After the pending sale of the Washington Commanders is completed, there will be “renewed energy” around the discussion of where the franchise might build a new stadium, team President Jason Wright said this weekend.
Commanders owners Dan and Tanya Snyder have agreed to sell the NFL team to a group led by Josh Harris for $6.05 billion, which would be a record price for a North American professional sports franchise.
The sale needs approval from three-quarters of National Football League owners and satisfaction of other closing conditions, but Snyder and league officials are “working hard to get a quick approval done,” Wright said at a flag-football event. League owners are meeting this week in Minneapolis and are expected to receive an update on the sale, but no vote is scheduled.
“I don’t expect it to take long, but I don’t have an estimate on the timeline, either. It’s a league-run process,” Wright said. “But I think everything feels like it’s moving in the exact right direction.”
When that’s done, Wright said, more attention can turn to finding a new playing facility for the Commanders, who play at FedEx Field in Landover, Md. The lease for the stadium ends in 2027, and possible locations for a new site include nearly 200 acres in Woodbridge along Interstate 95 for which the team obtained options last year. A site in the Sterling area of Loudoun County is also under consideration.
Commanders leaders will need to see what stadium strategy is favored by the new ownership group, led by Harris, managing partner of the Philadelphia 76ers, Wright said. But they continue to communicate with government officials about possible locations in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia.
The idea is to “better understand” the officials’ economic development aims, he said, and see what they would want in place for a sports facility. There’s still enthusiasm for a stadium in all three jurisdictions, but Wright declined to discuss specific sites.
No matter its location, new construction likely would include a mixed-use development, which has become the standard for areas around professional sports venues, Wright said.
“Any organization in any jurisdiction is looking at something that can provide year-round economic value, year-round foot traffic, that isn’t something that sits there idle for a large portion of the year,” he added. “So when you just think about it from a utilization lens, all the sudden you start to think about an economic development or a real estate development that is more comprehensive. That includes retail and hospitality, green space and social services and things like that.”
That makes for a spot that’s “useful and productive year-round,” Wright said. “And I think smart city planners, smart community leaders are figuring out how things can be productive for citizens year-round.”
Wright’s comments Saturday came during a flag-football clinic for 300 local athletes aged 5 to 14. A handful of Commanders players and coaches and varsity players from Springfield’s John R. Lewis High School taught the youngsters about football skills, while staff from healthcare provider OrthoVirginia shared best practices with parents and families.
Local flag football players run through drills led by players from the Washington Commanders and Springfield's John R. Lewis High School during a clinic at the team's OrthoVirginia Training Center in Ashburn on Saturday.
OrthoVirginia is the Commanders’ official orthopedic and sports medicine partner, and the event took place inside the team’s practice bubble in Ashburn, part of what is now known as the OrthoVirginia Training Center. The event was the first in-person event since the team announced the OrthoVirginia naming rights partnership last fall.
Before the clinic, Wright said one notion behind the partnership with OrthoVirginia is that together they can make football’s future “safer, more viable and longer lasting” so parents feel more comfortable about getting their kids involved in the sport.
Children are taught to play football in a safer way nowadays, he said. They learn how to tackle differently, how to “place their bodies differently.”
“The way that I was taught to play is different than the way that your kids are being taught to play,” Wright told parents, “and that is important.”
Families seemed to have a good time at the clinic, too. Purcellville residents Chris Hedblom and Sean Ryan brought their 6-year-old sons, Lucas and Cash, respectively, to the clinic before heading off to soccer.
Hedblom praised the event.
“Very nice day,” Hedblom said. “Great event. They did a great job of putting it on for the kids. Everything ran very smoothly.”
What was the best part?
“Seeing all the new players,” Ryan said. Then he asked his son: “Think that was cool?”
“Yeah,” said Cash Ryan, who already had his cleats on for soccer.
Local flag football players run through drills led by players and coaches from the Washington Commanders and Springfield's John R. Lewis High School during a clinic at the team's OrthoVirginia Training Center in Ashburn on Saturday.
(14) comments
Not a single taxpayer dollar, including tax breaks for the NFL. They are a billionaire organization and can pay their own way. Stadiums do not ever give the return to the taxpayers.
100% agree. These are simply boondoggle giveaways to multi millionaires. They literally *never* generate positive cash for the municipalities they build in. And they can simply walk away leaving PWC with an unused stadium.
No more socializing the costs but privatizing the profits
No more trash in prince William county. Sanctuary county has created enough trash.
All business staff of commanders need to be fired. Wright, Mahew, Donaldson and staff need to be sent packing. Bad culture. Poor fan treatment.
