Report: Washington Commanders and D.C. city council reach amended deal for RFK Stadium

It’s happening

Update: D.C. Council will vote on the stadium deal on August 5th

The Washington Commanders and Washington D.C.’s city council have reportedly agreed to an amended deal to proceed with development of the former RFK Stadium site. Commanders managing partner Josh Harris, Washington D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser, and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced a deal to redevelop the site for mixed use with the Commanders new stadium being the centerpiece in April. The Washington Commanders want to have the new $3.7 billion, 65,000 seat new stadium ready for the 2030 season.

The city council had issues with several things in the deal, and were looking to push a vote until after their August recess. The Commanders and Bowser were looking to have approval by the July 15th deadline they had set, but that came and went, prompting other potential stadium site candidates like Maryland and Virginia to show some limited interest in case the D.C. deal fell apart.

President Donald Trump spoke about getting the deal done with city council, and then took it further by tying the stadium deal to a return to the team’s former name, the Washington Redskins. The RFK site is federal land, but in late December, Congress approved a bill that transferred the administration of the site to D.C. A change back to the team’s former name wouldn’t kill the deal according to Mayor Bowser, a change from her previous stance when former team owner Dan Snyder wanted to return the team to DC.

There haven’t been many details on what changes were made to the original agreement, but council chairman Phil Mendelson was seeking more tax revenue for the city, and there were other issues brought up by members of city council (parking, affordable housing, etc).