Josh Harris will be the Washington Commanders’ next owner. Harris and his group finalized a deal with Daniel Snyder to buy the long-suffering franchise last week.
In March, Harris and his group, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment, prepared a 43-page prospectus titled “Commanders Investment Opportunity.” Seth Wickersham and John Keim of ESPN recently viewed that prospectus, which included some excellent information about the club’s financials.
The stadium situation is one of the more interesting tidbits revealed in Wickersham and Keim’s excellent story. Anyone who follows the Commanders knows what a debacle their search for a new home has been for the past several years.
Former team president Bruce Allen was supposed to use his political connections to land a new home. He never got to first base. When Snyder fired Allen, no one wanted to do business with him; specifically, Washington, D.C. And the multiple investigations into Snyder in recent years ended any chance of local and state governments working with him to build a new stadium, whether that’s in the District, Maryland, or Virginia.
Now that Snyder is selling the franchise, all options are back on the table. The RFK site is tricky, as the federal government owns it. However, some D.C. officials, including the mayor, want the Commanders to return home.
Maryland, the current home of the Commanders at FedEx Field in Prince George’s County, wants to keep the team.
Then there is Virginia. Remember how close the Commanders appeared to be with Virginia on a new stadium deal? That all fell apart due to Snyder.
According to the ESPN story, the Commanders believe Virginia may be the best option for a new stadium.
Commanders leadership “believes Virginia will offer the best incentive package — potentially up to $1.5 billion” for a new home, the document shows. That sum would nearly double the American-record $750 million in public funds the state of Nevada put toward a new Raiders stadium in 2017.
That would be massive and hard to turn down. And there will be options on where to build a new stadium. Of course, nothing is imminent, and the prospectus also mentions the current FedEx Field site and the RFK site as possibilities for a new stadium.
Under Snyder, Washington had targeted 2028 for a new stadium. Harris and his group aren’t as optimistic and believe the Commanders could have a new stadium by 2031, perhaps sooner. In the short term, Harris’ group thinks they will need $100 million set aside for “immediate structural repairs” to FedEx Field, which opened in 1997.
Again, while nothing is imminent, these things move fast, and once the NFL approves Harris, things could move even faster.
