The Commanders are coming home to Washington, D.C., and a newly struck $3.8 billion stadium deal further shows how team owner Josh Harris has accomplished in 24 months what predecessor Dan Snyder couldn’t get done in 24 years.

The NFL team and District officials announced Monday plans to build a 65,000-seat stadium on the grounds of the long-abandoned RFK Stadium, the Commanders’ home from 1961 to 1996, confirming sharply heightened expectations over the past two weeks. The agreement will see Harris contribute at least $2.7 billion, representing the single-largest private investment in District history, while the District will supply $500 million toward stadium costs and roughly another $600 million for parking and related infrastructure. Opening is targeted for 2030. 

“This land has been blighted and underused for too long,” said District mayor Muriel Bowser, who is strongly burnishing her legacy through sports, particularly following a separate deal struck last year to renovate Capital One Arena. 

As the Commanders sought for years to find a site for a successor facility to Northwest Stadium, a critical part of the puzzle emerged earlier this year as RFK Stadium land transferred from federal control to the District. Also key was Harris’s willingness to shoulder roughly 76% of the core stadium cost privately—contrasting sharply from more troubled stadium proposals in Cleveland and Chicago, where team owners are looking for roughly half of the costs to be covered by taxpayers. 

“We want to bring the Commanders home, with a new RFK that our fans will love, and our opponents will fear,” Harris said.

In addition to the stadium deal, the Commanders under Harris just had their best season in 33 years, reaching the NFC title game, and are poised for a big increase in national broadcast exposure in 2025. 

Next Steps

Even with the euphoria of Monday’s announcement, plenty of hurdles remain for both the District and the team, and the project remains a long way from shovels in the ground. The deal must pass the D.C. council, with varying degrees of support there, particularly as legislators grappled with a budget shortfall of potentially more than $1 billion. 

Neighborhood opposition in areas near RFK Stadium also promises to be heavy. Already, an activist group called Homes Not Stadiums has filed paperwork seeking to place an initiative on next year’s election ballot that would block a new stadium on the RFK land. The group instead is seeking to prioritize affordable housing on the roughly 175-acre site. 

The stadium deal does include plans for about 5,000 housing units, at least 30% of which will be affordable.

“I continue to be concerned with investing any public money into a stadium while we have constrained budgets and revenues, and unmet needs,” said council chair Phil Mendelson.

A Future Super Bowl?

Despite those obstacles, stadium advocates such as Bowser see the potential of the District hosting major events such as the Super Bowl and the Final Four with a new stadium. The proposed venue will have a translucent roof, not unlike what’s been proposed in Chicago, and will allow for indoor events. 

“The stadium project promises to be great for the fans, the team, and the District and the NFL,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, who was on site for the stadium deal announcement. “It makes us better as a league with all of our clubs playing in a world-class stadium.”

When asked if the stadium improved Washington’s chances to host a Super Bowl, Goodell said, “I didn’t come here to announce that, but I would say dramatically.”

Quinn Ewers would have made much more money this year by staying in school.

The Dolphins selected the former Texas quarterback in the seventh round of the NFL Draft on Saturday, slotting Ewers, the 231st pick, into a contract worth roughly $4.33 million. That four-year deal is most likely worth less than the NIL (name, image, and likeness) money Ewers could have in 2025 alone by transferring to another school and by playing out his final year of NCAA eligibility.

Ewers’s draft vs. NIL decision was a hot topic during Texas’s run to the College Football Playoff semifinals, with reports of schools offering the quarterback up to $6 million to transfer. Ultimately, Texas named rising redshirt sophomore Arch Manning its starting quarterback for 2025, as expected, and Ewers entered the draft.

Before the 2024 college football season, some draft experts projected Ewers as a potential first-round pick. (Should he enter the draft, Manning is already gaining traction as a possible top-five pick in 2026.) Ewers’s stock fell throughout the season, though, and when he declared, he was mostly seen as a Day 2 pick at best.

On Saturday, Ewers said he was “happy” that he went through the adversity he did during the end of his college career. Before the draft, Ewers said he had no regrets about turning pro, in part because he didn’t want to play for another school besides Texas.

Other Side of the Story

Ewers’s story is not over, of course. But his slide to the seventh round comes in great contrast to No. 1 pick Cam Ward, who made a massive leap in 2024 by doing what Ewers opted not to do this year—transferring and using a fifth year of eligibility. 

Ward initially declared for the 2024 NFL Draft after playing four seasons of college football (2020 and 2021 at Incarnate Word, 2022 and 2023 at Washington State). At the time, he was seen as a Day 3 selection.

But Ward transferred to Miami, where his play made him the consensus No. 1 pick in 2025, all while cashing in from the Canes Connection NIL collective and signing deals with major brands like Adidas and Bose. 

As the top pick, Ward will sign a four-year, $43 million contract.