White House discussed naming new Washington Commanders stadium after Trump
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Washington Commanders quarterback Josh Johnson dives for a touchdown during the first quarter at Northwest Stadium on Nov 9.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Minho Kim
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WASHINGTON – Officials in the Trump administration have discussed the US President’s wish to have the new stadium of the Washington Commanders football team named after him, according to a senior White House official.
The new site will allow the Commanders to return to the District of Columbia by 2030, after having spent about three decades in suburban Maryland.
“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” Ms Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in an emailed statement.
ESPN reported earlier that Mr Trump wanted the stadium to be named for him, and that his associates were said to have conveyed the idea to Mr Josh Harris, the football team’s owner.
It is unclear how Mr Trump has contributed to the construction of the new stadium. The team played at that site, about 3.2km east of the Capitol, before moving to Maryland.
In December 2024, Congress passed a bipartisan Bill to transfer the land around Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium to the DC government from the National Park Service, which kicked off the redevelopment process of the stadium that would house the team.
The Bill gives Washington administrative jurisdiction over 70ha of the land under a renewable 99-year lease that also allows for the construction of residential and commercial buildings.
In January, before Mr Trump assumed office, then President Joe Biden signed the Bill into law.
The land’s previous jurisdiction under the park agency had been a major roadblock to the redevelopment of the stadium campus, as the land use was strictly limited, barring commercial or housing development, according to legislation passed by the District of Columbia Council in September that approved the US$3.7 billion (S$4.8 billion) deal for the new stadium.
The naming rights for the new stadium belong exclusively to the developers of the new stadium compound, according to the term sheet signed by Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser, and Mr Harris.
Ms Bowser’s office and the Commanders declined to comment. NYTIMES
