There were recent statements from the White House that Trump wanted to have the new Commanders Stadium named after him. “That would be a nice name, because it was President Trump who made the reconstruction of the new stadium possible,” said spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt a few days ago to the portal “The Hill” and the sports channel ESPN. A senior White House official was also quoted by ESPN as saying, “That’s what the president wants. And it probably will happen.”
The new stadium will primarily serve as the home of the Washington Commanders football team. It is planned with around 65,000 seats and is to be built on the eastern edge of the city on the site of the dilapidated RFK Stadium. The costs are estimated at around 3.7 billion US dollars (3.2 billion euros). As part of the project, a comprehensive redesign of the district is also planned – with shops, apartments and green spaces.
The previous stadium on the Anacostia River, about two miles from the Capitol, is no longer usable. The Commanders have not played there since 1996, but at Northwest Stadium in the neighboring state of Maryland.