by Jeanine Martin
The deal for Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder to sell the team to Josh Harris hasn’t even been inked and yet speculation begins again that the team may move to eastern Loudoun County.
Supervisor Tony Buffington (R-Blue Ridge), is opposed to the stadium moving to Loudoun. He said today that he and his constituents do not want a stadium in Loudoun. However, Chairman of the Board Phyllis Randall is entertaining the idea.
From the LoudounTimes.com:
‘We look forward to welcoming the Washington Commanders to the Loudoun County Board Room to share their vision of a new stadium as part of a multi-use development in an urban setting,’ Matt Rogers, Randall’s chief of staff, wrote in a statement to the Times-Mirror April 15.
‘Loudoun and the Commanders have enjoyed a long business relationship that has proven financially beneficial to both parties. An expansion of their football operations in Loudoun County is an idea we’re eager to discuss, provided that Loudoun County taxpayers will not experience a single cent of tax increase to finance a stadium,’ Rogers said.
Supervisor Kristen Umstattd (D-Leesburg), is skeptical:
‘I have been and continue to be very concerned about any costs that a stadium would impose on the taxpayers, whether these costs involve direct subsidies or indirect subsidies, such as the County dedicating local, or requesting state or regional, funds to road improvements that might be required to mitigate increases in congestion generated by a stadium,’ she wrote in an April 17 email to the Times-Mirror.
Loudoun Delegate David Reid (D-32) is supporting the stadium in Loudoun because of its proximity to Metro and Dulles Airport.
From commanderswire.usatoday.com:
‘The fact that this would be on the far eastern end of the county, I think the traffic impact would be minimal,’ he said.
‘We have the opportunity, if we just look at it from the Loudoun perspective to diversity [sic] the Loudoun economy from being so dependent on data centers,’ emphasizing that the stadium complex is ‘intended to be a 365-day kind of [development] — much like One Loudoun. And since the stadium could spur a significant number of visitors to Loudoun, it could be good for the western Loudoun economy as well,’ he said.
Governor Glenn Youngkin and some members of the General Assembly have supported a stadium in Virginia, but not necessarily in Loudoun County. In the past, Prince William County has also been mentioned as a possible site, right off of Interstate 95. (As if that won’t make traffic even worse on I-95 on Sundays.)
Speaking as a resident of western Loudoun, we don’t want the Commanders Stadium anywhere in Loudoun.
This column originally appeared in The Bull Elephant and is reprinted here with permission.
