RICHMOND — Ralph Northam, the governor of Virginia, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he thinks the Washington Redskins will look at Loudoun County as a potential site for a new stadium.
That is, provided that the team chooses to leave Maryland at all.
“I would say if you look at Virginia, up in Northern Virginia, particularly that area out near Dulles is where they’d look,” said Northam, a Democrat. “But they’ve got to make a decision: Are they going to be back in Washington D.C., Maryland or Virginia? Our doors are open and we’d welcome them.”
The Redskins’ lease with FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, expires in 2027. There may be some competition among the District of Columbia, Virginia and Maryland for where the team will build its new home.
Virginia is already home to the team’s headquarters, Redskins Park in Ashburn, and their current training camp destination, Bon Secours Washington Redskins Training Facility in Richmond.
Terry McAuliffe, Northam’s predecessor, was vocal about wanting the Redskins to play their games in Virginia.
Excluding both Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the temporary home of the Los Angeles Rams, and Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the Raiders will soon vacate when they move to Las Vegas, FedEx Field is the ninth-oldest NFL stadium. It opened in 1997 and will be 30 years old by the end of the Redskins’ lease.
Northam and Chap Petersen, a Virginia state senator, made an appearance after the Redskins practiced Tuesday to promote a new law expanding recess time for schoolchildren and designating it as instructional time.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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