The White House said Saturday it would be “beautiful” to name the new stadium for Washington’s NFL team after President Donald Trump following an ESPN report that an intermediary has told the Commanders’ ownership group that he wants it to bear his name.
Trump could deliver the message in person on Sunday when he is expected to watch the Commanders play the Detroit Lions at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland. American veterans are scheduled to be honored at halftime.
“That would surely be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary for the Republican president.
A spokesperson for the Washington Commanders told The Associated Press in a text message that the team had no comment on the report. The office of the city’s mayor, Democrat Muriel Bowser, declined comment.
Under a deal announced in April between the team and the District of Columbia, the team will return to the nation’s capital in a new stadium expected to cost nearly $4 billion. It will be built on the site of the RFK Stadium, where the team played for more than three decades when it won three Super Bowls in the 1980s and 1990s.
Democratic President Joe Biden signed a bill late last year to transfer land, which included that old stadium, from the federal government to the city. The deal, with the team contributing $2.7 billion and the city investing roughly $1.1 billion for the stadium, housing, green space and a sports complex on land bordering the Anacostia River, was approved by the D.C. City Council in September, and demolition has begun.
In July, Trump threatened to hold up the deal by insisting that the team change its name from the Commanders back to the Redskins, a name that was considered offensive to Native Americans.
Trump has long enjoyed having his name appear on things from his career as a real estate developer, from high-rise buildings, hotels and golf courses to his branding deals that have seen Trump-emblazoned Bibles, watches and cologne.
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AP Sports Writer Stephen Whyno in Newark, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
