President Donald Trump has reportedly expressed a desire for the Washington Commanders to name the team’s new football stadium after himself, according to an ESPN report.
The team’s new stadium is being built at the old RFK Stadium site in D.C.
While the president holds some leverage in potentially swaying stakeholders, he also faces some possible challenges in influencing the stadium name.
WTOP anchor Nick Iannelli heard from Lisa Delpy Neirotti, an associate professor of sport management at the George Washington University School of Business, about what’s at play.
Read and listen to the interview below.
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
- Nick Iannelli:
Naming a stadium is complicated even more so in this case, because of where the stadium is being built.
- Lisa Delpy Neirotti:
Every team is looking to maximize revenues to stay competitive, and the Commanders’ new stadium name will be sold to a corporate sponsor, like all other teams in the league. There are ways to incorporate an individual name, but there is no doubt that there will be a corporate sponsor tied to the stadium name.
Now, we have to understand that the District of Columbia owns the stadium, but the naming rights belong to the team. With the final approval of the venue name resting with both the D.C. Council and the National Park Service, they obviously want to make sure the name is appropriate for the city.
- Nick Iannelli :
How does the National Park Service play into all that?
- Lisa Delpy Neirotti:
They are part owner of that land. And, so, they have a say in how it represents that area.
- Nick Iannelli:
So you have the Commanders, you have the D.C. Council and you have the National Park Service on this land that is basically federal land controlled by D.C.
That’s really complicated. That’s not, you’re in a city somewhere and there’s a piece of land and a sports team wants to build a stadium on a piece of land. This is all tied in with the federal government, and that does make it more complex.
- Lisa Delpy Neirotti:
Yes, it does. There are multiple stakeholders in this, from the District, the Park Service, the team and even the residents, everybody will have a say in this.
Ultimately, it will come down to the team securing revenue, generating naming rights, and whether they incorporate another name, that will ultimately be decided between D.C. Council and the National Park Service and the team.
This is going to be a collaborative effort, and there’s going to be lots of discussions.
- Nick Iannelli:
So in other words, this isn’t a situation where, just because he’s the president of the United States, he can snap his finger and say, ‘I want my name on that,’ and then it gets rubber-stamped. This is a complicated process. That’s just not how it works, but he can put pressure on all those entities if he wants.
- Lisa Delpy Neirotti:
This president is unlike any other we’ve had. He can make it very difficult to build the stadium if he really wants. Just building processes, permits, approvals, environmental approvals.
He has the power to make any of those difficult in the whole building process. It just depends on if he really wants to play those cards or not.
- Nick Iannelli:
And just focusing on the Commanders, the team itself here, it wouldn’t necessarily be good to put any politician’s name on a stadium right now, given the country’s politics and how everybody’s divided.
- Lisa Delpy Neirotti:
There’s going to be some fans that say, ‘I’m not going to be able to support the Commanders if they put this name on the stadium,’ whereas others will be happy with it.
There’s definitely going to be a corporate name, because they need the revenue. How Trump could be added to that name and have it sound good — or, instead of the naming rights, maybe they come up with a commemorative area within the stadium. It could be the Trump entrance to commemorate his name in some fashion.
What’s going to be happening is there’s going to be continued discussions, keeping an open mind on all possibilities.
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