Full approval could come on September 17.
For Josh Harris, the owner of the National Football League’s Washington Commanders franchise, it is first and goal to goal in his effort to get his business a football venue in Washington D. C. Harris has a deal in place to build a stadium at the site of the former Washington football team’s DC home, the RFK Stadium site. There is one more series of downs that remain before Harris can claim a victory. The full District of Columbia council has to vote on the proposal on September 17th but it seems the deal is done and that vote is merely a formality. The August 1st preliminary agreement has Harris and his partners putting up $2.7 billion and District taxpayers kicking in an additional one billion dollars to build a stadium village. But that was August 1st, 2025 dollars. With inflation, a trade war and all sorts of tariffs being put on imported products which might include steel needed for the construction, that figure will be rising. The District also has a present day problem. There is a budget shortfall.
The new place will feature a 65,000-seat domed 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. That deadline came and went. The council and the business reworked an April agreement. The team played at that stadium from 1961 through 1995. Just because there was a preliminary approval, that doesn’t mean that Harris can pack up the equipment, load it onto a truck and start using the planned building in 2030 although it seems local politicians have already given the green light to start work despite no official agreement. What happens to the Commanders’ old home in Landover, Maryland? Harris has promised to redevelop that property.
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