LOVERRO: Commanders’ stadium party is on tap (and so is the coming bill)

OPINION:

For all intents and purposes, it appears the Washington Commanders’ proposed stadium on the RFK campus is a $3.8 billion party, of which $1.1 billion will be paid for by District taxpayers.

The D.C. Council will take the first vote on the funding Friday, followed by a second final vote on Sept. 17. But D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson has said he believes he has the support needed to move forward, so the champagne is on ice among Commanders fans and the team owners eager to celebrate the return of their beloved football team to the city.

Well, not actually their beloved team. That would be the Redskins. They’re still learning to love the Commanders. If President Trump has his way, their first love will return to the grounds where many of them developed their passion for the franchise — Robert F. Kennedy Stadium.

Opened in 1961 as D.C. Stadium, it was renamed to honor the memory of the U.S. senator and presidential candidate who was assassinated in 1968.

The Commanders have announced that they will honor RFK’s legacy at the new stadium with “park names, private street names and other respectful measures.” I guess the new place won’t be RFK II. Trump Field may still be in play, though.

I’m sure Josh Harris and his band of saviors will show more reverence to RFK’s memory than Dan Snyder, who tried to establish an “RFK Stomp Zone” standing room cheering section at FedEx Field until the Kennedy family told Snyder that they didn’t appreciate being associated with a respective measure like an “RFK Stomp Zone.” But there will probably be nice trees and benches and ballfields and bars and stores and millions and millions of dollars in development pocketed by the football team where they can honor RFK.

The return of the football team to the city makes sense. It is a better outcome than spending another 30 years in exile as an exit off the Beltway in Maryland, or, the more ridiculous and least likely outcome, becoming the Washington Commanders of Woodbridge, Virginia. They might as well have had stadium talks with El Salvador.

But let’s open our eyes here — this is a remarkably lucrative deal for the team.

As part of the agreement with the city, the Commanders will be given acres of prime land to develop and will reap the financial rewards from it. How much? As Mayor Muriel Bowser has said, think multiple Wharf developments.

It’s an unprecedented public-private stadium agreement with the team.

When the deal between the mayor and the Commanders was announced at a press conference at the end of April, she presented a chart of five other current and recent NFL stadium deals to illustrate the depth of the commitment the Commanders are making to the project. By percentage, the Commanders are picking up more of the stadium costs than any of the NFL franchises cited by the mayor.

None of those five teams, though, received even a sliver of land to develop from the local or state government. The Commanders are being handed a truckload — yet no one has batted an eye at this windfall for the team, which will likely partner with developers to build up the land.

Not only do the Commanders stand to profit significantly from the District land development, because they will be leaving Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, they’ll have about 200 acres of prime real estate to develop there as well.

The tinkering that Mr. Mendelson did when he tried to flex his muscles to get a better deal for the city did nothing to grab a piece of this real estate bonanza the Commanders will benefit from.

Other generous acts by the Commanders in this stadium agreement include paying for any cost overruns for construction of the stadium, scheduled to open in 2030. But this is pretty standard. The Buffalo Bills are paying nearly $600 million in overruns for their new stadium. The Tennessee Titans are responsible for cost increases for their new stadium.

Another cheerleading chant is the $50 million the team is putting up in “community benefits package” to be spread around the community over three decades for youth groups and other initiatives. Again, standard operating procedure for such projects. If anything, the city may be getting shortchanged.

In Philadelphia, the 76ers’ ownership group — headed by Mr Harris — agreed to pay $60 million in a community benefits package for a downtown arena for the NBA team before they abandoned the project in favor of an arena partnership with Comcast at the existing South Philadelphia complex.

That was for a $1.3 billion project, about a third of the cost of the Commanders’ stadium. Yet they had managed to squeeze $10 million more out of owners than the District was able to get from the Commanders.

No matter. It looks like the homecoming celebration is about to get started.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.