At some point in the near future the stadium will be demolished.
It appears that the majority owner of the National Football League’s Washington Commanders franchise, Joel Harris, will be able to use Washington, D. C. as leverage in his attempt to get a new home for his business. The National Park Service said that the 63-year-old RFK stadium, which has not been used since 2019, can be demolished. An NPS study found that the stadium is “in a state of disrepair,” and that demolition would have “no significant impact” on the “natural, cultural, and human environment.” The Washington NFL franchise played in the stadium between 1961 and 1996. The Washington franchise has been playing its home games in Landover, Maryland since 1997 but the former team owner Daniel Snyder and the present Commanders ownership have been seeking a new stadium for years.
What Harris would like to see is a bidding war for his business between Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D. C. elected officials in the stadium building game with any of the three giving Harris’ business copious amounts of public money for stadium construction. Some politicians in Virginia were aggressive in an attempt to get the business that was owned by Snyder prior to the sale of the franchise to Harris. But nothing ever came of a planned stadium-village. There does not seem to be much of an appetite in Virginia to build sports venues. The owner of the National Basketball Association’s Washington Wizards and the National Hockey League’s Washington Capitals, Ted Leonsis, was unable to relocate his business across the Potomac River to Alexandria, Virginia because politicians said no to giving public money for Leonsis’ planned stadium-village. Maryland has been on a sports spending spree. It allocated $1.2 billion to renovate Baltimore’s baseball stadium and football facility. Maryland is also ready to invest $400 million to renovate the Pimlico thoroughbred racing track. Harris wants the bidding to commence.
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