Team president Bruce Allen says fans can expect more information about a new Washington Redskins stadium in the next year, as the team preps for a post-FedEx Field world in 2027.
A timeline for a new Redskins stadium, according to a radio interview with Allen, calls for a decision on a facility sometime in 2022 and a new stadium opening for the 2027 NFL season, after the FedEx Field lease expires. The team has been focused on a new facility, not a renovation of FedEx Field.
It’s believed that the team is focused on two potential sites: a Virginia site near Dulles Airport, and the RFK Stadium site in Washington, D.C. There are pluses and minuses to both. The Dulles Airport site may attract state support, while the RFK Stadium site would allow for an emotional return of the team to the location of its greatest triumphs. But the RFK Stadium site poses several challenges, including opposition from D.C. Council members for a new stadium on the site. Built and designed as a multipurpose venue, RFK Stadium was home to the Redskins from 1961-1996. Though RFK Stadium remains standing, it has gone largely unused since MLS’s D.C. United–its last major sports tenant–played its final match there in the fall of 2017 and opened a new stadium the following summer. It’s no coincidence the first drawings from Bjarke Ingels Group feature the same curved contours found at RFK Stadium. From the Richmond Times-Dispatch:
In an appearance on “The Larry O’Connor Show” on WMAL, Allen addressed the timetable for announcing where the team’s next football stadium will be located.
“I would say within a year, that is the timetable we’re looking at,” Allen said….
“Our deadline for making a decision is really 2022,” Allen said. “Our lease in Maryland ends in 2026.”
The Redskins anticipate a process of several years from announcement to completion of the stadium. They have released architectural renderings of potential stadium designs in past years, with the new stadium resembling the intimate RFK Stadium more than FedEx.
It may seem like a long ways out, but given the issues with both potential sites, it will undoubtedly be a long slog until that first shovel hits the ground.
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Rendering via Bjarke Ingels Group.