The Redskins are making a change to their offseason routine.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell is expected to announce Wednesday that the team will begin holding training camp in Richmond, Virginia in 2013. The team will hold training camp at their headquarters in Ashburn this season, which has been the way they’ve done things for most of the last decade.
Additionally, McDonnell will also reportedly announce an expansion to the team’s headquarters in Ashburn. Per George Wallace of WTOP, the cost will be $30 million and the governor’s involvement suggests some state money will be included in the deal. The Redskins had flirted with moving their headquarters to Washington D.C. proper, which leads you to believe that the two announcements are related to each other.
Moving south for training camp might have something to do with the limited offseason schedule put into place by the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Going away to camp maximizes the amount of time you can work on football because players don’t have much else to do while living in dorms without their families while camp is in session. Even the switch from driving to walking to work makes it easier to keep everyone on the same page.
The lockout forced many teams to cancel plans to go away for camp last summer, but it seems the pendulum has started to swing back in the other direction.
