When District Mayor Muriel Bowser made a big show last month in the unveiling of the city’s proposed new stadium for the Washington Commanders on the RFK site, she made sure the city got the most out of their PowerPoint program, showing off charts that proved what a great deal this is for the city and how generous the football team is going to be in its commitment to the project. One chart – “Commanders Stadium Vs. Other NFL Stadiums — showed the “public investment as a percentage of the stadium and parking development costs” in a comparison to other recent or current stadium projects.
The proposal calls for the Commanders to put up $2.7 billion for stadium construction, while the city adds $1.1 billion for parking garages, infrastructure and other costs.
The chart highlighted the stadium being built for the Tennessee Titans in Nashville — a 60% pledge of public funds. Buffalo’s current project for the Bills – 49%. Jacksonville’s new facility for the Jaguars — 50%. New Orleans taxpayers’ bill for stadium improvements for the Saints from last year — 67%. And the public investment as a percentage of the stadium and parking development costs for the Raiders stadium in Las Vegas in 2020 — 37%.
Next to those numbers, the District’s commitment seems like a great deal.
But here’s one footnote District officials failed to include — none of those stadium projects the mayor trotted out in her comparison chart to pitch her plan included handing over prime real estate to the football team to develop and then pocket the profits.
That’s what the District is giving the Commanders, though: an undisclosed number of valuable acres, owned by the federal government but leased by the city in a 99-year agreement approved in the final minutes of last year’s congressional session.
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