Revised Commanders deal would cut taxpayers’ stadium cost from $7B+ to $6.6B+

D.C. council president Phil Mendelson has issued a press release announcing that he has indeed scheduled a first council vote on a Washington Commanders stadium deal for next Friday, August 1, and that his revised deal will include the following concessions from the team:

The Commanders have agreed that the following revenues instead will go to the District:

$260M parking revenues from non-stadium-event days (team estimates ~$170M higher)
$112M parking taxes (18% rate) will go to the city
$ 54M Sales taxes on merchandise (10.25%) will go to the city
$248M Sales taxes on food and beverages (10%) will go to the city
= $674 million total (over 30 years)

That “(over 30 years)” implies that much of those taxes and other revenues won’t arrive until the 2050s or later. Without a revenue schedule it’s tough to know exactly how backloaded D.C.’s new revenues would be, but even if it was evenly divided across the 30 years — unlikely in the extreme, given inflation — we would only be looking at about $350 million in present value. If we deduct that from the estimated $7 billion–plus city cost of cash grants plus tax breaks and discounted rent, that brings us to a mere $6.65 billion, still more than four times the record subsidy for a U.S. sports stadium.

In a press conference, Mendelson said that “the Commanders have thought it’s really, really, really important for the council to get to a vote by the end of the month,” and that he used that as leverage to improve the deal. If the first council vote passes next week, he said, a second vote is tentatively scheduled for September 17 after the council returns from its summer recess.

There are some other tweaks — Mendelson’s statement indicates that “The Council’s legislation redirects $600 million from the ‘Sports Facility Fee’ (formerly Ballpark Fee) to a Transportation Improvement Fund for Metro improvements,” though it appears this would just go to improvements for the Commanders stadium’s Metro stop — but nothing as significant as “not give Commanders owner Josh Harris 90 years of rent breaks” or “ask Harris to make payments in lieu of property tax.” Hopefully we’ll learn more by next week’s public hearings, though as of now the official legislation hasn’t been updated, so it’s always possible no one will know what they’re voting on until the day of the vote or shortly beforehand. Democracy!

UPDATE: I’m still watching the entirety of Mendelson’s press conference, but just got to this amazing bit:

REPORTER: I think there was a perception that we were waiting on the two additional studies that have not been released yet, and then the hearings — and I think yesterday, speaking to people, they were under the assumption that these hearings, their points of view and their input would be taken into consideration before a deal. And then it’s announced today that we have a tentative deal, I think they’re a little bit taken aback. What do you tell those people that, 400-plus people have signed up, they’re going to be ready to testify and they’re like, “Well, it seems like a done deal.”

MENDELSON: Well, I think it’s important that we still hear from the public. I expect that a lot of the testimony is going to be very simple “We think it’s great the Commanders are coming back, and we want you to vote yes.” I think we are going to hear a lot of that. And I think we will also hear from some folks that they think that any subsidy is unacceptable to them. It’s important that folks have the opportunity to express those views. Where we are is, I think, much more nuanced and more beneficial to this city.

Democracy dictates that we hear from both types of overly simplistic citizens before dismissing their opinions as insufficiently nuanced! Or, well, after dismissing them, technically. But we want to hear from them anyway, it’s so nice to get the thoughts of the little people.