Will A New DC Study Dissuade Move to RFK Stadium?

[Music] today on City cast DC the commanders just renamed their stadium in Landover you might remember it as FedEx Field that's not the case anymore it's Northwest field after Northwest Federal Credit Union but really most dcis are instead on RFK Stadium over in Northeast and whether or not the commanders are coming back there the Washington Business journalist Ben Peters has been reporting on the next step the DC government just took towards that reality [Music] today is Thursday August 29th I'm senior producer Julia Karen and here's what DC is talking [Music] about Ben thanks so much for joining us thank you for having me I appreciate it all righty so you are at Washington Biz journal and you reported that the city has quietly although maybe not quietly anymore commissioned a study about bringing DC's football team back to the city to their old ancestral site home at RFK Stadium there's been a lot of angry chatter about this study so who is running this study and what is their deal the office of the deputy mayor for planning and economic development Ena Albert authorized the $565,000 deal with SMG Holdings LLC which is an affiliate of the entertainment facilities management firm ASM Global which is a huge uh worldwide firm that operates 400 facilities like stadiums they have at least seven NFL stadiums which according to the deputy mayor is more than any other single management firm so this is kind of their bread and butter is organizing big facilities like one that could be at RFK got it all right you mentioned that this was going to cost $565,000 I imagine people are not thrilled at that figure are there other reasons why people are upset about the study I know that I saw just some chatter on Twitter that people felt like you know the city's already been here before they've already done this why are we paying for this again and the the city has done contracts like this before they did one back in 2023 with jll and the Robert Bob group to develop financing models for a sports facility in DC uh for sports facil I should say in DC which includes a football stadium and that was a little bit less detailed of a study than this and to be clear we don't actually know what the results of this study are it's still in the works and it's going to be completed sometime here in the coming months and so then we'll get kind of a better idea of what their actual findings are but right now all this is is the city paying this firm to go to the drawing board and do a bunch of research and say hey how can we make this a reality how can we pay for it how can we get the NFL on board to come back to RFK so yeah I don't quite know why people are upset about it other than just it's more money being spent to study a thing that some people want some people don't you also mentioned that there was a previous study that was released you know a couple months ago how is this one supposed to be different from that one like what's expected to be in this new study and how is the city justifying the need for the second one I think this one is just much more detailed like it's it's asking this firm to go through and like for example here they want like fiveyear operating projections for what it would cost to operate a facility the size of an NFL stadium they have estimates for NFL tenant operating expenses which is like the cost of players the cost of administration sales marketing Stadium rent PR like I don't want to sound flipp it but it's like it's almost like the city's asking them to like create a line item budget for what it would cost to have an NFL team here Beyond just building a stadium yeah isn't that a good thing though like if you're a detractor from this and you want to know hey it's actually going to cost x amount of dollars for taxpayers to do this thing isn't this just like the city putting a plan in action maybe doing their due diligence I guess if you think that that's something that tax dollar should be spent on it's a good thing again it's just they're asking I think for a lot more details than we've previously seen before and if you're somebody who is interested in bringing the commanders back to Washington I I don't know I don't see why you'd be upset about this it seems like this is working toward that goal so what's the significance of this study in particular like what does it say about DC's commitment to getting the commanders to RFK Stadium in the future I mean they're putting their money where their mouth is I think they want the commanders here I mean mayor Bowser has been pretty clear about that is a priority of hers is is bringing the city back to the district and trying to revitalize RFK I mean they're going to tear down the stadium that exists there it's just kind of sat there vacant for a while and it's just an ey sore in the area and they want to revitalize it make it a mixed use neighborhood bring a team back create energy there I I don't want to say make it like Navy yard but I think that that's kind of the idea is to to revitalize it bring vibrancy to that space yeah and they're gonna pay for it partially too right that was also what you reported in this contract yeah I mean they asked the consult in the financing of this I think the exact wording is something like local jurisdictions could use to help pay for this and I I spoke with somebody in the depuy's mayor's office and asked them to kind of clarify what they mean by that and they said pretty explicitly you know we asking them to say how can the district pay for this so I think that that's explicitly what they're asking is to see how DC can make this happen so do you think this study will ultimately help or hurt the Commander's chances of returning to the district coming back to