Scott Van Pelt is a DC guy, who hosts his SportsCenter shows from the nation’s capital – and as we found out when he joined Kevin Sheehan on The Team 980 on Wednesday, he’s just as stoked as most around the District that Dan Snyder is selling the Commanders to Josh Harris.
“It’s the most significant piece of news for this franchise in decades, and it had to happen,” SVP said. “Nothing could move forward with Dan Snyder as the owner – no new stadium was going to get any cooperation, and they were paralyzed as a result of that.”
And with that stadium thought, SVP is one of those who believes the RFK site is the best one.
“I’m a big proponent that if they can get the land from the federal government and build on that site, that would be option No. 1,” SVP said. “People in the neighborhood push back and say they want housing, but it’s been a parking lot for 30 years, so let me know when they’re going to put a shovel in the ground.”
However, a new stadium, while it should be on the agenda, shouldn’t be item No. 1 in Van Pelt’s eyes.
“There needs to be a new stadium somewhere, but first, this new ownership group needs to just simply appeal to people like you and me, or younger people who vaguely remember what it was like, and just explain that their intent is to create something that is a unifier,” he said. “As people of our age are familiar, there was nothing that unified the city quite like the Redskins, even before they won a bunch of Super Bowls – watching this team was what you did on Sundays. Crate some sort of an on-ramp to get people to come back; winning would help, but just creating a sense that this group gets what Washington means and what it means to fill our stadium with people rooting for our team. A lot goes into that, but my sense is that this group is filled with smart people.”
Sheehan had gone into a rant earlier in the show about lecturing people who want a rebrand – and, well, SVP is one of those who agrees that Commanders should be relieved of its name duties.
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“I think there’s zero connection to the name and the look of this, and you feel like you have an expansion team because it doesn’t feel like it’s yours,” Van Pelt said. “Granted, the name we grew up with won’t be the name either, but I don’t want to get bogged down in arguing about colors and younger people lecturing – the people you lost are mostly older folks like us, and creating something that looks and feels like its relatable to a significant portion of your fan base is a win. And, it’s the last vestige of Snyder, too, which maybe the NFL would allow because of that. It’s not the most important thing, but it feels important to a significant chunk of your fan base, many that you have lost. I don’t care what you call them, I just think Commanders is kind of wonky, and there’s no equity with that name.”
And what about the thought that anything going forward with the Commanders should be focused on a younger fan base who has a lot longer to support the franchise?
“You’ll never get unity from any fan base, but Sixers and Devils fans could say that Harris is an owner that hires people and lets them do their jobs – and that would be a great start,” Van Pelt said. “People want a reason to come back; I didn’t stop caring because I wanted to, it was just the atrophy over time of having no reason to feel compelled to invest time and emotion. Maybe those days are forever gone.”
SVP was live at Oak Hill Country Club, so he also chatted a lot about this weekend’s PGA Championship, as well as the NBA playoffs and more – take a listen above!
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