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John Keim, ESPN Staff WriterDec 19, 2024, 05:33 PM ET
- John Keim covers the Washington Commanders for ESPN. He joined ESPN in 2013 after a stint with the Washington Post. He started covering the team in 1994 for the Journal Newspapers and later for the Washington Examiner. He has authored/co-authored four books. You can also listen to him on ‘The John Keim Report’, which airs on ESPN Richmond radio, and follow him on Twitter @john_keim
ASHBURN, Va. — The Washington Commanders‘ return to the District of Columbia went from a strong possibility early this week to being in a perilous spot Thursday after a key provision in a spending bill before Congress was excluded.
A new spending bill to fund the government does not include the transfer of an approximate 170-acre parcel of federal land from the government to the district. The provision had initially been included in the bill, fueling optimism by team and district officials about a chance to return to the site of the team’s former home at RFK Stadium.
If this new bill doesn’t pass, it’s possible another provision for the land transfer could be included in a new one. Or the district would have to start over when the new Congress is in session next year.
On Thursday afternoon, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser wanted to make one thing clear, correcting a tweet from President-elect Donald Trump’s adviser Elon Musk: No money had been allocated for building a new stadium in the continuing resolution bill before Congress.
Musk, who has criticized the overall spending bill, had reposted on X the false information that the bill included $3 billion for a new football stadium, saying: “This should not be funded by your tax dollars.”
But the only aspect in the bill related to a potential stadium was a resolution that would transfer control of the land at the RFK site from the federal government to the District of Columbia.
“It was stated that the CR contains $3 billion for a stadium,” Bowser told reporters during a news conference in the district Thursday, discussing $800 million in arena renovations for the Wizards and Capitals. “All wrong. There are no federal dollars related to the transfer of RFK, and in fact the legislation does not require or link at all to a stadium. We’re talking about how the district can invest in removing blight.”
If Congress had included the land transfer, and the bill had passed, it would greatly increase the Commanders’ chances of returning to the site of their glory days, multiple sources have said. Washington played at RFK Stadium from 1961 to 1996, appearing in five Super Bowls and winning three. The Commanders have played in Landover, Maryland — in what is now called Northwest Stadium — since 1997.
The government would lease the land to the district for 99 years. Bowser said the city currently has a lease on the land for another 14 years — but it could not get the funding to build a stadium with such a short lease.
The RFK site has been the preferred destination for the organization, multiple sources have said, but the Commanders can choose to stay in Landover and build a stadium at their present site. They already own the land, and Gov. Wes Moore of Maryland has said he wants to keep the team, but the state has received guarantees the team would develop the land should it leave.
If the bill indeed passes without the land transfer it’s uncertain how long the Commanders would wait to see if it could be voted on at another point. Commanders owner Josh Harris has said they’d like to have a new stadium by 2030, though that’s not a firm deadline.
“I don’t know if there’s another path this session,” Bowser said. “We’ve done all we’re supposed to do, and this is the vehicle that has been identified — and agreed to by Democrats and Republicans. Have you been to RFK? Anybody? [It is] 177 acres surrounded by asphalt and a stadium that hasn’t been used in 10 years that is a blight on the nation’s capital. Now, I agree with the president-elect on this point: We want to make our nation’s capital the most beautiful capital in the world, so we have to move and free RFK.”
