Mayor Bowser and the Washington Commanders announced a plan to build a 65,000 seat stadium with a roof (aka a dome) on the site of the in-progress-demolished RFK Stadium on Monday. The land is owned by the Federal government but under the “administrative control” of the DC government for 99 years. Here’s a breakdown of the plans based on:

• DC Govt Press Release
• DC Gov’t Slide Deck
• Term Sheet
• WTOP Article with Details from DC Deputy Mayor

Site Plans

Proposed Private Funding

• $2.7 Billion: Commanders/NFL for main stadium construction
  • stadium, team administrative offices, some of the parking closest to stadium
  • commercial development with retail/housing west and south of stadium (built by commercial developers likely, possibly not included in $2.7 billion figure?)

Proposed Public Funding

• $500 Million for “horizontal” and other infrastructure costs (preparing the land for construction)
  • To be funded by current Ballpark Fund which mostly funded with flat fees of $5,500-$16,500 annually to DC businesses with at least $5 million in gross revenues
• $202 million for utilities infrastructure, roadways, and WMATA transit study for new station on north side
  • funded through normal capital budget, which is funded by taxes and other funds normally
• $181 million for two parking garages north of C St NE past the DPR fields
  • funded by Events DC (formerly called the Washington Sports and Convention Authority) reserve fund (which was $135 million as of Sept 2024)
  • this is funded
    • 1/3 of DC’s hotel tax (4.45% / 15.95%)
    • 1/10th of DC’s restaurant/booze/rental car taxes (1% /10%)
• $175 million to buy a garage originally built by Commanders in 2032-2035 (on other side of Independence Ave. SE)
  • essentially sales taxes on tickets, concessions, merchandise will pay for this
• Essentially free land for stadium for 30 years. free land for 2 development parcels to Commanders for 28 years

Parking Space Comparison

• RFK Stadium: 12,500 surface parking spaces
• FedEx Field/Northwest Stadium: 22,000 surface parking spaces
• Proposed new stadium: 8,000 garage spaces once fully built. Surface parking will gradually be phased out as developments are built on it

Lease

• 30 year lease (2030-2060, options to extend up to 20 years) for stadium, team administrative offices and some parking garages. $3/year
• 60 year lease for commercial districts nearby (options to extend up to 30 years). $1/year for first 28 years, full market value rent after 32 years

Revenues

• Commanders retain nearly all revenues, including naming rights, advertising, tickets, concessions
• District will get TBD complimentary use days (graduations, HS football games) where DC will have to pay expenses
• Taxes Paid
  • No property taxes (or equivalent) paid for stadium and the parking garages. They will be paid for the development sites
  • No sales taxes for parking
  • No taxes on the personal seat licenses
  • All sales taxes on tickets, merchandise, concessions, etc. will go to paying towards 1) construction of one of the parking garages 2) any bonds issued by DC to pay for their contributions, 3) RFK Campus Reinvestment Fund (used to support attraction of events to stadium, pay maintenance/repairs costs)

Annual Events

• 8-9 regular season NFL games annually + 1-2 preseason games annually + 0-3 playoff games annually (on average teams get roughly one home playoff game every 3 years or so)
• Virtually guaranteed one Super Bowl. Could have a few more over 30 years if works out well
• Although term sheet says they will try to get up to 200 events a year, most of those will be small events that use suites or club level.
• Based on other domes, almost certainly minimum of 12 large events like concerts, college football neutral site games/bowl games, etc. My guess we will see 20 most years, place will attract around 2 million people annually, similar to Nats Park, less than half as many as Cap One Arena

Other Stuff

• DC is also spending $89 million to build an indoor sportsplex for indoor track, gymnastics (near the fields/playground that will remain).
• The parcel on the other side of the elevated Metro tracks on north side that has a farmers market, carnivals, random events will feature the Events DC built parking garages (towards the Metro station) and will be controlled by DC who will partner with a developer to build apartments. These will be the only housing on the campus that Commanders won’t control