Any deal that is struck between the Commanders and the District of Columbia for a new stadium comes with two important caveats.
First, as mentioned earlier, owner Josh Harris’s NFL business partners must approve of the arrangement. Second, the D.C. Council must sign off on it, too.
The second component could be a challenge. As the Washington Post explains it, the potential deal is being driven by mayor Muriel Bowser. Council chair Phil Mendelson said this week that he has “not been consulted or kept informed” about any negotiations with the team. Added Mendelson, “I find it disturbing that the mayor believes a unilateral approach is the best course, especially when ultimately the council has to give approval.”
Complicating matters is the loss of $1 billion in Congressional funding for the D.C. budget. That has created a $410 million deficit.
The potential deal, as initially reported by NBC Washington, would have the team and/or the league paying up to $2.5 billion for the $3 billion stadium. That leaves $500 million for D.C. to muster.
Here’s the reality. An agreement between the team and Bowser would be the beginning. Before shovels get crammed into the dirt, both the league and the D.C. Council would have to give their blessing.
On the same day news emerged of an organized effort to oppose public funding for a new Commanders stadium in D.C., news emerged of a possible deal between the Commanders and D.C. for a $3 billion facility.
The first question, as it always is when negotiations like this happen, is how much will the team and league have to pay? Per the report from NBC Washington, the Commanders will pay up to $2.5 billion.
That means (math time) the project could entail as little as $500 million in public money. And while half a billion is, you know, half a billion, it’s only 16.667 percent of the total expense.
At a time when teams usually shake half the base price of a new or renovated stadium from the taxpayer tree, Commanders owner Josh Harris could have a hard time getting at least 23 of his colleagues to sign off on the plan.
No, an owner of a business can’t decide how to do business without the consent of a sufficient number of the owner’s business partners. And Harris’s partners might not be thrilled about the precedent that a 16.67-percent contribution sets.
Consider the other teams currently trying to build or upgrade stadiums with public money. The Bears, the Browns, the Bengals, the Chiefs. Others are in the pipeline, from the Broncos to the Panthers to the Texans to the Eagles to the Buccaneers. If the Commanders have to foot more than 83 percent of the bill for a new building in D.C., the government officials with whom those other teams are or will be negotiating might want a similar split.
It’s arguably better for an owner to pay for the entire project, like Rams owner Stan Kroenke did. That can be written off as an aberration. It’s harder to downplay what would be a dramatic shift in the stadium financing game.
The initial numbers for a new Commanders facility at the site of RFK Stadium don’t represent a bad deal by Josh Harris. Instead, it’s likely the best deal he’s going to get in the current climate. And that climate speaks to a potentially major (and overdue) adjustment to the existing practice of public subsidies for multi-billionaires.
The Commanders are close to a $3 billion deal with the District of Columbia to bring the NFL team back to the city, Mark Seagraves of NBC Washington reports.
The team played in RFK Stadium from 1961-96 before moving to Landover, Maryland. The site, which is 2 miles east of the U.S. Capitol, would be the home to a new stadium for the team.
Seagraves reports that Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Commanders have the framework of a deal in place. The team would pay most of the costs to build the stadium, as much as $2.5 billion, with the District contributing $850 million for capital costs and infrastructure that will support the entire 180-acre development.
The District would pay in installments, with $500 million due between 2026 and 2030 and the other $350 million paid in 2032 through taxes generated from the new development to cover costs of the stadium or stadium infrastructure.
The deal calls for completion of the stadium in time for the start of the 2030 season.
The District of Columbia has secured the ability to build a football facility at the site of RFK Stadium. Now, they have to come up with a way to build it.
That will likely be the much harder aspect of the broader project, given the current appetite among taxpayers for the use of taxpayer money to finance football stadiums.
According to the Washington Post, a group of D.C. activists has launched a formal effort to keep it from happening. The article characterizes it as “the most organized pushback yet against the prospect of a taxpayer-financed stadium and the Washington Commanders’ potential return to the District.”
The argument goes beyond the issue of using public funds to build the stadium. The other argument is that the RFK Stadium site should be used for affordable housing.
