Meantime, in Warshington, the Commies are getting a new, $3 billion stadium to be built on the RFK site:

More details are being announced at a Monday morning news conference, which I’ll add to this story,* but for now the gist is that Josh Harris and his Commies are teaming up with the District of Columbia to bring the team back to the location where it played from 1961 to 1996, and had its most success. They moved out to Landover in 1997, building a soulless husk of a stadium just inside of the 495 loop that circles our nation’s capital. RFK was then used by primarily by D.C. United and a briefly hosted the Washington Nationals and Washington Freedom before it was finally approved for demolition a few years ago. It was in really poor shape towards the end. There was a raccoon running around and the press box view was so narrow it looked like you were sitting in the cockpit of the Millenium Falcon.

What’s nice is that the Eagles, and opposing NFL teams, will no longer have to play in the Commies’ current dump. It seems like everything goes wrong there. Sometimes the pipes just start spewing nasty water, and/or a guard rail falls over and almost crushes future-Super Bowl champion Jalen Hurts. Parts of that stadium feel like they were held together with twist ties and flex seal.

What’s most curious is how Josh Harris and the Commies needing a new stadium influenced 76 Place here in Philadelphia. There were many people who insisted from the beginning that Harris cared more about his football team than his basketball team, and they were probably right about that, even if we’ll never get a full admission from the powers that be. Note, of course, that the Commanders are not a Harris-Blitzer Sports and Entertainment property. Harris is the main guy for both teams, yes, but with the Sixers, David Blitzer is a co-founder and managing partner, while he holds a limited partner role with the Commies. David Adelman, who bought Michael Rubin’s share of the Sixers a few years ago, is not involved with the Commies.

So different ownership groups, technically, but Harris running the show at the very top, which made people wonder if he could finance two stadium builds at the same time, or if he even wanted to. Maybe one of the intrepid reporters in D.C. will unearth a nugget this week. That might steer us in a better direction, since there remains a lot of “what actually happened?” theorizing surrounding the 76 Place rug pull and ensuing re-up with brief adversary Comcast-Spectacor.


*some notes here from the presser:

  • the private investment is expected to be around $2.7 billion
  • there will be public money in the deal. Infrastructure, surrounding campus, about 25% of the total cost, according to docs shared by reporters on site
  • there will be 90 acres of mixed-use development
  • the stadium will have a roof
  • it’s expected to open in 2030, so five more seasons in Landover