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Morning Edition

September 18, 2025

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After multiple votes, presidential pressure, and late-developing drama around new clauses in the deal, the Commanders and Washington, D.C., finally have a deal on a new $3.8 billion stadium that will see the team return to the site of its long-time home.

— Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], and Colin Salao [[link removed]]

$3.8 Billion Commanders Stadium Deal Approved Despite Late Drama [[link removed]]

Commanders-KATO

The Commanders are officially returning to the District of Columbia after local legislators made a second and final vote to approve public funding for a $3.8 billion venue at the grounds of RFK Stadium. The initial glide path to secure the deal, however, hit significant turbulence on Wednesday.

Following an initial approval on Aug. 1 [[link removed]] and the run-up to the second vote [[link removed]] required in D.C. rules, the council again certified the stadium plan Wednesday evening by an 11–2 margin. The vote now paves the way for the construction of a domed venue and mixed-use development at the site of the team’s former home, with the new stadium targeted for a 2030 opening. Public money will represent about $1.1 billion in the project in a bid to reinvigorate a long-neglected area.

“An NFL stadium by itself is not a good investment. … But we’re talking about a bigger vision for the city and where we’re going to be in 50 years,” said council member Charles Allen. He was an initial skeptic on the deal who cheered the subsequent improvements to the framework to build “the most transit-friendly stadium in the NFL.”

That vote, however, only happened after frenetic last-minute negotiations early Wednesday between council leaders and the Commanders. Several council members sought to have a series of amendments passed that would have more substantively changed the deal agreed to last month.

In particular, the Commanders could have been on the hook for significant financial penalties for missing development milestones, in some cases reaching $10 million per year, with few, if any, carveouts for outside circumstances. Another potential amendment that failed would have seen land under team control clawed back by D.C. if undeveloped by 2050.

The team wrote a letter to the council on Wednesday morning that it was “presented with a list of unworkable and impractical new last-minute demands … which we simply cannot agree to as it jeopardizes the deal.”

The discord was largely resolved during a lengthy, closed-door meeting that delayed the start of the council hearing by two hours, and the financial penalty element in particular was later formally rejected by the council. The amendments approved late Wednesday were more technical in nature, relating to matters such as covenants around environmental standards and the routing of some stadium fees to community reinvestment.

“Today is a historic day for D.C., the Commanders organization, and our fans,” team owner Josh Harris said in a statement. “With the council’s approval, we can now move forward on the transformative RFK project that will bring lasting economic growth for our city.”

Moving Forward

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a big advocate of the stadium deal [[link removed]], also cheered the eventual passage.

“This is the final step in securing our future at the new RFK Stadium,” Bowser said. “Our businesses, our people, our project. Now, let’s get to work.”

The Commanders are now firmly part of a fast-growing stadium development wave across the NFL. In addition to projects for the Bills and Titans that are well into active construction, teams such as the Bears [[link removed]], Broncos [[link removed]], and Browns [[link removed]] are all actively pursuing new venues, and others, such as the Eagles [[link removed]], are considering ones as well.

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Bethpage Black Joins Trend of Hosting Top Men’s, Women’s Tournaments [[link removed]]

Peter Casey-Imagn Images

Next week, Bethpage Black Golf Course in New York will host the Ryder Cup for the first time, and the venue will stay in the national spotlight after the U.S. vs. Europe team event ends.

In 2028, the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship will be held at Bethpage Black for the first time, and the men’s PGA Championship will return to the course in 2033, the PGA of America announced Wednesday. The move continues a growing trend of golf’s governing bodies playing more top women’s tournaments at the same courses as their male counterparts.

Bethpage hosted its first PGA Championship in 2019, after hosting the U.S. Open in 2002 and 2009.

In June, the women’s PGA Championship was played at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco [[link removed]] in Texas, a new course at the PGA of America’s headquarters that’s set to host the men’s major in 2027 and 2034, and the women’s again in 2031.

The other two future venues on the docket for the women’s PGA Championship are Hazeltine National Golf Club (2026), which most recently hosted the event in 2019 and the Ryder Cup in 2016, and Congressional Country Club (2027), which hosted the women’s PGA in 2022 and is hosting the men’s in 2030.

