The Commanders’ journey to return to D.C. and RFK Stadium is “illustrative of how far owners -- and municipalities -- will go to land a new stadium,” according to Aldridge & Jhabvala of THE ATHLETIC. The Commanders’ pursuit of a new home “spanned nearly a decade, and included not just three competing jurisdictions, but the oversight of the federal government, the input of multiple federal commissions, the D.C. City Council” and more. A source said that a D.C. homecoming at times “seemed more pipe dream than attainable feat.” Sources noted that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was “more deeply embedded” in aiding the Commanders’ stadium deal than any other in his tenure as commissioner, “partly due to personal experience in D.C.” But “another significant pull for the commissioner” was his understanding of “the importance of the market to the NFL.” Commanders owner Josh Harris knew that a new stadium would be a “significant revenue driver,” so he “prioritized the search for a new site immediately after taking ownership in 2023.” Multiple sources said that the team “essentially wrote off Virginia” as an option “in early 2024.” Maryland was initially the “most logical” choice, “given the available space and financial incentives the state could provide.” But Maryland Gov. Wes Moore “couldn’t erase the impact of three decades of dysfunction at the stadium, and it may not have mattered even if he could.” Moore: “I absolutely could tell that the preference was to go to Washington.” For Harris, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, and Goodell, “no other option rose to the level of the RFK site, and returning was as much about legacy as economics” (THE ATHLETIC, 5/7).
Inside the Commanders’ high-stakes push to return to D.C., RFK Stadium site
