A new Commanders stadium at the old RFK Stadium site would bring tens of thousands of jobs and billions in economic revenue, according to a new report released by the District this week.
The 22-page report, produced by the firm Conventions, Sports & Leisure International, evaluated the economic impact of a new facility and the next 30 years of a transformed neighborhood.
About 30,000 jobs would be created over the life of a stadium, which City Administrator Kevin Donahue said will generate $5 billion in tax revenue use and $24 billion in overall output. In the first year the stadium opens, the report estimates the facility would help bring over $60 million in tax revenue to the city.
The findings represent city leaders’ latest attempt to persuade residents and council members to support the deal.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has hosted a series of town hall meetings to solicit feedback on her vision for the project, as the D.C. Council still has to approve funding for the project.
Bowser maintains a stadium will anchor a transformed neighborhood is the best and fastest way to develop the old RFK Stadium site. Owner Josh Harris announced the franchise’s desire to relocate back to the city this spring.
As part of the nearly $4 billion project, the pair hopes to have the new stadium ready to open in time for the 2030 season.
“The NFL generating interest and activating their venues, either for games, concerts or otherwise, is about as close to a certainty that you have in a business environment,” Donahue told WTOP.
The revenue estimates, according to the report, are based on the projection that the new stadium will host 10 football games a year, 18 or 19 third-party events and 200 private events.
Those events could include concerts, WrestleMania shows and soccer matches — or a convention at the city’s convention center that has a dinner on the field of a domed stadium at the RFK campus, Donahue said.
The report cites the creation of an estimated 6,400 new housing units, some of which will meet the city’s criteria for affordable under D.C. law. But, Donahue said, construction on the housing portion of the project won’t start until after the stadium and restaurants are built.
The report said 2036 will be the time when the mixed-used district will reach “full build-out.”
“First will come the stadium and the restaurants associated with the stadium that’s going to be there for opening day,” Donahue said. “The housing will really break ground shortly after the stadium opens.”
That means construction will be going on in the area after the stadium is operating, Donahue said, but the pieces of land that include housing, “each of them is a fair number of acres. So you would expect, like you’d have anywhere in the city, there’ll be development happening, construction happening after the stadium opens.”
Some experts say stadiums generally don’t produce the economic benefits expected of them, but Donahue said a study about Nationals Park and the Navy Yard neighborhood “vastly underestimated the amount of revenue and economic activity — jobs — that Nationals Park and Navy Yard produced, and I think this will be the same.”
There will be added benefits because the stadium will have a roof, Donahue said, suggesting the estimated revenue and number of projected events is conservative compared to other cities with NFL stadiums.
The report, he said, is part of the city’s pitch to residents and council members who may be reluctant to support the plan.
“We’re in a really delicate moment in time for our economy,” Donahue said. “Our largest employer is shedding jobs, possibly tens of thousands of jobs in D.C. alone. And what we have an obligation to do as a city is lean into what else we do well to be able to get jobs back and get revenue back.”
The city has had success from investing in sports, he said.
Asked about possible community skepticism about the positive findings from a city-funded report, Donahue said the firm “would have no interest at all in doing anything other than their most accurate, credible prediction, because they do this all around the world to predict what the economic impact is going to be.”
To support its economy, D.C. has to invest in industries such as technology and “sure bets. And the NFL, from an economic standpoint, is as close to a thing as a sure bet as you can get, and we have a chance to do it for what I think is actually a really good deal for the D.C.,” Donahue said.
The full report is available [online](https://ourrfk.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ourrfk/release_content/attachments/FINAL_CSL%20RFK_Economic_Impact_Analysis_6-3-25.pdf).
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