The old RFK Stadium was the home of Washington football’s glory days. But it’s long been assumed that most people who live near the site are adamantly against the idea of building a new football stadium there, in an effort to lure the Commanders back to D.C.
Now that team owner Dan Snyder has reportedly agreed to sell the franchise, has neighborhood opposition softened at all?
“It depends.”
That’s just one of the answers from neighborhood residents, whose opinions on the matter range the entire spectrum.
Now to be fair, this survey of residents was conducted by walking around neighborhood streets and posing the question to anyone standing outside. It’s far from scientific.
But one thing was apparent. Residents of a certain age — those who watched RFK get built and grew up during the team’s heyday — tended to support the idea.
“I want the team here, yeah,” said a man named Stewart. “They’re Washington. They were the Skins, now the Commanders, but they’re still Washington.”
His friend Ricardo Yates said the team playing there decades ago “contributed to the neighborhood.”
One benefit, Yates said, was that residents could offer up parking on their property to fans and make a few extra bucks. Kids could also sell food and other merchandise outside.
“The stadium being so close to us, it adds a different feel to the community,” Yates said. “I’ve been in this neighborhood since they built that thing … It’s been great.”
A few blocks away, TJ Love was sitting outside an apartment on 18th Street SE, right across the street from Eastern High School. He wasn’t as dismissive of concerns about parking and overcrowding as others were, but that didn’t mean he was opposed to a stadium, either.
“It’ll definitely bring more congestion, but it may also bring more businesses,” Love said. “We could use a few more restaurants, a few more stores around here, but it is a residential area; and so with the stadium being built right there, I also think about gentrification and people in the area being priced out.”
He noted, “Right now … there’s still Black people here.”
But he worries that with a new stadium, rents would go up substantially.
Some of the newer residents to the neighborhood suggested they were willing to consider the idea of a football stadium on the site, but not if it meant a giveaway of taxpayer dollars to make it happen.
“If they were to do it, it would have to be thoughtful,” said Luis Dominguez, who grew up a fan of the franchise in College Park before moving to the Hill East neighborhood.
He said concerns about traffic congestion and other inconveniences are valid. Improvements to the routes on and off D.C. 295 would need to be part of the deal, Dominguez said.
“That being said, I think most people would be excited now at the idea of having some kind of, again, thoughtful development happening in that space, because right now it looks like a scene from ‘Night of the Walking Dead.’”
D.C. Council member Vincent Gray, who represents the neighborhood surrounding the RFK site, said through a spokesman, that any decision should be made with the neighborhood’s best interests at heart.
“Council member Gray is waiting for the sale to be final before he speculates about any future plans for the RFK site. That being said, he has always been open to discussions about developing the site, provided that the best interests of District residents — in particular those in the surrounding communities — are at the forefront of any outcome.”
Kathryn Rust lives in the neighborhood and has started to adopt the team as her favorite, after seeing the team she grew up cheering for relocate. She said she hoped Washington football would come back, as long as other amenities, such as nearby parks and athletic fields, were able to remain available to the community.
“Most of the neighborhood I think would prefer something else,” she said, based on ANC meetings she’s attended over the years. “I loved having D.C. United when they still played here.”
Residents also pointed out that the stadium rising over the horizon after you come off D.C. 295 brings character to the neighborhood.
“Aesthetically, it’s beautiful, so whatever they do put in that area, I hope it can bring that same beauty back,” Rust said. “It’s definitely an icon of the neighborhood.”
Willie Murphy, who lives about five blocks north of the stadium, shared that sentiment.
“It would bring revenue here. Jobs. I don’t have no problem with it,” Murphy said. “What they should do is keep the shell [of the stadium] there, clean it up, paint it. It’s an icon, been here so long, it’s a landmark.”
It’s a place more than one resident said they feel the team should call home again.
“I do think it makes more sense to have the Commanders in D.C.,” said Dominguez, who, despite his concerns about the impact on quality of life there, said he currently leaned toward the idea of seeing the team return to the city.
“I don’t know how important it is to the identity of D.C.,” added Love, “but I feel like the football team belongs in D.C. Not in Virginia. Not in Maryland.”
