NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and Washington Commanders controlling owner Josh Harris met with congressional lawmakers Monday on Capitol Hill as efforts push forward to secure access to D.C.'s RFK Stadium site.
Two people with knowledge of the situation confirmed Goodell and Harris held a series of meetings concerning the RFK Stadium proposal, among other topics. The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because their appearance on Capitol Hill was not publicized.
According to one of the people, the ongoing security issue of drones on game days was also discussed in meetings with incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., outgoing Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and outgoing Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
A league source familiar with the meetings confirmed them for News4. A spokesperson for the Commanders would only confirm that Harris took part in the meetings.
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Goodell remained in the area after attending the Commanders’ game Sunday against Tennessee at aging Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland.
With overwhelming bipartisan support, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources last month passed the D.C. Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act on to the full Senate for approval.
“This bill has enjoyed bipartisan support in both houses,” D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said. “As you know, it had a wonderful coalition of support coming out of the House committee, then the House floor. And we saw something similar in the Senate's committee vote. And so, we continue to work on all fronts to get the bill passed.”
In the weeks since that vote, Bowser is unable to say if she’s found a senator who will attach the bill to a larger omnibus bill for the full Senate to vote on in the last three weeks before this Congress adjourns for the year.
“The matter is in the Senate, as you know, has gone regular order,” Bowser said. “The Senate is busy working, we know, and we think our bill should pass this session.”
If passed and signed into law by the president, it would transfer the land with the husk of the former stadium and surrounding areas less than 2 miles east of the U.S. Capitol from the federal to the D.C. government for up to 99 years.
D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton called it a “win-win for the federal and D.C. governments” that could “transform the campus from acres of asphalt to a complex focused on community sports, recreation, park space and cultural amenities.”
James Comer, R-Ky., who has been advocating for a stadium deal, said, “Will help pave a path for the nation’s capital to create meaningful new jobs, add millions in city revenue and transform the city’s vacant RFK waterfront into a lively destination for all Americans.”
Bowser wouldn’t say whether she talked with Harris or Goodell about the meetings.
“I'm not going to yet kind of talk about my individual conversations, but I will say this: that the bill is fair, it's advancing in a regular order, and we hope that the Senate takes it up,” she said.
It is no guarantee the Commanders would build their next state-of-the-art stadium there, but getting this agreement done is one of the major steps in paving the way to making it possible to return to what had been the organization's home from 1961-96.
“The Commanders have been fortunate to have interest from three incredible jurisdictions as we search for a new home and stadium,” a team spokesperson said in a statement. “The vote ... brings us one step closer towards continuing conversations with D.C., along with Maryland and Virginia, as a potential future home for our franchise.”
Sites in the District, Maryland and Virginia all remain in the running for the new stadium, a process that was ongoing long before Harris' group bought the team from longtime owner Dan Snyder last year for a North American professional sports record $6.05 billion.
Harris and several of his co-owners, including Mitch Rales and Mark Ein, grew up in the area and were fans of the team when it played at RFK during the glory days, which included Super Bowl titles in 1982, ‘87 and ’91.
They took control after Snyder rebranded as the Commanders, following a temporary stint as the Washington Football Team when he bowed to pressure from sponsors and activists in the summer of 2020, dropping the name the franchise was known by for nearly nine decades. It could change again, though Harris has said the old name would not return.
Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mon., last summer threatened to block the RFK Stadium bill until the NFL and the Commanders honor, in some form, the old Indian head logo that was designed by a member of the Blackfeet Nation in the state of Montana.
Daines recently gave his blessing, saying there had been "good faith negotiations” with the league and team about using the old logo. A spokesperson for Daines said last week part of the ongoing negotiations are related to using the old logo to support Native American philanthropic causes and plans to show the logo on future merchandise.
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AP Pro Football Writer Rob Maaddi contributed.
