The Commanders and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser want the D.C. Council to rubber stamp the deal for a new D.C. stadium ASAFP. The urgency apparently isn’t contrived; as reported by the Washington Post, it flows directly from a desire to position the new venue to host major international events in other sports.
Both the 2031 FIFA women’s World Cup and the 2031 men’s Rugby World Cup will be played in the United State. The nation’s capital wants in on both events. And the current stadium in which the Commanders play is barely suited to host NFL games.
The women’s World Cup and Rugby World Cup aren’t the only reasons to try to open the new stadium by 2030, but they carry special significance after D.C. failed to make the cut as a host city for the 2026 men’s World Cup.
“[The year] 2031 is a major year in the sports world globally,” Commanders executive Andy VanHorn recently told Bisnow, per the Post. “We believe we have opportunities — we’re already in discussions for both of those events. We think it’s a [$750 million] year for the District.”
Raising the stakes is the fact that D.C. missed out on hosting any of the matches of the 2026 men’s FIFA World Cup. As noted by the Post, the capital of a host nation “rarely” gets snubbed for FIFA hosting.
The fact that D.C. didn’t get picked for 2026 would, in theory, make it more likely to get selected for 2031. Especially if it has a swanky new state-of-the-art stadium.
To date, that hasn’t been enough to get D.C. Council to move on the timetable of the team. And the team wants to break ground in 2026, with the goal of opening the facility in 2030.
The initial key deadline arrives on July 15. After that, D.C. not long has exclusive negotiating rights. Which could, in theory, bring Maryland and/or Virginia to the table.