Properly done, this could be a huge opportunity for Prince William County. Rather than the high density apartment buildings and warehouses that the current BOCS have seen fit to allow in the most valuable undeveloped tract in the County.
An opportunity for unimaginable traffic.
And what's wrong with warehouses? The warehouse on telegraph, that's not a minus you know.
At a minimum, the rest of the land is better suited for another High School, not your dream team. In actuality, it'd make more sense to have data centers off telegraph at this point! There's no housing there.
Putting a warehouse on some of the most exclusive land in PWC was a disaster. Soon to be followed up by two large apartment complexes right by the Sheetz and commuter lots on Telegraph road. DISASTERS, except perhaps for campaign contributions.
There are also plans for more high density apartments and town houses.
We need tax revenue and jobs. We need a Tyson's Corner, anchored by a stadium/convention center, office buildings and high end hotels, as well as a walkable high end retail/social experience.
There would have been enough ground for both the high school and the stadium complex. Before the BOCS started selling it off to the same people to whom they sold their souls.
"We need a Tyson's Corner, anchored by a stadium/convention center, office buildings and high end hotels, as well as a walkable high end retail/social experience."
With all due respect, keep dreaming. There's no room for any of that! You want all of this right down the street from a large outlet mall? That's what Woodbridge has, an outlet mall. With average restsurnts in the vicinity. If you want all of this stuff your talking about, then the outlet mall has to go, and the stadium can go there. Not this grandiose vision you have with one of the worst bottlenecks in the country on 95, and very limited space. We need another high school because of population more than this Tyson's 4.0 you have in mind.
The outlet mall would have to go it you want your stadium, and even then it's not a good spot. The traffic volume is too high.
The stadium isn't coming to Woodbridge. You're in a small group that thinks it belongs here. Why is the warehouse/distribution center a "disaster"? It hasn't even opened yet! It's In the vicinity of a commuter lot. That entire telegraph road corridor actually would have been perfect for data centers, but like I mentioned prior, the county needs a site for another high school on the east and that was one of them.
The new owenship will probably push to have that stadium in Loudoun. And then you can keep whining how PWC needs Tyson's.
And the new stadium shouldn't go where Potomac shores is either. That's even more out of the way.
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"With all due respect, keep dreaming. There's no room for any of that!"
Maybe do some research first. Most NFL stadiums average 40-50 acres for the entire complex (field and parking). Even where the Cowboys play, the largest stadium in the league, is only about 70 acres. Add in the mixed-used center they want to build and 200 acres is still plenty.
I do agree with you though about the traffic situation on I-95. Honestly the biggest thing working against the Woodbridge site is the lack of metro. Owners love stadiums that can be serviced by public transit. If the stadium plans came with the announcement of a blue line extension into Woodbridge, then maybe it would make sense, but Metro is in a death spiral and can barely maintain what it has now let alone another expansion.
@ Sebastian
"Maybe do some research first. Most NFL stadiums average 40-50 acres for the entire complex (field and parking). Even where the Cowboys play, the largest stadium in the league, is only about 70 acres. Add in the mixed-used center they want to build and 200 acres is still plenty."
Fair enough, however, with that being said telegraph road would have to.literally transform into a miniature highway, I'm still a little confused exactly where the land is. There's the farmland on minnieville road, is that where the stadium would go? Even so, you'd.peobaky have to get rid of the commuter lot and basically were talking a total revamp of old bridge and.minnieville plus telegraph road. I mean that could be done, but honestly all of that farmland would be better suited for a new high school and then you'd have to widen telegraph for the influx of traffic, which needs to be done no matter what. Theres not a ton of.land left on telegraph, I still believe building the warehouse/distribution center, since the company decided to purchase the land, was a smart move by the company. Brand new warehouse in a great location. There's one dude here in particular that beloved this is catastrophic for some odd reason.
Telegraph road is a great connector road, it makes way more sense to develop telegraph for industrial use as.opposed to residential, especially if the commuter lot is to stay. Which it is. The county is obsessed with residential development, and then residential development mixed with data centers on the west.
Build a high school since there's no other place left to build one in that farmland area. We can't sustain a Tyson's in Woodbridge. It doesn't even make any sense with Potomac Mills a few miles away.
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Duke!
Where are your thumbs up and down for?
I can't figure it out!
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Do you have any examples of these stadium deals working out positively? The Bills just inked a *billion* dollar stadium deal. The owners are worth 5x that. There simply won't be a billion in tax revenues to NYS.
You can argue it's worth paying, but not that it's economically beneficial
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