The once and future home of the Washington football franchise could be not their historic home at the RFK Stadium site inside the D.C. lines but near their current home at Commanders Field (née FedEx Field, Jack Kent Cooke Stadium) in Landover, Md?
Thom Loverro, columnist for the Washington Times and friend of the Kevin Sheehan Show, explained why Landover is back involved – and maybe the favorite to land the new home of the Washington Commanders.
"Well, I learned over the weekend, that U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, who represents the state of Maryland, has become a big roadblock in the efforts to get the federal legislation passed by the Senate to transfer control of the RFK property from the federal government, who owns the property, to the District of Columbia, in terms of a 99-year lease," Loverro told Sheehan.
"This is an important first step for the District to try to get a new stadium built for the Washington Commanders," he continued. "You can't do that until you have control of the land, it's not yours [right now]. So nothing happens until that happens.
"And previously, a couple weeks ago we learned that Senator Steve Daines from Montana was going to block the legislation because he was representing a family of Native Americans, the Wetzel family, who wanted to have some kind of representation of the team of the logo that their family helped design, 40, 50 years ago. "But that is something that is being negotiated, is being discussed and is probably not a big roadblock. That has a resolution.
"This one [involving Van Hollen], really doesn't have a resolution. There's nothing you can say to Chris Van Hollen right now that [will make him say], 'Ok, I'll back off of this.' Because he's representing the state of Maryland. And Maryland has made it clear - the governor [Wes Moore] has made it clear that they want the team to stay [in Maryland]."
Van Hollen can hold up the passage of this legislation through senate protocols. This is why supporters wanted the legislation transferring the land to the D.C. government attached to a Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act, which would not have been blocked in this manner, Loverro said, citing sources.
Loverro doesn't see a resolution to that would stop Van Hollen from holding up this legislation. "He's just representing the interests of the state he represents," Loverro said, adding that the Senate will be out of session after the third week of June and won't be back in session until a brief period in September ahead of the 2024 general election. And all of these delays cost D.C. and the Commanders time on moving forward for a new stadium.
Catch the full conversation for more details about the future of the Commanders stadium on the audio player above!