The Washington, D.C. city council cast its second and final vote yesterday on the Commanders stadium deal that will involve a record-shattering $6.6 billion (or more) in public subsidies, and as expected passed it again, this time by an 11-2 margin instead of last month’s 9-3. Let’s see how our news media, which are not at all influenced by their corporate leadership or by other political pressures, described the decision:
- Washington Post: “Transformative $3.7 billion Commanders stadium deal passes D.C. Council”
- USA Today: “The stadium is set to open in 2030, just in time to host big events like the 2031 FIFA Women’s World Cup and potentially the Super Bowl.”
- WTOP: “The Washington Commanders are coming home.”
Not everyone was just feeling the excitement, admittedly: WUSA9 reported that the vote was “met with celebration by fans and concern by some neighbors in the surrounding community,” noting that local residents had asked for accommodations like guarantees of affordable housing, public transit, and preservation of green space. But proposed amendments on those and other matters — including the team having to repay the city if it failed to fully develop the stadium property as promised — were rejected after Commanders president Mark Clouse sent a letter to the council expressing his “deep concern” that any changes would make the project “unworkable and impractical,” at which point a councilmember who had vowed to vote no if the changes weren’t approved flipped his vote to yes anyway.
There was also some more critical coverage, including Greater Greater Washington‘s “Wednesday’s Council vote gets us a lousy RFK stadium deal,” which noted that D.C.’s CFO had declared the $6.6 billion in tax and land breaks to be “not financially necessary for the Team.” But that’s going to land far fewer eyeballs than Jeff Bezos’s WaPo calling the deal “transformative” — a word lifted from Commanders owner Josh Harris’s statement on the vote and not even dignified with quote marks in the paper’s headline (notably, it doesn’t appear in the accompanying article), something that could certainly never have been influenced by the fact that Bezos and Harris share both a socioeconomic status and a pal in the White House.
Very little of the news coverage bothered to describe the last-minute amendments (though almost all detailed Harris’s objection to them), and even less went into any detail about the $6.6 billion in stadium and garage construction payments, property tax breaks, and 26 years of free rent on 24 acres of prime city-owned property, all without even going through the motions of seeking competitive bids for the former RFK Stadium site. It all made for a shameful day for the media — okay, an even more shameful day — and prompted sports economist J.C. Bradbury to repost the Journalist’s Resource’s four tips for covering sports stadium deals, which include basic stuff like “interrogate economic impact statements or fiscal estimates from franchise owners” and “Understand how states and localities finance stadium construction.” Or, you know, you can just reprint team owner claims about all the Super Bowls this will bring. Journalists, think carefully: One may risk pissing off your publisher, while the other will get you done by lunchtime. It’s a knotty ethical conundrum!
From Wikipedia entry for Amazon HQ2 in Virginia:
“Phase I, which has capacity for 14,000 employees, opened in June 2023. Construction on Phase II is delayed and there is no timeline for development.”
Phase III, profit!!!!
A Josh Harris-led franchise crafting a stadium/arena plan with nasty implications for the surrounding community? I’m shocked!
In all seriousness, this is an incredibly disappointing update. I know that DC-area folks were excited for a stadium at this site, but it’s a shame that city leaders/journalists seem to never learn how detrimental these plans are. This area is no stranger to development plans failing to meet expectations, or never coming to fruition, or just being wildly unpopular. I suppose the excitement for returning to RFK is enough to justify whatever public funds needed to be shoveled the Commanders’ way. Nostalgia (and the desire to not get fired) is quite the manipulator.
At 6.6 billion public subsidies I am glad I ditched living in the city years ago especially cities like the ones that are doing all these subsidies for NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL and of course the MLS teams too. 6.6 billion for DC which has its share of problems and inefficient government. I won’t go full Trump or Republican about it but seems that the city has a lot better things to do than give a guy like Josh Harris and his entourage 6.6 billion. Especially at a time of economic cuts, job losses and all the other issues regarding major metro areas like DC. Seems that they should be focusing on public safety, crime control, schools that actually educate and jobs so their citizens can contribute to the tax base instead of being a sunk cost in having people on government programs who are able to work and are able bodied and able minded. Instead lets build another stadium for a multi billionaire.
I now live about 30 miles out of the city center of a metro area of 1.4 million and they did something stupid for a college basketball team to get a brand new arena that cost 350 million back in 2010. However, with mismanagement and corruption that amount to be paid back originally in 2040 was about 1 billion. Now it won’t get paid off until 2054 and probably cost ultimately much. Love sports but its gotten way out of control. Bread and circuses type of crap.