DC is spending billions on football. That's a big chance to push for statehood.
Public money buys public messaging, and DC should write statehood into every part of the RFK site plan.
The Commanders will soon return to DC, backed by up to $6 billion in taxpayer support for a 180-acre stadium campus. For all of the redevelopment plan's many flaws, it is also a once-in-a-generation opportunity to reach millions of fans with the District's most elusive goal: statehood.
Statehood is a governing agenda, and DC's new political leadership should take this opportunity.
DC's 700,000 residents have no vote in the body that enacts laws governing them and have limited authority to set their own priorities. Many Americans do not know that DC residents pay federal taxes without a vote in Congress. Public money buys public messaging, and DC should write statehood into every part of the RFK site plan.
What's in a name?
The highest-value opportunity is the stadium's name. Naming rights are already political. The question is whose politics. President Trump has told team leadership he wants the stadium named after him, and the White House has publicly called the idea “beautiful.”
Taxpayer-subsidized corporate stadium names are a recent invention. Historically, stadiums carried the name of civic leaders, themes, or the team itself. The Commanders won all three of its Super Bowls while playing home games at Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, which first opened as District of Columbia Stadium. The Chicago Bears have spent more than half a century at Soldier Field.
In Los Angeles, the Memorial Coliseum was named for Los Angeles's World War I dead and will soon become the first stadium to host three Summer Olympics. In 2019, when USC and United Airlines tried to rename it, veterans organizations forced United to settle for having its name on the field. More constructively, Amazon bought the naming rights to Seattle's NHL arena and named it Climate Pledge Arena. Fenway Park and Madison Square Garden carry the names of residential neighborhoods.
DC taxpayers should not settle for another Crypto.com Arena or an FTX Arena, a name Miami had to scrub when the sponsor collapsed into bankruptcy. Before DC issues the first tranche of taxpayer bonds (scheduled to happen later this year), the city and the team should amend the agreement to condition public financing on a civic name.
Naming rights will be the hardest pull. But the District has other levers to increase statehood awareness in and around the stadium. Here are five:
1. Name the campus's interior streets, plazas, and promenades with statehood themes
The 2025 law transferring the site from federal to District control put streets and plazas inside the campus under District authority. Potential names include: 51st State Way, Douglass Commonwealth Drive, Home Rule Road, and New Columbia Commons. Painting “END TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION” on the main entrance street in 35-foot letters, in the style of Black Lives Matter Plaza, would ensure that every aerial shot of the campus would carry the message. Renaming the Stadium-Armory Metro station “Statehood Station” could be done for the price of new signs and maps, as when WMATA renamed five suburban stations in September 2022.
2. Highlight the messaging on-field
DC must aggressively negotiate to retain the right to operate and use the stadium for non-football game days. When DC uses the stadium for non-NFL events, the field is District programming, not NFL inventory. The District should lock field-level civic branding into the implementing agreements now, while they remain unsigned.
DC should also work with the NFL to add a statehood message during NFL games alongside the league's end zone stencils of “End Racism,” “Stop Hate,” “Choose Love,” “Inspire Change,” and “It Takes All of Us.”
The NFL's My Cause, My Cleats program lets players wear cleats for the nonprofits and causes they choose. Commanders players, especially the ones who grew up here, should take full advantage. District leaders should push to air nonpartisan PSAs on screens throughout the stadium during each game, highlighting DC's history, diversity, and lack of voting representation.
3. Thoughtfully design the new RFK Memorial Park
Congress required that 30% of the campus remain open space named for RFK and empowered DC to set the park's agenda. The park is a chance to show visitors how DC has fought and won before: the 23rd Amendment, which gave DC residents the right to vote for president, and the Home Rule Act, which transferred day-to-day control from federally appointed officials to an elected mayor and council. Overall, the park should focus on the history of voting rights, civil rights, and the fights still unfinished, including full representation for DC.
4. Sell 51 seats in Section 51 for $51 each at every home game
This spring, New York secured 1,000 $50 World Cup tickets for its residents. DC can do one better. Its Commanders agreement already requires initiatives promoting community access, especially for young people; allocating affordable tickets for DC youth in a manner that highlights the statehood fight would further that goal and civic participation.
5. Dedicate a portion of in-stadium live gambling revenue to the statehood fight
This year, the District will spend just $266,883 on its fight for representation, a fraction of the millions of dollars it will likely take to lobby Congress to pass a statehood bill. DC approved the country's first full-service in-venue sportsbook at Capital One Arena, and the Council already earmarks gaming money: Sports wagering taxes fund the Child Trust Fund, and the pending online casino bill routes revenue to behavioral health. Statehood belongs on that list.
The District will not win statehood if its leaders refuse to take the field. The best time to leverage DC's public investments was last year, before the term sheet was signed; the second-best time is now.