Fairfax County is pursuing a Washington Redskins Hall of fame after the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors rejected a marketing partnership with the team.
Fairfax supervisors last week unanimously approved a motion to try to lure a potential Redskins Hall of Fame to the county.
Supervisor Pat Herrity, R-Springfield, suggested the measure at a Dec. 8 meeting, less than a week after supervisors in Loudoun, which houses Redskins Park in Ashburn, rejected a deal with the team by a vote of 5-4.
“The Washington Redskins have a huge national and even global fan base and any kind of partnership with the Redskins would be advantageous to a jurisdiction like Fairfax County for the economic development and tourism tax dollars that it could bring in,” he told the board.
The Loudoun marketing partnership with the Redskins would have involved $100,000 in county taxes for the first year. In exchange, the team would market the county as its home, including putting Loudoun County’s logo on its Web site and referring to the county in all training camp literature.
The second year, $150,000 would have been used to develop a Redskins Hall of Fame in Loudoun.
The Loudoun board may revisit the issue, however.
Supervisor Stevens Miller, D-Dulles — one of five supervisors to vote against the plan — said he was reconsidering his vote and would make a motion to bring up the vote at their meeting Tuesday.
Kurt Krause, general manager of the National Conference Center in Lansdowne, said that — should the Redskins training camp leave Loudoun — the center would lose an estimated $600,000 in revenue annually.
“I don’t think [Fairfax] would have pursued the Redskins if our supervisors didn’t make it public that they weren’t interested,” he said. “They understand the brand of the Redskins. Five of our supervisors don’t.”
Indeed, Herrity said the Loudoun vote prompted the motion, adding that it was in Northern Virginia’s interest to keep the team involved in the region.
“It would be the region’s loss if they were to go to Virginia Beach,” he said, referring to the team’s training camp and the potential hall of fame.
Though Virginia Beach has expressed interest in hosting the Redskins’ training camp, a representative for the city’s Convention and Visitor’s Bureau said the bureau is not working on any proposals with the team.
