WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing up in the Washington area, Josh Harris cherished his chances once or twice a year to watch his favorite football team play at RFK Stadium, the home during the glory days when the likes of Joe Theismann and John Riggins made the stands shake on the way to three Super Bowl championships.
Now the controlling owner and with fellow locals and longtime fans Mitch Rales and Mark Ein also involved, Harris and his group are a giant leap closer to bringing the team back where they think it belongs.
Washington’s NFL franchise is set to return to the nation’s capital as part of an agreement between the organization and the District of Columbia government to build a new stadium as part of a project totaling nearly $4 billion. The Commanders and Mayor Muriel Bowser announced their deal Monday to construct a new home for the football team in the city at the site the old RFK Stadium, the place the franchise called home for more than three decades.
“This has been a vision of ours since we bought the team,” Harris said. “We all experienced the rumbling of RFK (and) the fact that we grew up here gave us that vision to not look at the crumbling concrete that was there but remember in our minds the vivid nature of what Washington football is all about.”
The new stadium would open in 2030, with groundbreaking expected next year, pending approval of the Council of the District of Columbia.
The Commanders are contributing $2.7 billion, with the city investing roughly $1.1 billion through 2032 for the stadium, housing, green space and a sportsplex on 170 acres of land bordering the Anacostia River. The stadium, which is expected to seat 65,000 and have a roof to make it a year-round venue for concerts and other events, will take up just 16 of those acres.
“It’s a great day in our process to bring the Commanders home,” Harris said, adding that he and his partners “are committed to making the single largest private investment in D.C. history.”
The 24% of public money is below the 40% average for new or renovated NFL stadiums since 2008, compared to 60% for the Tennessee Titans, 50% for the Jacksonville Jaguars and 49% for the Buffalo Bills, according to figures from Conventions Sports & Leisure International Inc. The city is contributing $500 million from funds previously allocated to build Nationals Park and $181 million from EventsDC for parking.
Mambo Sauce’s “Welcome to DC” blared from speakers as Bowser, Harris and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell entered the room at the National Press Club. They spoke in front of a backdrop reading, “Welcome home,” and Goodell proclaimed that the new stadium “dramatically” increases the odds of Washington hosting a Super Bowl.
“We’re working on the commissioner hard (but also) Taylor Swift, pick an event, pick an act,” Harris said. “This is about D.C. and making this more than just a stadium and making it attractive.”
Ownership has been considering places in Washington, Maryland and Virginia since buying the team from Dan Snyder in 2022. The most recent progress came when congress passed a bill transferring the RFK Stadium land to D.C. that was signed by former President Joe Biden in early January, after lobbying on Capitol Hill by Harris and Goodell late last year.
That paved the way for making it possible to tear down the decaying husk of the old stadium and replace it with a mixed-use development, including the stadium.
“This land has been blighted and underused for too long,” Bowser said. “What our deal with the Washington Commanders provides is the fastest and shortest route to developing the RFK campus and not just delivering sports and entertainment but delivering housing, jobs, recreation and economic development.”
Washington has played in Landover, Maryland, since moving there in 1997. The Commanders’ lease at Northwest Stadium in Landover runs through 2027.
The Commanders figure to continue playing there until the new stadium is ready and have committed to redeveloping the land in suburban Maryland. Gov. Wes Moore said the state worked hard to keep the Commanders while understanding ownership was “very interested in a possible return to the team’s historic and spiritual home at RFK Stadium.”
“While we put together a very competitive offer focused on not just the stadium but a larger revitalization of the area, we’ve also been responsibly preparing for the possibility of the Washington Commanders choosing to return to Washington,” Moore said in a statement. “We wish the Washington Commanders the best, and we look forward to engaging with partners across the region to promote economic vitality and community investment in writing the next chapter in Landover.”
The team played at RFK Stadium, 2 miles east of the U.S. Capitol, from 1961-96 before moving to Maryland. Harris and several co-owners, including Rales and Ein, grew up as Washington football fans during that era, which included the glory days of three Super Bowl championships from 1982-91.
Harris said the decision to build on the site — as long as seven of 13 city councilmembers vote to approve the project — was less about nostalgia as much as “a deep connection to understanding how important the location was” down the street from the Capitol and the Washington monument.
Goodell, like Harris, grew up going to games at RFK Stadium and was a big proponent of making this happen.
“I was thinking on the way down here today (about) all the great times I had going to RFK Stadium,” Goodell said. “And now a new generation of kids are going to be able to experience that, and I really, truly believe it’s great for this community.”