On Friday, the Washington, D.C. City Council voted 9 to 3 in favor of revised legislation in support of a $3.8 billion, mixed-used stadium district, including a new stadium for the Washington Commanders, at the RFK Stadium site. A minimum of eight votes was needed to move the legislation forward.
The tally came after two days of public comment and debate between councilmembers, Commanders’ leadership and Washington mayor Muriel Bowser. The initial plan, which was introduced in April, would commit $1.1 billion in taxpayer funds towards the stadium’s construction as well as the two parking garages that will have 8,000 spots combined.
A second vote on the funding will take place on Sept. 17 after Trayon White is sworn in as councilman for Ward 8. That vote will require a minimum of nine votes.
“The era of a crumbling sea of asphalt on the banks of the Anacostia is finally coming to an end,” Mayor Bowser said in a statement released after the vote.
In April, Bowser, Commanders owner Josh Harris and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell announced the team’s plans to build a 65,000-seat domed stadium on the site of RFK Stadium. The new venue would be the center of a new 180-acre retail, housing and entertainment development in the southeast part of the district.
The Commanders have publicly committed to $2.7 billion towards the project, but in the revised agreement, the city council was able to coax some financial concessions out of the team. The franchise agreed to hand the city $260 million in parking revenue from non-stadium event days, $112 million from parking taxes (at a 18% rate) and $54 million in sales tax receipts from merchandise. The team also agreed to give the city 10% of sales taxes from food and beverage on game days, which is estimated to run $248 million over the course of the proposed 30-year stadium lease.
One other change from the original agreement seen as benefiting the city is a restructuring of debt financing by not capitalizing interest in fiscal years 2028 and 2029. The district will ideally save $55 million in the process.
Finally, the proposed bill will redirect $600 million from the city’s sports facility fee to a transportation redevelopment pool that will fund improvements to the Stadium-Armory Metro station at the RFK stadium site. The sports facility fee was originally designated as the “ballpark fee,” which was created to fund the construction of Nationals Park, the home to MLB’s Washington Nationals that opened in 2007.
Congress is in control of the district’s budget, and in the lead-up to the April announcement, several city councilmembers expressed concerns about funding a new stadium when the federal body mandated $410 million of cuts to the city’s budget. Bowser dismissed the budget concerns at the time, saying, “I call it a fake budget crisis, because we have the money. So if we have to cut services because they don’t fix their snafu, that’s a problem.”
Prior to leaving office in January, President Donald Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden approved a transfer of authority for the RFK Stadium site from the federal government to the district.
While the likelihood that the bill would be rejected was small, Trump posed a potential roadblock on July 20 when he threatened to hold up the stadium deal if the team did not revert its name back its former moniker. It remains possible Trump will attempt to throw his weight against the team over this gripe.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, the president said, “I may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original… and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington.” (Trump simultaneously asked that MLB’s Cleveland Guardians revert their name to the “Indians.”)
Valued at $6.3 billion, including real estate and corporate sponsorships, the Commanders rank 10th in Sportico’s NFL franchise valuations list. Yet, the team’s operating profits of $110 million in 2023 rank 22nd while its $80 million ticket revenue only paces ahead of the Tennessee Titans and Arizona Cardinals.
The Commanders have played at what is now called Northwest Stadium—formerly FedEx Field—in the Maryland suburbs since 1996. With the team’s least at Northwest Stadium set to expire after the 2027 NFL season, the team would need to extend the current deed before the new RFK stadium is set to open in 2030.
