People living in and around Washington, D.C., largely want the Washington Commanders to move back to the district, with more people open to the public paying for a new stadium.
Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) said he will block House-approved legislation that aims to let the district revitalize RFK Stadium unless the team honors a Native American family that helped design the Commanders’s former logo.
A new Washington Post-Schar School poll found that 76% of district residents support the move back and 51% of DMV area residents overall. Suburban Marylanders even support the move over keeping the team in Maryland, where it has been since 1997.
“Folks were never particularly happy with this huge edifice out in the middle of nowhere Maryland,” Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, said. “There are enough folks that also realize that having your central city be … the default for your big entertainment complexes is probably better than having them distributed out throughout a metropolitan area.”
More Washington residents favor using city funds for a potential stadium than a 2022 iteration of the poll — they’re now split 47% to 46% compared to 30% to 67% two years ago.
Clower said the ownership change from Daniel Snyder, whose tenure ended with a sexual harassment scandal among several other matters, to Josh Harris may have motivated residents to change their minds.
Mayor Muriel Bowser has been in favor of the move, though she wants a multiuse complex at the site of RFK Stadium, which sits abandoned. The team is under contract to play at its Landover, Maryland, stadium site until September 2027.
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RFK Stadium appears to be the most logical place for a theoretical Commanders move back to Washington, but Daines has blocked the legislation needed to help that happen. The senator and the team are in talks to schedule their first meeting to discuss the subject.
The Commanders, previously known as the Washington Redskins, played in the district at RFK Stadium from 1961-1996 and made 13 playoff appearances in that era. Since moving, the Commanders have only made the playoffs six times.