The Washington Commanders’ agreement with D.C. to build a stadium at the site of the franchise’s former home would return the team to its roots — and create new possibilities that could include hosting the Super Bowl.
The estimated $3.7 billion deal, announced to cheers Monday at the National Press Club by Commanders principal owner Josh Harris, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, generated a mix of nostalgia and excitement, with many in the crowd recalling their fondest memories of the team’s 35 seasons at RFK Stadium on the banks of the Anacostia River.
But the Commanders’ new stadium will have a distinguishing feature from the past version at the RFK site, one that should create more opportunities for its future: a roof.
“This is going to be one of the most important stadiums in the world,” Harris said. “So we needed a roof to be able to attract amazing events. The Super Bowl got thrown out there, and obviously we’re working on the commissioner hard. But … pick an event, pick an act. It’ll go even beyond that.”
Planning for the stadium can’t fully begin until the D.C. Council approves the deal. So it has not yet been decided whether the stadium will be an entirely closed dome or the roof will be retractable. But the prospect of having one at all puts D.C. in position to be considered for hosting its first Super Bowl, a significant revenue-generating opportunity for the team and the District that has long been important to the Commanders’ owners.
“I didn’t come here to announce that,” Goodell said when asked how much the new stadium increases the D.C. area’s chances of hosting the Super Bowl. “But I would say dramatically.”
Later, Goodell said before a small group of reporters: “We’ve got to get it built first. … But I really do think this community could be a great host for a Super Bowl. I think the stadium is always that missing piece. And, you know, what I’ve seen from the plans, it certainly looks like it’ll be a very positive application.”
Under NFL guidelines, a stadium must be in use for two full seasons to be considered as a Super Bowl venue. The hope is for the Commanders’ new stadium to open in 2030. A city must have an average annual temperature of at least 50 degrees in the month leading up to the game to be considered as a Super Bowl host site — unless the stadium has a roof.
The league and team owners granted a waiver to award a cold-weather Super Bowl to the New York/New Jersey area, a move that gained momentum in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Super Bowl XLVIII was played at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Feb. 2, 2014.
The NFL has announced the host sites of the next three Super Bowls. Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, will host Super Bowl LX in February. SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, will host Super Bowl LXI in 2027. And Super Bowl LXII will be played at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta in 2028.
The new stadium also would move the Commanders closer to fulfilling the goal that the league and the NFL’s other team owners had when the franchise was sold to Harris’s group in 2023 for $6.05 billion. Other team owners spoke then about the importance of having a flagship franchise again in the capital city.
“Some exciting stuff, I think, is going to be happening,” a person familiar with the NFL’s inner workings said Sunday, knowing the stadium deal was in place.
Harris said Monday: “Without exaggeration, this will be the best stadium in the country when it’s built in front of the Anacostia River, facing the Capitol and the Washington Monument.”
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But the team’s and D.C.’s hopes go well beyond the NFL’s 17-game, 18-week regular season, which includes eight or nine home dates annually.
In the term sheet of the redevelopment of the RFK campus between the team and D.C., the franchise is expected to strive to host a minimum of 200 events at the stadium annually. That includes Commanders games, concerts, family shows, sporting events, private events and “other ticketed and non-ticketed events and activities that are hosted in NFL stadiums.”
The team also will provide the District with a limited number of “use” days for public and community events, such as graduations and high school football games. The Commanders will operate, market and control the stadium and receive all revenue from events that are not requested by the District.
The stadium presumably would bolster D.C.’s chances of hosting 2031 women’s World Cup matches. D.C. and Baltimore collaborated on a bid to host 2026 men’s World Cup matches after FIFA and U.S. Soccer officials gave the field at the Commanders’ stadium in Landover low marks in 2021. The failure of the Washington-Baltimore bid was a blow to the D.C. area, which is one of the richest soccer regions in the country.
The District, according to the term sheet of the deal, also is discussing with the Commanders the possibility of providing space for the NWSL’s Washington Spirit.
“We’re hoping to have several hundred events there during the year,” Harris said. “So we’ll see how it all goes, but that was important. And obviously [I] want it to feel like a football stadium. That’s really important to me personally. I grew up with [RFK], and it was an outdoor stadium. There’s a lot of debate about that. So we’re going to do our best to move in that direction.”
