Washington, D.C
Lawmakers want the Washington Commanders to play in DC, but Maryland and Virginia also are interested
The regional debate over the location of the Washington Commanders‘ next home is intensifying after the NFL team’s first season under new ownership, with Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia each seeking leverage in their bids.
In Washington, D.C., Congress is looking to help the local government draw the football team back to the district for the first time since 1996, when it moved to FedEx Field in Maryland. Considered one of the worst stadiums in the NFL, owner Josh Harris began looking for a new home for his team soon after his purchase of the team was ratified in July 2023. Part of his search includes rebuilding relationships previous owner Dan Snyder burned over the years in the DMV area.
Each jurisdiction could appeal in different ways to Harris, with Washington, D.C., having boosters in Congress. A measure to overhaul the team’s old home area, in a stadium area blocks from Capitol Hill, the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act, came under consideration in a “bipartisan fashion” by the House Oversight Committee in mid-January. That after being stalled since September of last year, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) told the Washington Examiner.
The legislation was first introduced in July last year by an unlikely pair: Comer, known for leading investigations of wayward presidential son Hunter Biden, and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). That happened the same month Harris’s purchase was ratified.
The proposal would require the federal government to lease the RFK land to the D.C. government for 99 years, allowing them to redevelop the land as they choose. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a vocal advocate of the bill, has long had her eyes set on building a new stadium in that area to bring the Commanders home to the district.
The measure last took a markup vote on Sept. 20, 2023, advancing the bill to a full House vote, but it has been stalled since then. Comer said that, following “meaningful discussions” with Bowser and local stakeholders, “it became clear that revitalizing the vacant RFK stadium campus is a top economic priority for the nation’s capital.”
“Congress can help pave a path for local D.C. leaders to create meaningful new jobs, add millions in city revenue, and transform the city’s RFK waterfront site into a lively destination for all,” the Kentucky Republican said. “I remain dedicated to working in a bipartisan fashion and hopeful that we can move legislation as quickly as possible.”
However, Washington, D.C., has distinct disadvantages in the form of adversarial council members, defiant local residents, and the overall burden of a taxpayer-funded sports arena. And one of Mayor Bowser’s biggest blows gave Virginia an edge.
In December, the commonwealth declared victory after the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals announced plans to leave Washington, D.C., for a new sports arena in the Potomac Yard area. The pending moves suggest the district is unable to support national teams, a particularly harsh blow to Bowser’s image.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, said when announcing the deal that it was the culmination of “many years of dreaming” and would be good for the taxpayers in the commonwealth.
“Virginia has a tremendous opportunity to be the home to multiple professional sports teams. The Monumental announcement is a one-of-a-kind sports and entertainment district that will generate $12 billion of economic impact and create 30,000 jobs in Virginia,” Youngkin spokesman Christian Martinez said in a statement to the Washington Examiner. “Other organizations will have to decide on what they’re going to do but it should be a collaborative effort between our administration, our general assembly and the locality to make sure that it is a good deal for Virginia taxpayers.”
“Governor Youngkin believes Virginia is the best place to live, work, raise a family, and watch your favorite professional team win!” Martinez continued.
In October, Washington, D.C., residents in the Kingman Park area near the RFK Stadium delivered Bowser another major blow: a survey commissioned by the neighborhood’s civic association found two-thirds of the roughly 2,500 people polled opposed the idea of building a new stadium. A large majority of the respondents ranked a new stadium dead last after green space, housing, and playgrounds as options for revitalizing the area.
The top complaint among residents and D.C. council members has been the use of taxpayer funds to lure a team back to the district, bringing traffic, drunk fans, opportunities for crime, and rats along with it, according to Washington City Paper.
Bowser’s office declined to comment to the Washington Examiner about Congress revising the RFK Stadium bill or how bringing the Commanders back to Washington, D.C., could affect the district.
Some D.C. council members have argued that trying to keep the Wizards and Capitals from leaving the district is how D.C. tax dollars are best spent, rather than attempting to lure the Commanders back to a home area that they left nearly 30 years ago.
“I think that’s the responsible thing for us to do is to consider all of our options that are on the table,” Councilwoman Christina Henderson said in September. “But at the end of the day, again, it’s going to be about priorities. … We really have to focus on the teams that we currently have in the district and shoring up to make sure that they remain. The dollars and cents only go but so far.”
Maryland lawmakers seem to agree. Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Kweisi Mfume (D-MD), motivated by a desire to keep the Commanders in Maryland, had supported a provision from Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) that would block public funds for a new stadium under the RFK Stadium bill. The amendment failed to pass, but it did not ease the worries of those who believe the stadium will ultimately cost more than it’s worth.
Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) arguably has the most leverage and the most to lose. So far, Maryland is the only jurisdiction with an available site and the ability to provide public funding. Harris also owns the land where FedEx Field resides, so even though the lease ends in 2027, the team could stay indefinitely in a modern stadium if one is built. Moore spent the last few months engaging with the Commanders owners and attended four of the team’s games this past season, according to his staff.
“The Commanders have called Prince George’s County home for the last 25 years, and the governor is committed to continuing that longstanding partnership,” press secretary Carter Elliott said to the Washington Examiner.
Moore said in December that, though two D.C.-area sports teams are heading to Virginia, he is not worried about losing the third, the Commanders, to the commonwealth or anywhere else.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
“I want the Commanders to stay in Maryland,” Moore said in December, also citing the expanding Metrorail line in Maryland. “We have already, as a state, allocated $400 million that’s going towards the Blue Line corridor because we believe in a larger development and creating the live, work, play environment.”
Moore, elected governor in 2022 and known as a big sports fan, added, “My eagerness and aggressiveness in trying to keep the Commanders here in the state of Maryland is not at all impacted by what we saw with the [Capitals] and the Wizards.”
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Seventy-two veterans took a trip Saturday to our nation’s capital to visit memorials honoring their service in the armed forces.
This year marks the 12th trip to Washington, D.C. for Honor Flight Tallahassee.
Early Saturday morning, veterans and their guardians met to take a charter flight up to D.C.
Throughout the day, veterans were taken to the World War II memorial, as well as the Korean and Vietnam War memorials. The veterans also visited Arlington National Cemetery and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
More Tallahassee news:
The day ended with a wonderful welcome home celebration.
Our Jacob Murphey, Julia Miller, Taylor Viles, and Grace Temple accompanied the veterans, capturing moments from throughout the day.
The team will have live coverage from Washington, D.C. on Monday to share more from the day’s events.
We will continue to have coverage throughout the month of May, leading up to our Honor Flight special on Memorial Day.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
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4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
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