The Washington Commanders’ plans for a new stadium on the old RFK Stadium site in Washington D.C. took a major step forward on Friday as the D.C. City Council voted in favor (9-3) of the $3.8 billion redevelopment. It is the first of two votes on the matter, with the final vote still left to come on Sept. 17, but it’s an indication that the city will approve the plans and the decades-long push to bring the Commanders back to the city will finally get done.
D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser, who has been leading that push, celebrated the news.
“The era of crumbling sea of asphalt on the banks of the Anacostia is finally coming to an end. In its place, we will bring our team home and deliver a state-of-the-art, Super Bowl ready stadium for our Commanders, more than 6,000 new homes for DC residents, a SportsPlex for our kids, parks and recreation space for the community and so much more,” Bowser said in a statement. “With the Commanders as our partner, we will deliver jobs and opportunity when our city needs them most. And we will build a campus that makes our city proud for generations of Washingtonians to come.”
There have been a number of hurdles to this, including a meeting between the Council chair Phil Mendelson and the Commanders in late July to adjust the financial terms of the deal, but securing the eight votes needed in this first round was the biggest. Under the terms of the agreement, the team will commit $2.7 billion to the redevelopment plan, with the city adding $1.1 billion in funding and securing some additional guarantees from the organization on revenue that will go to the city.
The final vote seems like a formality at this point, but it may not be the final hurdle. President Donald Trump threatened last month to hold up the stadium deal if the Commanders didn’t bring back their old name. Former president Joe Biden already signed a bill in January that transferred the land from the federal government to the city, making it unclear how much Trump’s threat to hold up the deal matters.
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