A day after the head of the D.C. Council said the council will evaluate Commanders stadium plans apart from the 2026 budget process, Mayor Muriel Bowser warned any significant delays could jeopardize the deal.
Since Bowser and team owner Josh Harris announced they reached a premininary deal to bring the Commanders from Maryland to D.C., July 15 has been the deadline for the council to give initial approval. It’s a deadline council Chairman Phil Mendelson has said is unrealistic.
Mendelson separated much of the RFK stadium deal from the budget and will hold a hearing and separate vote after July 15, he said Wednesday. Bowser said Thursday that it’s cause for concern.
“I’m very concerned about it because it’s not in line with our agreement with the team,” she said.
The mayor warned of the impact of any major delays.
“Sometimes a window of opportunity opens and we don’t know how soon it’s going to close. So, the way I live my life, I get through the window, right? We don’t want the window of opportunity to close on RFK. I passed the ball – OK, you’re going to get all my sports metaphors – to the D.C. Council a couple of months ago. They’re doing their work, and we want them to do their work and to stay on track with our exclusive agreement with the Washington Commanders. The time is now,” she said.
At a panel discussion hosted by Bisnow Media, the Commanders’ vice president of real estate, Andy VanHorn spoke about the delay.
“We have that window of opportunity to move forward immediately, and we need to do that now, and so that’s how we think about it. If we wait another six months, that adds risk to everything, whether you hire somebody later, whether the project goes later, that’s all kind of difficult for us to manage,” he said.
While much of the deal has been removed from the budget, Mendelson said the council will vote on July 15 on part of the deal.
“No one should infer from the introduction of this bill that funding in the Mayor’s proposed budget for the Washington Commanders Football Team is in jeopardy,” he said in a statement. “Councilmembers have said they support leaving the funding, as proposed by the Mayor, in the budget. The attached bill would not alter that.”
VanHorn explained the reason the team is determined to open the new stadium by 2030.
“2031 is a major year in the sports world globally. The Women’s World Cup is coming to North America. You know, we have the Rugby World Cup coming, and we believe we have opportunities – we’re already in discussions – for both of those events. We think it’s a three-quarter-of-a-billion-dollar year for District. If we hit 2030, need to be open for a full year – they won’t give it to you if you open at ’31,” he said. “And so we are absolutely focused on that year being an incredibly pivotal year. And we really do need momentum
and [to] keep our process moving.”
The News4 I-Team’s review of the fiscal impact of an NFL stadium in D.C. shows at least a third of the tax revenue will remain at the proposed Commanders stadium site — a significant portion of the return promised to taxpayers. Investigative Reporter Ted Oberg explains.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
