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Commanders insider slams stadium funding critics with brutal reality check

Originally posted on Riggo's Rag | By Ryan McCafferty | Last updated Jul 3, 2025 2:30 PM ET

Though the football world has moved along, one of the biggest developments of the Washington Commanders' offseason has nothing to do with any of the team's players.

That would be the announcement back in April that the franchise is planning to build a new arena at the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium site, which should be completed and ready for action by the 2030 campaign. Unfortunately, there has been some holdup as the project continues to pend approval from the D.C. Council.

As a result, the vote to approve the stadium has been pushed back to September, and all of Washington is tired of having its time wasted.

D.C. Council has no leg to stand on with the Commanders stadium objection

It seems that the reason for the delay in the Council's voting process is some confusion over the full purpose behind the December 2024 legislation to transfer control of the RFK Stadium site to the city of D.C. from the federal government. Let's not overthink it: this measure was taken so that the Commanders could build a new stadium, and nothing more.

Any opposition will be seen as unfounded, as J.P. Finlay from NBC Sports points out. This holdup largely seems like a political ploy to leverage financial gains, and it's unclear how much hardball the Council is willing to play.

Translation: DC Council can say what they want but Congress gave back the RFK land to build a stadium. https://t.co/5gEDqB98nG
— JP Finlay (@JPFinlayNBCS) July 1, 2025

Washington will need seven of the Council's 13 members to approve the proposal. Currently, four of them stand in public support of it.

D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser expressed some nervousness over the situation, claiming her level of concern would be at a four on a scale of zero to five. However, she then added, "When you're a big city mayor, you're concerned about everything."

Despite the unfortunate setback, Washington remains optimistic that the vote will pass, whenever it is finally conducted. Even if the proposal is rejected, there is a backup plan that would involve getting U.S. Congress and potentially President Donald J. Trump to step in.

Regardless, the bottom line is that whether the Council likes it or not, the Commanders are going to move back to D.C. They are going to rebuild RFK Stadium. They are going to be playing at the new site by 2030.

The plan was put into motion last December and was made official in April. Any further attempts to hold up the move are simply delaying the inevitable for the sake of delaying it.