WASHINGTON D.C., DC — The conversation continues on where the newly named Washington Commanders will build their new stadium. Where they will play football remains a mystery.
On Saturday, WUSA9 spoke to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser on where she thinks the stadium should go and how to make sure that the Commanders become a winning team.
“Well, we know when the team was last a winning team and they played at RFK,” Mayor Bowser said.
Bowser said The District is already equipped with a 100-acre site to build on and one day play.
“We have an ideal location at RFK. Our administration has been focused on getting control of the RFK site from the federal government for a longer period than our lease is now,” she said.
WUSA9 has obtained documents showing Virginia is bidding for the Commanders to cross yet another border. The plans we obtained call for all three sites to include more than just a 700,000-square-foot, 16-acre stadium, but also outdoor and indoor training facilities and team offices, a 14,000-seat amphitheater, hotels and a conference center, residential buildings and mixed-used retail including nightlife.
WUSA9 asked Mayor Bowser what she thought of those Virginia plans and she said she would focus on affordable housing being a part of the project.
“It's important to us that that site have housing first, as we've been talking about housing. Recreation, park space and sports, including an NFL stadium,” Bowser said.
We asked a number of people in the neighborhoods surrounding the old RFK Stadium where they think the Commanders should kick off.
"Back at the old stadium. We could walk there, it'd be nice to be in D.C.," Brett Martin said.
Some think the Virginia options are just too far of a drive for fans and note the lack of public transportation options…
"I think you'd get way more fans there. Think about all the fans the Nationals get, and the Capitals get. I'd go to way more games, I've been to a couple but it's so hard to get out there," William Peaster said.
The site where the old stadium sits would need quite the face-lift, Bowser said she hopes the team considers coming back home by covering the cost of new stadium.
REPORTER: So your main concern is making sure that the citizens of D.C. don’t pay for this, but that the Washington Commanders pay for it?
“That is the only way that it can happen in Washington, and I daresay, that's the only place that the only way it can happen in other jurisdictions too,” Bowser said.