The shared venue strategy from the PGA of America is similar to the recent efforts of the USGA [[link removed]], which has been taking more U.S. Women’s Opens to courses that also host the men’s edition, like Oakmont and Pebble Beach.

Netflix Boxing Ratings Spark New Fight Over Streaming Metrics [[link removed]]

Joe Camporeale-Imagn Images

Just as one high-profile fight around sports viewership metrics is calming down, another one is beginning.

Netflix said it attracted a global average audience of 36.6 million [[link removed]] for last weekend’s boxing match between Terence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez, a bout that also set a series of attendance and gate records in Las Vegas [[link removed]]. That streaming audience included an average minute audience of 20.3 million viewers in the U.S.

Those metrics, however, were the result of a combination of internal, non-audited data and measurement from VideoAmp, a challenger to Nielsen that has not received accreditation from the Media Ratings Council. The process used by Netflix was the same as one used last fall for its live stream of the Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight [[link removed]], metrics that were dismissed by many others in the business of sports as not particularly reliable.

Along similar lines, the Netflix number for a boxing match happening after midnight early Sunday on the U.S. East Coast on a subscription-based streaming service was similar to the average of 33.8 million for last weekend’s Super Bowl rematch [[link removed]]. That NFL game was played late on a Sunday afternoon with two of the league’s most popular teams and was fundamentally based on broadcast television.

As a result, Netflix’s claim, to some, does not make sense.

“The Eagles-Chiefs number is pretty good, but just imagine if it had been on at 1 a.m. and measured by VideoAmp,” tweeted [[link removed]] Fox Sports president of insights and analytics Mike Mulvihill.

Mulvihill has also been an outspoken critic of YouTube’s measurement process [[link removed]] and subsequent revision [[link removed]] of the audience from its NFL game on Sept. 5 from Brazil. His boss, Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks, had a similar rebuke of YouTube at Tuesday’s Front Office Sports Tuned In summit in New York, highlighting some of the still-outstanding issues around garnering reliable viewership data in streaming.

“Just like YouTube, we will continue to revise those numbers up until we can no longer revise them anymore,” Shanks joked at the summit.

Netflix did use an accredited Nielsen measurement for its NFL doubleheader last Christmas, drawing an average audience of more than 24 million that remains a league streaming record.

Conversation Starters Heat legend Alonzo Mourning has developed a $37 million senior living complex [[link removed]] in Florida with monthly rent ranging from $322 to $1,316 depending on income. Noah Eagle ranked his top three broadcasters of all time while standing beside his dad and CBS Sports broadcaster, Ian Eagle. Check it out [[link removed]]. The Utah Mammoth have opened a new headquarters and practice facility featuring two ice sheets, player amenities, and an expansive training space built in just 13 months. Take a look [[link removed]]. Editors’ Picks Adam Silver Defends WNBA Involvement in Sun Sale [[link removed]]by Annie Costabile [[link removed]]Silver discussed the deal at Tuned In. Maria Taylor Talks About ‘Moving Differently’ in ESPN-NBC Jump [[link removed]]by Margaret Fleming [[link removed]]Taylor will be NBC Sports’ lead NBA and WNBA studio host. Adam Silver Doesn’t Want NBA Europe to Be a ‘Top-Heavy League’ [[link removed]]by Alex Schiffer [[link removed]]Silver said he doesn’t want the prospective league to be like European soccer. Question of the Day

Should the Commanders face financial penalties if they miss development deadlines tied to the new stadium?

YES [[link removed]] NO [[link removed]]

Wednesday’s result: 65% of respondents think MLB will push for a salary cap next year, while 35% do not.

Advertise [[link removed]] Awards [[link removed]] Learning [[link removed]] Events [[link removed]] Video [[link removed]] Shows [[link removed]] Written by Eric Fisher [[link removed]], David Rumsey [[link removed]], Colin Salao [[link removed]] Edited by Matthew Tabeek [[link removed]], Or Moyal [[link removed]], Catherine Chen [[link removed]]

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