“We’ve been focused on the stadium, and you saw the $86 million announcement of what we're doing (in Landover), but now we're also focused on our new home. We're in pretty deep, doing site plans across three jurisdictions. We’re in deep discussion with Maryland, but at the same time, we're continuing to pursue the possibility of having a site at RFK, which is a political process.”
The words of Commanders owner Josh Harris, talking about future stadium plans at the NFL’s Annual Meeting this week – and the Junkies think that was well-said.
“He’s keeping all his options open, which is smart,” Cakes said. “You don't want to come out and say, yeah, we're die-hard to be back in DC at the RFK site. 2He knows there's political hurdles there to get over, so he wants to keep all the jurisdictions in play.”
“There's a lot more than political hurdles; I mean, I think there's a space issue, and there's a lot that goes into this,” EB said. “Let's just assume that hurdle gets cleared, and they're halfway there it sounds like – I don't think that there's enough space to do the kind of thing that new stadium owners like to do. Maybe, and obviously we would all like it from a nostalgic standpoint, but…”
Valdez had an idea:
“It sounded like a warning shot from Harris to DC, like get it together politically and stop dragging your feet on this, because it sounds like the political red tape that they're having to jump through right now to get this done seems exhausting. It was a nice warning for him.”
“Do you want us or do you not want us?” Cakes said. “He should also be angry, and I’m sure they are doing this behind the scenes, but he should be telling DC when they sit down at the table, like, ‘you guys are in danger of losing the Wizards and the Caps, let's get this rig rolling.’ And he’s going to look for the best deal for him and the other shareholders in the team.”
“I don’t think he’s dead-set on it, but he's also gonna take into account the history of the team and try to try to do what's best,” EB shot back. “He’s not gonna do the Valdez bit and move them to Anne Arundel County, but one of the big dreams is to build your own arena or stadium, right?”
Bish then noticed that Harris never mentioned Virginia in the answer, and a majority of fans wouldn’t want that anyway, but would they want nostalgia over access?
“If it goes back to the RFK site, they've got to do something about the infrastructure around it and the access into that area,” Cakes said. “I drive on the BW Parkway every day, and that little rickety underpass and exit off to RFK is just a mess, and it can barely handle rush hour, let alon 70,000 people going there for a Commanders game. That needs to be rectified.”
“Also just the space there – the residents don't want it, and there's a lot of complications in that,” EB replied. “It's not as easy as just let's just get approval and build there.”
Take a listen to the guys’ entire convo above!