The opposition centers on a potential ballot initiative. And one thing has become clear in the stadium-financing game — if the question of using taxpayer money to build a stadium lands on a ballot, it will fail. Miserably.
Even if a formal public vote can be avoided, it won’t be easy. The D.C. Council would control the situation, and the Post notes that some members “have expressed skepticism about helping the team pay for a stadium.”
It’s an increasingly common problem. Last April, a ballot measure in Jackson County, Missouri to extend an existing sales tax to pay for renovations to Arrowhead Stadium fell far short of the necessary “yes” votes. The Browns are facing opposition from Ohio governor Mike DeWine to $600 million in state-issued bonds for a $2.4 billion stadium in suburban Brook Park. The Bengals have launched a belated effort to get $350 million for renovations to their stadium in Cincinnati. And the Bears have gotten nowhere in connection with their attempt to secure public financing for a new stadium, either in Chicago or on property they own in Arlington Heights.
Through it all, NFL franchise values keep going up and up. More and more people are saying that the owners should pay for their own stadiums.
It feels as if the tipping point is close. Maybe it has already arrived. The possibility of a D.C. stadium for the Commanders could be the next project that will remain stalled until the team comes up with a way to pay for the building without invading the public piggy bank.
The game of golf got a major boost in recent days with the Masters. It has received another bump from what has quickly become a pre-draft tradition unlike any other for the Commanders.
Yes, they took a group of 20-plus prospects to Top Golf again.
The fact that the Commanders went from annually irrelevant to the brink of the Super Bowl makes it hard to criticize anything they do. And the folks who cover the team on a regular basis dare not do it. When Commanders fans are the primary consumers of their content, it makes no sense for those who write about the Commanders to do anything other than claim that everything the Commanders are doing is a reflection of a burgeoning dynasty.
But it’s still fair to wonder whether it makes sense. What’s the purpose of it? How does it help the Commanders identify the right, and wrong, guys for the franchise?
At best, it’s a sociological experiment. Throw them into a semi-competitive environment and study them. How do their interact with each other? Who’s the natural alpha? Who withdraws from the group? Who’s most likely to make fun of those who swing so badly that they’d have more fun throwing the balls from the platform? Who seems to be so good at golf that it’s proper to wonder whether they’ll spend more time practicing their swing than they will studying film?
Think of it this way. If the Commanders have discovered scouting plutonium by taking a group of prospects on a field trip, why do no other teams do it? It’s a copycat league. If the Commanders have stumbled into the ultimate strategy for finalizing a draft board, why wouldn’t each of the other 31 teams do it?
G.M. Adam Peters said last year that he picked up the Top Golf thing from his time at the 49ers, so they apparently do it, too. Still, if it was such a valuable tool, wouldn’t more teams do it? Wouldn’t they all?
The players don’t seem to care, because it’s way more fun than the same-old visit. They aren’t being asked the same-old questions. They don’t have to stand in front of the same-old white board and draw up the same-old plays?
But the Commanders aren’t doing it because they believe the players deserve a few hours of fun after weeks of submitting to an elaborate job interview. It’s strategic. It’s calculated. They’re looking for something to help them make good decisions when it’s time to decide which of the prospects will be drafted into the effort.
Last year, Jayden Daniels’s agent seemed to realize there was something off about it. The Commanders wanted Jayden Daniels. But instead of focusing the day on spending time with him, they brought in multiple other quarterbacks from the incoming class and took them all to Top Golf and pulled out a notebook.
They did it again this year. They seem to be proud of it. It’s their thing. And it’s still something that other teams have yet to do.
Maybe the other 31 teams are wrong. Or maybe they’re all right. In the end, it won’t have any impact on winning or losing. It just seems strange.
Saying that doesn’t make us “haters.” We’d raise the same question if any other team was the one team in the league to do it.
For future prospects who’ll visit the Commanders, be advised. Don’t let your guard down. They’re watching everything you do. They’re listening to everything you say. And they’ll be making draft decisions based on whatever they see and hear.
