The city and team owner planned to get a deal done by mid-July.
In April, the owner of the National Football League’s Washington Commanders franchise, Josh Harris, Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced Harris wanted to build a $3.6 billion, 65,000-seat domed stadium at the site of RFK Stadium along with retail space, office space and residential space on land now controlled by the District. That deal was supposed to have been signed by July 15th. There is an ongoing political fight and the July 15th deadline for the signing may not be reached. The team played at that stadium from 1961 through 1995. Just because there was an announcement, that doesn’t necessarily mean that Harris can pack up the equipment, load it on a truck and start using the planned building in 2030.
Harris and his Commanders business partners will pay $2.7 billion for construction, while D.C. will contribute about $1.1 billion which includes $500 million for construction, $356 million for parking, $89 million for a “sportsplex” and $202 million for utilities. The line from Bowser’s office is that Harris’s stadium-village will generate $4 billion in taxes. “This land has been blighted and underutilized for too long,” Bowser said. “What our deal with the Washington Commanders provides is the fastest and surest route to developing the RFK campus, and not just delivering sports and entertainment, but delivering housing, jobs, recreation and economic development.” Meanwhile eight miles east of the Washington site is the present Commanders home field and what becomes of the Landover, Maryland site? The plan seems to have Harris and his partners raze the stadium and develop the site. Goodell said a new stadium would increase D.C.’s chances of hosting a Super Bowl “dramatically. Maryland and Virginia politicians went after Harris’s business but Washington holds the cards.
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