The deadline set by Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser for the city council to approve a stadium deal expired on Tuesday, and the earth didn’t open and the sky didn’t fall. The only thing that actually lapsed was D.C.’s exclusivity period for holding stadium talks with Harris, and it’s not like he was going to turn around and negotiate a different multi-billion-dollar deal in one day; still, creating leverage requires that he do something, and so yesterday something was did:
While D.C. remains the frontrunner, sources tell WUSA9 that both Maryland and Virginia have recently contacted the Commanders with stadium proposals of their own. A delay in the D.C. Council’s vote could jeopardize the project’s 2030 opening — a key milestone if the city hopes to host matches during the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
Oh, those sources! Presumably “recently” means in the last 24 hours, as before that it would have been a violation of the exclusivity agreement for Harris to talk to anyone else about stadium plans. In any event, it’s no surprise that Maryland and Virginia were working on their own stadium proposals, as we’ve known that for years; whether they could come close to competing with D.C.’s $7 billion–plus offer is another story. (As for the Women’s World Cup, that’s not set to be held until summer of 2031, so it’s hard to see how delaying approval by a month or two would significantly jeopardize hosting that.)
All this is certainly gamesmanship, as Harris and Bowser try to accelerate the council’s approval of the term sheet guaranteeing Harris the billions of dollars in land rights and tax breaks he’s seeking, while the council insists on taking its time. There are public hearings set for July 29 and 30 — sign up here to testify — and council chair Phil Mendelson said an “independent analysis” of the stadium deal by the council’s budget office has been completed, though not yet distributed to all councilmembers, presumably because nobody can find the stapler. The assumption is that Mendelson and some other councilmembers will ultimately ask for some changes in the lease terms, but whether those will be significant enough to move the needle on “most lavish stadium subsidy in history by a factor of at least four” remains to be seen. Until then, Maryland and Virginia remain lurking in the shadows, bet you’re good and scared now, aren’t you, kids?
I think there’s zero chance of either one of them getting in the game now. The budgets for NoVA and MD are going to be brutal for the next few years, they simply can’t come up with the cash, and the political environments aren’t great for it, at least in NoVa where the plan for the bullets^H^H^H^H^H^Hwizards exploded.