Where in the World are the Washington Commanders?
March 16, 2022
by Paul Francis
The Washington Commanders’ lease runs out at FedEx Field in 2027. Dan Snyder has been searching out opportunities to build a new stadium, and that effort will accelerate in the years to come.
I’m in the midst of a 3-part series on potential locations for the new stadium of the Washington Commanders. Each part of the series will focus on one of the locales: DC, Maryland or Virginia (ie – DMV). Today we look at the potential for the team to remain in its current gameday home in Maryland.
Maryland
When the Washington Redskins relocated to Landover, MD, and opened play at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in 1997, it marked the beginning of a new era for the team and fans. A couple years later, when current owner Dan Snyder purchased the team, the site would be renamed FedEx Field as the gameday home for Washington football. Unfortunately, the FedEx Field Era of Washington football has largely been a disaster. Over that time Washington has deteriorated as a relevant, competitive football team, and the stadium has deteriorated physically, with bursting pipes and rickety collapsing guardrails garnering as much gameday attention as the team itself. Despite the downward-trending experience of Fed Ex Field as a gameday venue, the fact remains that Maryland-Landover is a viable option that arguably has the inside-track due to the fact that the team is already there. There are pros and cons to this location, with more of the pros falling into the realm of business politics than the people’s fan experience.
The People
Moving the team to Maryland was never Plan A for Jack Kent Cooke. It was a negotiating threat used against the DC politicians to leverage a better post-RFK stadium deal. This threat became reality when negotiations hit an impasse, so it shouldn’t surprise that a second-choice stadium location became a second-rate gameday experience for the fans. Even so, as a testament to the loyalty of the fanbase, from 2004-2010 FedEx Field drew record attendances and boasted the largest seating capacity of NFL stadiums at over 91,000. What does this tell us? Fans will come to see the Commanders play in Maryland if they believe it to be worthwhile. Those numbers have since diminished significantly, with the only noteworthy thing to say about attendance at Fed Ex Field is the overwhelming number of away-fans in the stands. But a stadium reboot could be just the thing to turn that tide.
One of the factors for how well a Maryland-Landover based gameday experience works for the fans is going to depend on the kinds of attractions a new stadium-complex has around it. Currently FedEx Field has nothing around it to attract fans. The parking lots provide space for tailgating, but that’s it. We know that Snyder’s ambition is to build a mini-city with restaurants and entertainment venues to make the trip more palatable. This will be especially important if the product on the field continues to disappoint.
Speaking of that trip out to FedEx Field, it’s a problem. If you get out a map and locate Landover/FedEx Field, you’ll see that it’s located in the North-East (more east than north) suburbs of Washington DC. This is not a travel-friendly location. There’s a Metro station a mile away from the stadium, and the DMV Metro is not designed to efficiently transport people from suburb-to-suburb. So, the Metro option for most game-goers coming from around the DMV isn’t attractive because most of them are not coming from the city. This leaves driving around the Beltway as the other “best” alternative to get out there, and if you live in the DMV you probably just threw up in your mouth a little bit as you read that. Furthermore, if you look back on that map you may notice that M&T Bank Stadium, where the Baltimore Ravens play, is less than a 40 minute drive up I-95 (without traffic). Why is this relevant? Because I believe a critical piece of this stadium-puzzle has to do with altered geography of fan demographics that’s transpired over the last 30 years.
When the Redskins moved to Landover, the NFL world had already been put on notice that the Baltimore Ravens would become a new NFL team. Since that time, Washington’s football star has diminished and Baltimore’s has ascended. The stretch of Maryland between the DC suburbs and Baltimore went up for grabs as a fanbase, and as the years roll on that territory has shifted decisively towards the Baltimore Ravens. Outside of the city, Washington’s core fanbase remains in locations West and South. What does this mean? Put simply, the current location of Fed Ex Field is poorly placed for the average Washington fan and the Commanders’ core demographic. It sits on the outskirts of Raven’s territory, and the city itself acts as a sort of barrier for many of the fans trying to get there. You either have to go through or around the city to get to FedEx Field, with no great available pathways to do so.
The allure of commuting around the DMV to a “remote” location to watch Washington probably lose tests the commitment of even the most loyal fans. And current gameday attendance bears that out. From a fan’s point of view, putting the stadium in Landover was a mistake in 1997. Doubling-down on that move seems like a mistake, and Dan Snyder and the Commanders would miss a great opportunity to re-energize the fanbase with the promise of a truly new era for the team.
The Politics
While I believe that Maryland-Landover location is a poor one for the people, the politics can make this an attractive site for Dan Snyder. The first advantage from a business-politics point of view is that the team already plays there, and Dan Snyder already owns about 200 acres of surrounding property. Many of the hurdles for zoning and acquiring land are already cleared. The team would not be moving, simply renovating and upgrading its existing property.
Second, Snyder already has a relationship with local politicians, who are coming together with fresh efforts to woo him. Two years ago, Dan Snyder had a friendly meeting with Maryland state legislators about sports gambling in the state. It’s since been confirmed that one of Maryland’s 30 sports betting retail licenses has been reserved for the Commanders, should they remain in Maryland. Recently, a bipartisan group of Maryland lawmakers and county officials are synced up to pitch a development package to Snyder. The Maryland package does not include direct stadium financing, but instead potentially offers hundreds of millions of dollars to develop the surrounding area into the kind of retail, housing and entertainment destination long sought after by Dan Snyder.
Put simply, the Maryland politicians are in the game. They want to keep the Commanders, and they share Dan Snyder’s vision to make development investments in Prince George’s County. And compared to the tangle of bureaucracy that exists for a Washington DC stadium to materialize, Maryland is a cake-walk. So maybe the best move for the Commanders is no move at all? But Maryland has competition…steep competition coming from the other side of the Potomac River. We’ll examine that option next.