Eric Flack gives Craig Hoffman the latest on what's going on with the RFK bill on Capitol Hill
If you didn’t think the shenanigans surrounding potential legislation to get the RFK Stadium site back under DC control could get weirder, think again – because we’ve now gone from a logo battle in Montana to fighter Jets in Maryland?
Indeed, Maryland’s House delegation was among the group dissenting the RFK bill in that chamber, and now, word has come out this week that the Senators from the state are looking for a little Top Gun in order to let RFK go back to the District?
Yes, as WUSA investigative reporter Eric Flack mentioned when he joined Craig Hoffman Tuesday, Maryland’s delegation is basically seeking the relocation of one of D.C.’s two Air National Guard squadrons to Maryland, as well as an assurance from the Commanders about what would be built in place of Northwest Stadium to vote in favor of the bill.
Flack retold the story of how Montana Sen. Steve Daines pledged to block the legislation unless the Commanders honored their old Redskins logo, and has since walked that back once the organization met with the Wetzel family and now are honoring the logo at Northwest Stadium.
And now, well, as we try to get this in front of the full Senate before the end of the legislative session in early January, it’s likely going to have to become part of an omnibus bill passing a bunch of things at once – and they’re bringing in the big guns.
“Now if you're a Washington Commanders fan who wants the team back at RFK in DC, you are a big fan of pork barrel bills, because that's exactly what we want to be right now,” Flack said. “But there’s a lot of momentum right now. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, in town for the Titans game, mysteriously ended up on Capitol Hill on Monday…maybe he was trying to save on plane tickets and decided to do it all at once? But he was on Capitol Hill with Josh Harris meeting with a number of Senate leaders, pushing for this specific bill. It’ll be down to the wire, and I think they were trying to convince people to attach it to a bill, likely the spending bill that has to get passed in some form or fashion, because no standalone bill is going to get a hearing at this point.”
Majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is the office it has to pass through if it does pass before this session ends, and while this is, at its core, rather uncontroversial, there are some opponents for random reasons (including Daines) and could always be.
“If you think about it outside of our little DMV/Commanders bubble, people in Illinois and Texas don’t care about this, and the only question is will politics get in the way and why,” Flack said. “Would there be any 11th hour opposition from Maryland Senators who are concerned about the Commanders leaving Northwest Stadium and what would happen to that site in Prince George's County, or anybody from Virginia still holding out hope they would come out there? But, there's so much momentum that I think once it gets into the bill, that's the biggest challenge at this point.”
One other interesting note: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was also at Sunday’s Commanders-Titans game with Harris, Goodell, and DC Mayor Muriel Bowser, and it’s a non-zero chance that perhaps something supporting the Wizards (if not all of Monumental Sports) could be in play at RFK.
“The agreement that Ted Leonsis has with DC over the $515 million of taxpayer money to fix up Capital One Arena includes a provision for finding a new practice facility. Option A was Gallery Place, and they studied that and that's unfeasible, so they are now looking for land,” Flack said. “RFK has been specifically named in the language as one of the options for a practice area, and the last time Ted talked about the money being approved, I tried to ask him about that and he didn’t answer. But, the idea of RFK for some sort of a Wizards practice facility is not just people making things up – but is there room for the Commanders’ RFK 2.0 and a practice facility, and is there any world in which Josh Harris and Ted Leonsis are gonna share land in some way, shape, or form and be neighbors? Those questions need to be resolved, but Ted certainly has his sights on the potential for a new practice facility, even as I think it is clear that option A for Washington DC is to have a new football stadium there.”
