The next step in the process of bringing the NFL’s Washington Commanders back into the confines of Washington, DC was successful on Friday.
In a 9-3 vote, the DC Council voted to approve the $3.7 billion RFK Stadium redevelopment deal, an effort long championed by Mayor Muriel Bowser. While the agreement is still open to further amendments for a few months ahead of a second vote in September, Bowser released a statement expressing her happiness about what will likely be a legacy-defining project.
“The DC Council just passed, on first vote, the RFK Campus Redevelopment Act of 2025,” Mayor Bowswer wrote on social media. “We’re bringing the Commanders home to RFK and we’re activating 180 acres of opportunity on the banks of the Anacostia River. Can’t stop, won’t stop, never quit.”
Bowser’s statement in full reads:
The era of a crumbling sea of asphalt on the banks of the Anacostia is finally coming to an end. In its place, we will bring our team home and deliver a state-of-the-art, Super Bowl ready stadium for our Commanders, more than 6,000 new homes for DC residents, a SportsPlex for our kids, parks and recreation space for the community, and so much more. With the Commanders as our partner, we will deliver jobs and opportunity when our city needs them most. And we will build a campus that makes our city proud for generations of Washingtonians to come.
I want to thank all the DC residents who have participated in this process – in community meetings, at visioning sessions, and at Council hearings. I want to thank Chairman James Comer, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, and Members of Congress for their leadership on the Hill, as well as President Biden and President Trump and their teams at the Department of Interior and the National Park Service for their partnership.
I thank our Executive Branch colleagues in Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee and Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s offices. As we now move toward the second and final vote, I thank Chairman Mendelson, Councilmember McDuffie, and the members of the Council who have given this agreement the thoughtful consideration it deserves. And, finally, to everyone on my team at DC Government, past and present, who has played a role in this decade-long effort to deliver for DC, thank you: can’t stop, won’t stop, never quit.
The deal will have two primary sources of funding, with the Commanders themselves providing $2.6 billion towards the project and the final $1.1 billion coming from taxpayers. The final terms of the plans were amended by lawmakers just over a week ago, terms which Chairman Phil Mendelson stated will recoup $674 million in future tax revenue for the city.
Outside of the stadium plans in the deal, a directive is included for 6,000 housing units and affordable residences, a kids’ sports complex, and green spaces to be built in the neighboring community. The Commanders have also pledged $50 million over 30 years toward community projects, 14,000 jobs for the stadium’s construction with priority given to DC residents, and a 10-year development plan for non-stadium parcels of land.
According to an exclusive from Axios’s Cuneyt Dil, the proposed domed stadium will seat 65,000. The Commanders also have plans for a “Festival Plaza” with bars, restaurants, and gathering places, as well as thousands of surface parking spaces for tailgating.
The final vote from the DC Council is currently slated for September 17, and early projections say the stadium could be completed as soon as fall 2030. Until then, the Commanders will continue playing at Northwest Stadium in Landover, MD.
