commonwealth.
D.C. just sits there because Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) can’t introduce a bill that calls for the federal government to sell the land around the RFK site back to the city while Snyder is caught up in a congressional investigation.
So is the best place — gulp — the land Snyder already owns surrounding FedEx Field? How do they market that? Hey, Washington, we have offered you the nation’s worst fan experience for a generation. Now, we offer: FedEx 2, Electric Boogaloo!
It’s not impossible for a stadium to be built between now and the time the team’s commitment to its current home is over. The Las Vegas Raiders broke ground for Allegiant Stadium in November 2017 and opened it in July 2020 — less than three years.
But the Commanders have no site. They have no momentum. They have jurisdictions that not only aren’t trying to actively lure them, they’re all but working to drive them away. That’s not because the politics and economics around using taxpayer dollars to help rich owners build stadiums always have been suspect. That’s because of this team at this time — and the man who owns it.
Source: WP
