“We understand (FedEx Area is) an older stadium, and … if somebody involves your home, you need it to be a pleasant place and stuff,” Harris mentioned in an interview with The Publish this week. “We are going to get to work. … There are quite a lot of opinions, quite a lot of factions, quite a lot of politics, and we’re mainly going to attempt to dig in and concentrate on how we offer the most effective fan expertise. However we do not actually have any solutions but.
NFL house owners on Thursday ratified Daniel Snyder’s $6.05 billion sale of Commanders to Harris’s group, concluding a top-down course of that started greater than eight months in the past. The deal might shut as early as Friday, leaving little time for Harris to make any important modifications earlier than coaching camp opens on Wednesday.
“It is a bit of a loopy course of, however we now have a complete group,” Harris mentioned. “We are going to attempt to do what we are able to on opening day. I do not understand how a lot it’ll price. »
This season, Harris’ group can focus totally on evaluating group operations and making small enhancements to the fan expertise. The plan for after 2023 is much less sure.
Discovering a brand new stadium is among the many new proprietor’s long-term priorities, however the course of is fraught with issue and can span DC, Virginia and Maryland.
“We do not know the place we’ll construct the stadium,” mentioned Mitchell Rales, co-founder of Danaher Corp. and lead investor within the Harris Group.
Harris and Rales, together with restricted accomplice Mark Ein, a DC philanthropist and enterprise capitalist, grew up within the space as followers of its NFL group and usually attended video games at RFK Stadium and Landover, Maryland.
“My dad dropped my three brothers and myself off on the Friendship Heights bus station in Chevy Chase, and I began going to each sport once I was 10 or 11 and by no means missed it,” Rales mentioned. “I grew up with Sonny Jurgensen as a hero.”
Harris added: “I keep in mind actually going up and taking a look at Jack Kent Cooke (Stadium, now FedEx Area) and saying, ‘That is wonderful. So yeah, I used to be an actual, reliable fan and I have been by means of all these experiences and all these years. … It is a part of my DNA. It is a part of who I’m.
The 190-acre RFK web site is an possibility for the brand new commanders’ home, however the federal authorities owns it and its lease with DC consists of restrictions on how the land can be utilized.
“Look, I like RFK. I grew up there. However is it the suitable place? I do not know till we do the work,” Rales mentioned.
“We’ll must deliver assist sources to this stadium, and we’ll take a look at that completely,” Rales added. “It isn’t only a query of cash. It is about placing a stage the place you may have the power to construct a group.
The fan expertise, one other pillar of the house owners’ long-term plan, can be anchored within the stadium.
“I believe you need to create the most effective general expertise,” Harris mentioned. “Clearly the story with RFK is the story with RFK. However it’s actually a a lot greater challenge than that.
FedEx Area is a crumbling eyesore that Snyder had hoped to desert for years. However strikes to spur competitors between DC, Maryland and Virginia have confirmed unsuccessful. In recent times, group executives have centered on round six venues throughout the three jurisdictions that might be choices for the group’s subsequent stadium, together with its present location in Landover. However a number of federal and league-led investigations have slowed progress.
Earlier this 12 months, COs stepped up their lobbying efforts in DC to make RFK a viable possibility, both by means of a land switch or a lease extension and modification.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the Home Oversight and Accountability Committee, is making ready to introduce a invoice that will prolong and amend the lease to permit development of a stadium or mixed-use improvement on the RFK web site, a number of folks with information of the invoice informed the Publish earlier this month. A of these folks mentioned the invoice would contain a 99-year extension, and a spokesperson for the Home Oversight Committee burdened that it will not embody land gross sales.
If launched, nonetheless, the invoice might face challenges; some members of native authorities, together with DC Council chairman Phil Mendelson (D), oppose using the RFK land for a brand new stadium.
In Virginia, lawmakers haven’t reintroduced the stadium authority invoice that failed final summer season, and the earliest they might strive once more to type a stadium authority is throughout the subsequent legislative session, which begins in January. Ought to the dialog choose up once more, this might present a financially engaging possibility for Harris; Final 12 months, lawmakers mentioned incentive packages of as much as $1 billion earlier than lastly scrapping the plan.
Final 12 months, Maryland supplied $400 million to enhance the world round FedEx Area, however the cash could not be used to construct a brand new stadium. Gov. Wes Moore (D) mentioned he helps spending taxpayer {dollars} to maintain the group within the state.
“(The stadium) is an actual precedence for our group,” Rales mentioned. “If I needed to set a couple of priorities, it is actually placing a aggressive group on the pitch, each soccer and operations; construct a stadium; and rehabilitating the best fan expertise of all time. If we are able to do these three issues, all the pieces else is only a bit secondary. And you’ll’t do it unexpectedly. You simply must concentrate on a couple of key priorities.
Sam Fortier contributed to this report.
