Update: NBC4 reports that the DC Council has struck a deal with the Commanders and that a vote on a plan could happen soon. Original post follows:
The Washington Commanders want a new stadium. The District of Columbia wants them to play in DC, and it has a site available. Sounds easy, right? Haha are you new here? Here’s a roundup of the latest.
• Mendo says name nonsense not a no-go: Like a camp jay dive-bombing a sandwich, President Trump inserted himself into things over the weekend, abruptly demanding that the Commanders go back to their old name. The leader of the free world is serious about this, his spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said: “if you actually poll this issue with sports fans across the country, and even in this city, people actually do support the president’s position on this and the name change.” Well, if by “do support” you mean “sort of supported in the past,” I guess that’s close to accurate? The Commanders’ name didn’t poll well at first, but it got more popular after the team tried a new strategy of “not sucking.” DC Council Chair Phil Mendelson said a rebrand “wouldn’t change” anything for him in terms of negotiating a deal.
• Stadium opponents love Trump’s intervention, though: “I never thought I’d be happy about [Trump] doing something toxic and racist,” said Adam Eidinger, who’s leading an effort to put a stadium question on the ballot in DC. Anything that slows down a deal is fine with him.
• Can Trump really impose his will on an entity he has no control over? Uhh, ask Coca-Cola execs, Chelsea FC players, or the guy who used to run the University of Virginia about any limits this guy might observe? Back on Earth 1, Trump couldn’t nominally do anything about the name of a team negotiating a deal with the leaders of a city he’s not mayor of—DC has control of the land and it would take an act of Congress, which has supported a deal, to change anything, the Washington Post explained. But here in the everyday hell we live in, who knows. Trump once argued that the President of the United States has bigger things to worry about than the name of the local football franchise. Apparently his position has evolved.
What’s next? Officials in Maryland and Virginia are ready to make plays for the team if the DC deal were to die, WUSA reported last week. And Wendell Felder, the DC Council member whose ward includes the RFK site, has submitted a wish list for improvements that could accompany any deal to build a new stadium.
Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.
