Maryland, Virginia Leaders Compete To Be Commanders' Home Turf

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — Maryland and Virginia leaders are vying for the right to have the official home turf of the Washington Commanders, complete with all the bells and whistles. The Commanders currently call Landover home, which is where FedEx Field is located.

According to The Washington Post, Maryland's proposal to keep the team in the state would require them to borrow a sizable lump of money to publicly finance development around the FedEx Field site. The Maryland Stadium Authority would be responsible for selling the hundreds of millions of dollars in bonds needed to finance the state portion of the deal.

The incentive package would include perks from Prince George's County government but does not include the construction of a stadium. Prince George's County is planning to build its own large sports entertainment district in Landover that includes an $11 million amphitheater, regardless of whether or not the Commanders choose to stay in Maryland.

But football team owner Daniel Snyder owns more than 200 acres around the stadium, along with the stadium itself. The NFL announced earlier this month it will launch an investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Snyder.

According to the Post, Prince George's County isn't interested in building the stadium.

“We aren’t building anyone a stadium,” Del. Jazz Lewis (D-Prince George’s) told The Post. “But we can build in and around the neighborhood.”

The Washington Commanders want more than just a new stadium, however, and are seeking the construction of a multibillion-dollar sports entertainment destination that would include residential homes, businesses, retail space and even sports betting.

Maryland's proposal would invest in the neighborhood surrounding the stadium and include constructing transit, roads, bike lanes and other amenities. But the stadium would need to be built by the team.

Recently, Virginia's bipartisan legislation advanced that would offer the team $1 billion and a cut of sales tax revenue if it moved to northern Virginia.

But some members of Congress — including U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-Virginia), who chairs the House Joint Economic Committee — are opposed to any public financing for pro sports teams, including the Commanders.

Beyer joined two congressional colleagues in introducing a bill to eliminate tax-exempt status for municipal bonds that help finance professional sports stadiums, according to Patch.

"Super-rich sports team owners like Dan Snyder do not need federal support to build their stadiums, and taxpayers should not be forced to fund them," Beyer said. "Billionaire owners who need cash can borrow from the market like any other business. Arguments that stadiums boost job creation have been repeatedly discredited. In a time when there is a debate over whether the country can 'afford' investments in health care, child care, education or fighting climate change, it is ridiculous to even contemplate such a radical misuse of publicly subsidized bonds."

"There is no reason why these teams — the average of which went up in value to $3.48 billion in 2021, according to Forbes — should have American taxpayers footing any of their bills. It doesn't make economic sense, and it's particularly galling given the league's longstanding failure to address issues of sexual harassment and sexual assault as well as ongoing racial and gender discrimination and domestic violence," added U.S. Rep Jackie Speier (D-California), co-chair of the Democratic Women's Caucus and member of the Oversight Committee.

The Post disclosed that the team has not stated when it would make a decision.

“All those jurisdictions are amazing leaders and partners to us,” team President Jason Wright said earlier this month during a public interview with the Economic Club of Washington. “Like I said, our biggest thing is we can listen to everybody about what their goals are and try to figure out where we fit. That’s our only goal.”

The Commanders’ deal with Prince George’s obligates them to play at FedEx Field through 2027.

Read more at The Washington Post and Patch.