LOVERRO: Are Commanders on a country road to training camp in West Virginia?

The Washington Commanders may be looking for greener pastures for their future training camps.

The Commanders and Shepherd University officials are in talks about the 323-acre campus in Shepherdstown, West Virginia — about 40 miles away from the team’s headquarters in Ashburn, where they currently hold training camp — hosting the Commanders training camp starting in 2026, sources said.

Commanders’ general manager Adam Peters has been in discussions with school officials about the move, and coach Dan Quinn has visited the school, which has a Division II football program, to tour the facilities, sources said.

It’s not clear at what stage those talks are in. 

The Commanders, asked about their plans, issued this statement: “The team has not finalized plans for training camp beyond this season.”

A team source, though said they are exploring “a variety of training camp options, including going offsite like multiple teams across the league do. However, nothing has been finalized.”

Hans Fogle, executive director of Shepherd University communications and marketing, responded to a query with an email that said, “We do not have any comment at this time.”

The five open practices for 2024 training camp at Commanders Park, in addition to season ticket holder events, were well attended, drawing full crowds of 3,000 fans.

New owners Josh Harris and company have just put $10 million into 32-year-old Commanders Park in renovations and upgrades, including a new grass field, replacing artificial turf. In 2012, under former owner Dan Snyder, the team announced $30 million in upgrades, some of which were paid for by Virginia taxpayers.

If this move takes place, it will be the fourth different state the Commanders have held training camp in 29 years — Pennsylvania (Carlisle) Maryland (Frostburg), Virginia (Ashburn and Richmond) and now possibly West Virginia.

The team’s longest training camp location was Dickinson College in Carlisle, where they worked out from 1963 to 1994. Owner Jack Kent Cooke moved them to Frostburg University in 1995, where they stayed until 1999. Then-new owner Dan Snyder moved training camp in 2000 to the team’s Ashburn headquarters, a one-year debacle best known for his pathetic efforts to charge fans $10 to attend open practices.

That lasted one year, as new coach Marty Schottenheimer returned the team to Carlisle in 2001. Snyder fired Schottenheimer after one season. New coach Steve Spurrier continued training camp in Carlisle in 2002, but he wasn’t crazy about it. “I don’t understand the importance of getting away, to tell you the truth,” Spurrier told reporters as the 2002 training camp began,” he said. “I don’t know if we’ll do it next year.”

They didn’t, moving back to Ashburn in 2003. I’m guessing the Ol’ Ball Coach found the Carlisle area lacking in golf facilities.

Washington general manager Bruce Allen, who attended the University of Richmond and whose family has deep Virginia roots (his brother after all, was once the governor and served as a senator) came up with a deal to convince Richmond city officials to build an $11 million training facility and host the team’s training camp starting in 2013 behind the Science Museum of Virginia. 

That turned out to be a disaster for the city, which lost millions. In 2018, the Richmond Times-Dispatch wrote an editorial pushing for the city to cut its losses. “Not a single soul in Richmond seems to be pleased with the Redskins training camp deal these days,” the editorial stated, citing the $500,000 annually the city agreed to pay the team plus $750,000 annually in debts that the city reportedly will have to continue to pay until 2033.

The team held training camp in Ashburn during the COVID year of 2020 — Ron Rivera’s first season as coach — then returned for one season in Richmond in 2021 before coming back to Ashburn once more in 2022. “The problem with the short period is it’s not, from what I learned, financially equitable, because there’s a short period of time, then you’ve got to move everything to set up again,” Rivera told the Times-Dispatch.

He didn’t miss a trick, did he?

Now, though, it appears Peters is considering the benefits of a separate location for training camp.

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