Commanders purchase land, draw up plans for $3 billion ‘mini-city’ stadium complicated in Woodbridge | Nationwide

The land, close to Potomac Mills off I-95, was bought for $100 million, however sources with information of the workforce’s plans had been fast to level out on Monday that the placement has not been picked but, and different potential websites stay in play – in Virginia, Maryland and D.C.

A invoice that may present state help for a possible stadium is anticipated to cross within the coming weeks together with the state funds, formalizing Virginia’s contribution to the undertaking at an estimated $350 million.

The undertaking is modeled partially after The Battery in Atlanta, the house of the Atlanta Braves. It is anchored by the workforce, however that additionally has a lot of different elements to attract year-round visitors.

Like The Battery, Washington’s proposed Woodbridge website is much from the city middle, however the Commanders’ different high choices, in Loudoun County or on the present FedEx Area website, are additionally at a take away.

Listed here are a number of the highlights of the renderings which were produced to lawmakers and different undertaking planners, as obtained by The Occasions-Dispatch:

The Commanders are planning to maneuver their workforce headquarters from its present Loudoun County website to wherever the brand new stadium finally ends up.

Meaning coaching camp, offseason practices and festivities like draft evening events would all be centered on the new location.

The headquarters constructing can be constructed with an environmentally pleasant “heavy timber” building course of.

The ability would come with an amphitheater that would seat from 15,000 to twenty,000 friends, sufficient to host main concert events.

Virginia Sen. Scott Surovell, who oversees the realm the undertaking is in, famous on Monday that Prince William County residents lag behind the opposite areas of metro D.C. in leisure choices, and this could convey extra choices to the realm.

The hope would even be to make the workforce, and its programming, extra accessible to followers all through Virginia, together with Fredericksburg and the Richmond space.

An almost mile-long walkway can be the middle of the game-day and year-round expertise, with bars and eating places that followers may eat and drink at.

A big yard close to the stadium would encompass synthetic grass that may remodel from a public house in the course of the week to a car parking zone on sport days.

Workplace house can also be anticipated to be a key a part of the undertaking. The workforce plans to have a resort-style conference middle, which might be the primary of its type within the space.

One main query mark on a undertaking in Prince William County will likely be visitors, on condition that the phase of I-95 that runs by means of Occoquan is routinely one of the vital backed-up sections of roadway on the East Coast.

Surovell famous that there has lengthy been curiosity in extending Metro service to Potomac Mills, however up to now the regional authorities have been lukewarm, at greatest, to the thought.

Sources with information of the stadium design mentioned there can be ample parking constructed into the Commanders’ undertaking, with extra entrance and exit lanes constructed into I-95 and the I-95 Specific Lanes. It’s thought-about extraordinarily unlikely {that a} Metro growth would occur earlier than the stadium’s opening date.

Commanders officers have continued to press ahead in direction of a possible 2027 stadium opening. The Buffalo Payments not too long ago reached a deal on a brand new stadium undertaking that’s anticipated to open in 2026, leaving open the likelihood that Washington may hit its mark if the financing and logistics had been labored out within the coming yr.

The acquisition of the land for $100 million is a press release of help for the Woodbridge website, however the workforce has additionally thought-about a website in Loudoun County, on the brand new Silver Line Metro extension.

A 3rd potential website, in Dumfries, stays into consideration however has a lot of logistical hurdles.

The workforce may additionally choose to remain at its present website in Landover, Md., the place the federal government has pledged $400 million in help to a redesigned stadium and enterprise district.

The location lengthy thought-about the fan favourite, the place RFK Stadium sits in downtown D.C., stays unlikely given the federal authorities management of the land.

If the undertaking lands in Woodbridge, it might instantly develop into one of many greatest improvement tasks in state historical past.

At $3 billion, the complete 200-acre complicated, together with leisure and residental elements, can be one of the vital costly in American sports activities, although removed from the document $5 billion that was spent on SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, Calif. 

It is the roof and exterior that will be the centerpiece of the design, seen from I-95 and in a position to remodel with the time and occasion.

The workforce’s drawings anticipate a stadium of about 60,000 seats, designed to offer a greater expertise for a smaller variety of followers, as an alternative of catering to a big quantity, as was the unique imaginative and prescient at FedEx Area.