WASHINGTON—D.C. residents could soon be subsidizing the costs of a new NFL stadium—with no guarantee of jobs or community benefit in return—if Mayor Muriel Bowser has her way. Bowser plans to sell the publicly-owned Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to Josh Harris, owner of the Washington Commanders NFL team, in what she pitches as an attempt to revitalize the city.
The agreement would supposedly see the construction of a 65,000-seat replacement stadium, affordable housing, and other amenities. Critics, however, say the move is part of a trend already seen in other places whereby local communities foot the bill for private capital in the hopes of generating jobs and development.
A deal with Harris was announced in principle on April 28, but a final decision has to be made by the D.C. Council before demolition and redevelopment can proceed. The nearly $4 billion package officially requires taxpayers to put up over a billion dollars.
The real cost
Some $202 million would go toward general infrastructure costs (utilities, roads, etc.—the kinds of things necessary for a development, whether there’s a stadium involved or not) and $89 million for a long-planned neighborhood “SportsPlex” facility. But the lion’s share of public money—$856 million—will go toward subsidizing the construction costs of the new stadium ($500 million) and its associated parking garages ($356 million).
Analysts say that’s not the full picture of how much this project will actually cost the people of the District in the long run, though. Stadium-financing expert Neil deMause, who dug through the term sheet, says many costs were withheld from D.C. residents or excluded from the full terms of the agreement.
They include: lost potential revenue from the value of the land where the stadium sits ($600 million); waived property tax revenue ($429 million); redirected sales tax revenue ($300 million); interest on the debt incurred to finance the District’s share of construction costs ($623 million); and property tax revenue from the sacrificed housing that could have been built on the land ($3.3 billion).
When added to the up-front construction money, the deal could cost D.C. residents as much as $6.1 billion in total.
Selling the deal
Both the Commanders and the mayor’s office have been hard at work trying to convince the public that the deal is good for everyone.
“Today is a defining moment for the DMV and the Washington Commanders,” Harris, who is managing partner for the group that owns the team, said after the draft deal was announced. “RFK Stadium holds a legendary place in our history—it’s where the team dominated the NFL, capturing three Super Bowls and created unforgettable memories for fans.
“Now, we have the opportunity to honor that legacy by building a new world-class stadium—one that is also a once-in-a-generation catalyst for uplifting and transforming our region.”
Bowser said that D.C. is “thrilled to welcome the Commanders back home to the Sports Capital.” The mayor said that the District can “do it all—Commanders, housing, park space, recreation, retail, entertainment, and more.
D.C. gained control of the 180 acres on the banks of the Anacostia where the current stadium sits. She said that District leaders “knew right away that partnering with the Commanders would be the fastest and surest route to bringing the RFK campus to life.”
Bowser pitched the deal as a way to grow the economy. “We’re not only bringing our team home, but we’re also bringing new jobs and new revenue to our city and to Ward 7.”
All the things the mayor listed here would indeed be beneficial to the community, critics say, but only if the community can dictate for themselves, on their own terms, what the redevelopment of that land will look like. Affordable housing, city planning, and job opportunities shouldn’t be tied to whatever deals city officials sign with private sector developers without public input. Otherwise, activists say, the future of hundreds of thousands of people is left to the behest of private capital.
Conversations with many in the D.C. community suggest they feel the deal displays Bowser’s lack of vision and foresight for the city to develop its infrastructure in a way that could give D.C. an economic alternative: to be self-sufficient enough to respond to attacks by the Trump administration.
In December 2024, after nearly a decade of Bowser advocating to get the RFK campus under District control, Congress passed the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act. The legislation, which was signed into law in January 2025, gave the District the ability to develop the long-underutilized space for a mix of uses, lifting restrictions that were in place under the previous lease. The legislation also required that 30% of the RFK campus be reserved for parks and open space, not including a 32-acre riparian area along the Anacostia River.
With this being the first project Bowser decided to undertake, there is a growing sense that city officials are choosing to take on projects that benefit the public only when they can find a way to redirect the public spending back to the hands of private interests. If D.C. has the ability to subsidize the cost of a sports stadium, the thinking goes, then it should be able to develop its communities without the need of private capital.
Dante O’Hara, an activist with the Claudia Jones School for Political Education, said that “the Mayor decided to delay her budget proposal while making this deal and cozying up to Trump in the White House during the announcement.”
O’Hara warned that the mayor and council may attempt “to cut a lot of social services while trying to foot the bill for the stadium.”
He said that, “On one hand it could potentially help bring in revenue to offset the FY25 $1b cut from Congress, but on the other it may just exacerbate the displacement trend happening in the city and cause its economy to suffer even further.”
If redevelopment proceeds according to the announced terms, it will almost certainly lead to the gentrification and displacement of people currently living in that area. With the stadium being mainly used during the NFL season, the space that could’ve been used for something more productive will be rendered useless much of the time because of the land needed for all the parking spaces. Many of the jobs created will be seasonal ones, which will not give anyone in the area stable and consistent employment.
The NFL is heavily promoting the stadium redevelopment project because it follows the trend of the League being able to have its costs subsidized by local communities. “Some of my earliest football memories growing up in the District were going to games at RFK Stadium,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said of the deal.
“This world-class stadium will not only be an exciting site for NFL games and events in an iconic location, but it will also be a community asset and an economic driver,” Goodell claimed.
His comments come as no surprise, of course, since Goodell’s role as commissioner is to uphold and protect the interests of team owners. The NFL has consistently marketed the redevelopment of RFK as beneficial for the community, part of a process of manufacturing consent so that the idea sells better when redevelopment gets underway.
D.C. residents are working hard to protect the city from the encroachment of private capital, though. They’re not accepting the deal without letting their voices be heard by Bowser, even as she appears to cater to the interests of private business. Residents are continuing their long tradition of organizing to make sure their will is expressed, showing who really has the interests of the District in mind.
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