RFK Stadium how are you reading the tea leaves on that I think it'll help I mean I think that it's just the more detail the better in any proposal like this I mean this is just hypothetical but you know if you're the mayor you can go to the council and say look this consultant said that this is going to generate you know x amount of revenue for the city over x amount of years it's going to cost us only this much and we're going to make this you know site that's just languishing we could make it a place that people want to be so I don't know I mean I guess it's like is is talking about it more going to make it more likely to happen it's kind of an open question let's be real lawsuits are not fun but with Paulson and nce at least they're a little easier Paulson and nce is a DC law firm in every sense of the word it was founded here in 1979 partner Chris nce is a local who cares deeply about the DC Community even serving on the board of the local brand of the living classrooms foundation in his free time nce and his associates Samantha Peters and Maya Perry handle medical malpractice wrongful death and other complex injury cases and they don't just settle every case they'll go to court they'll fight for you Paulson and nce has even been recognized as one of us news's best law firms so if you have been hurt or lost a loved one because of someone else's mistake or negligence call pson and nce for a no obligation consultation visit www.p Paulson and nce a.com that's p a u l s o n a n d n a c.com or call 20246 31999 it's that time of year again the Maryland Renaissance Festival is here and if you've never been you don't know what you're missing I go every year because when else can you dress up like a hot medieval night and double fist turkey legs there's so much to see and do it's like a 16th century theme park with shops and pubs music and performances all just an hour from DC my personal favorite is the live dousing which can get alarmingly competitive and realistic the festival opens August 24th and runs Saturdays Sundays and labor day Monday through October 20th tickets are online only at Maryland Renaissance festival.com and they're cheaper through September 8th so get yours now and I'll see you [Music] there so yuby is with commercial real estate and as part of that one interesting footnote was that DC also just committed more than $500 million to renovate Capital One Arena which I guess you could call Commercial Real Estate in some regards why is the city you think doubling down on all of this Sports infrastructure right now it's a good question if I had to speculate on why I think part of it's placemaking I think that DC wants the district to be a place that people want to be in at a time when you know downtown's not doing too hot people aren't working in offices the federal government's mostly still remote tax revenue is a huge one I mean the valuations of commercial Office Buildings downtown are tanging and that's going to have a real impact down the line on the city's tax revenue and so I think they're looking to diversify their tax base and say like hey where else can we make up this Revenue that we're losing at the K Street office that nobody's in yeah I feel like while you know some Office Buildings are circling the drain this Sports study could also Circle the Drain uh because there's one other key right that has to fit into this which is you know the actual land ownership that RFK is on right now the federal government owns that site the Senate is set to vote on whether or not to lease Atlant DC for RFK CM for 99 years that's a really long lease it's a bill the house has already passed what do you think will happen there do you think the Senate's going to give DC this land you know it's funny I I was on sports radio talking about this like a week ago and one of the guys interviewing me said like shouldn't this be the lead like shouldn't we be leading with this that all of this hinges on Congressional approval before we even start talking about financing before we even start talking about bringing an NFL team DC needs the land and I kind of had a moment where I was like yeah yeah you're right like that is the big hang up hanging over the district's Ambitions to do something with this site and so I I don't know I think it's up in the air and for people who don't know where that land is in DC where is that and has the stadium been demolished yet the old one or what's going on with it it's still there the National Park Service has given the okay to tear it down so it's going to get torn down eventually but it's kind of it's in Northeast kind of right along the anacasa river at a point that is like between Northeast and Southeast along that line it's near like Benning Road Commander owner Josh Harris has said that he hopes the team will be back at RFK by 2030 what do you think do you think that timeline is likely given we've got this study and we've you know got this bill ready to go for the Senate it's hard to say a million things could happen between now and then that could change this and maybe that is reasonable just maybe not in the district there were rumors I'm looking at Virginia about a year or two ago you know there was talk of like putting it in Woodbridge but yeah I don't know I mean it's it's just like it's really hard to um prognosticate these things yeah well when they finally get the land if they ever do get the land and if the study gets completed Ben thank you for your time we'll be sure to have you back on to explain it all for us again yeah thank you so [Music] much that's all for today here on City cast DC if you enjoyed the show tell someone who you'd go to a commander game with we'll be back tomorrow morning with more news from around City see you [Music] he [Music]