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Virginia lawmakers are dropping their bid to lure the Washington Commanders to build a new stadium in their state, citing a spate of controversies the team must address before moving forward.
State legislators previously delayed voting on legislation aimed at incentivizing the team to relocate its stadium to Virginia amid allegations of financial misconduct and a toxic work environment. However, recent comments from the team’s defensive coordinator on the Jan. 6 riot prompted the state’s top lawmaker to pump the brakes.
“This obviously was not very helpful, to put it mildly, but there’s so many other things out there,” Virginia Senate Majority Leader Richard Saslaw told the Washington Post. “There were just so many things out there that a lot of people are saying, ‘Saslaw, this thing needs to wait.’”
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The decision halts action on a bill that aimed to lure the Commanders to Virginia by allowing the team to sidestep up to $1 billion in future tax payments to help finance the construction of a new stadium. The legislation was meant to help boost Virginia’s standing in its attempts to edge out Maryland and Washington, D.C., as the team considers where to move after its current stadium lease ends in 2027.
“We look forward to continued engagement and open dialogue with stakeholders across the Commonwealth to share our vision and hear directly from communities on their economic development objectives and how we can be a trusted, reliable partner to realize those outcomes,” the Commanders said in a statement.
The team has been at the center of different investigations into allegations of financial misconduct and reports of a toxic workplace, putting owner Dan Snyder’s future with the team in question.
The team has faced allegations of a hostile workplace culture, with a House panel asking Snyder to appear before lawmakers in late June after several former employees detailed sexual harassment, abuse, and other workplace misconduct by top team officials.
The team has also faced accusations of financial impropriety stemming from testimony by a former employee who accused the Commanders of withholding security deposits for up to 2,000 customers and hiding money meant to be distributed throughout the league. Snyder denies the accusations.
Attorneys general in both Virginia and Washington have announced two separate investigations into the alleged financial misconduct, with officials collecting more than half a million pages of documents since the fall of 2021.
“You’ve got the attorney general’s thing, [and] you’ve got all the congressional stuff, other issues to be answered,” Saslaw told the Associated Press. “We decided that it will just remain in conference.”
Earlier this week, Defensive Coordinator Jack Del Rio referred to the Jan. 6 attack as a “dust-up,” contrasting the riot to the protests that erupted nationwide in the summer of 2020 following the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. Del Rio later apologized, calling his comments “irresponsible and negligent.”
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The decision to drop the bill doesn’t necessarily end the Commanders’ chances of moving their stadium to Virginia, as the legislation could be introduced again next year, Saslaw said.
It’s unclear whether Gov. Glenn Youngkin would consider taking unilateral action to incentivize the Commanders to move the team to the state, and a spokesperson for the governor declined to comment.
