The possibility that a new Washington Commanders football stadium in the nation’s capital could be named after President Trump is raising eyebrows locally and underscoring the president’s desire to attach his brand to the country’s most popular sports league.
White House officials have reportedly lobbied the Commanders’ front office on the idea, while Trump’s Sunday visit to the team’s game at its current home in Maryland raised eyebrows even further.
Political observers and sports marketing experts dismiss the idea of a D.C. Trump stadium, arguing an NFL team has little if any incentive to do so when it can make hundreds of millions on corporate naming rights.
And then there’s the fact Trump remains a divisive figure, particularly in the District and its suburbs.
“Even if he offered to pay for it, if you’re the Commanders, you’d have to take a long hard look at it. With that name, you’re going to upset probably half of your fans,” said Jim Andrews, a sports marketing consultant and lecturer at Northwestern University. “Do they want protestors out there every Sunday? Do they want that kind of negative attention? Probably not.”
The Commanders’ new $3.7 billion home, which is expected to open ahead of the 2030 season, will be leased to the team and the National Park Service by the D.C. government after control of the property was given to the District’s government by Congress earlier this year.
The team retained naming rights for the stadium as part of the deal, though Washington’s City Council and the National Park Service will need to sign off on any naming rights decision.
That gives Trump some leverage because the National Park Service reports to him.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt voiced support for the idea in an email to The Hill on Monday.
“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” Leavitt said.
Land for the stadium, for years controlled by the federal government after the team left Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, was given to the district last year through an act of Congress signed by former President Biden.
It is unclear what role the current president played in the D.C. stadium deal, but over the summer, he threatened to use the power of the presidency to hold up any agreement on the development of new stadium if the team did not revert to the “Redskins” name it retired in 2020.
Several members of the D.C. council and a representative for the council did not respond to questions about whether they’d support or oppose naming a stadium after Trump.
For the Commanders, the decision is likely to be about money more than politics.
Naming rights on NFL stadiums have exploded as a major revenue stream for teams. Of the 30 NFL stadiums across the country, only two do not hold corporate title sponsors.
Lambeau Field in Green Bay is named after Earl “Curly” Lambeau, a longtime player and coach for the Packers, while Soldier Field in Chicago is named in honor of veterans who have died in foreign wars.
SoFi agreed to a record $600 million deal with the Los Angeles Rams in 2021 to place the financial services company’s name on what is one of the newest facilities in pro football.
That figure is more than double what Levi Strauss & Co. agreed to a pay the San Francisco 49ers, upwards of $200 million, in 2013 to place the clothing maker’s name on the team’s stadium in Northern California.
“The days of naming stadiums after political figures are gone,” said Lisa Deply Neirotti, director of the sport management program at the George Washington University School of Business. “The focus is on maximizing revenues through corporate naming rights but depending on the pressure there could be a way to do both.”
One scenario, some observers have suggested, could be a corporate sponsorship on the stadium with the field itself named after the president.
Chatter about the ESPN report was given major fuel when Trump on Sunday visited the Commanders during the team’s blowout loss to the Detroit Lions, making him the first sitting U.S. president to attend a regular season NFL game since former President Carter in the late 1970s.
Trump was seen in team owner Josh Harris’s executive suite during the game, though he didn’t get a terribly welcome reception from the Commanders faithful as he waved to the crowd.
Washington and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia are deep-blue territory, and feelings about Trump have been aggravated by the government shutdown and layoffs of federal workers.
Multiple news outlets highlighted some fans in Landover, Md., booing the president as he participated in a halftime ceremony swearing in members of the military ahead of Veterans Day.
Trump has sought to capitalize on the popularity of organized sports and specifically the NFL as a way to relate to more Americans.
The president has for weeks railed against the NFL’s new kickoff rules, a peeve he revisited during a call into sports pundit Pat McAfee’s talk show on Tuesday.
He also complained again about the Commanders changing the team’s name.
“What happened to the Redskins, by the way?” the president asked.
It was a noticeable shift in tone from the way Trump spoke about the franchise during a visit with the Fox Sports broadcast team just hours earlier after visiting with the Commanders’ owner on an NFL Sunday.
“By the way, they’re going to build a beautiful stadium, and that’s what I’m involved in,” he said from the broadcast booth. “You have a wonderful owner, Josh and his group, and you’re going to see some very good things.”