• President seeks to have $3.7 billion Washington stadium bear his name according to ESPN
• White House engaged in back-channel communications with Commanders ownership group about naming rights
• Most NFL teams sell lucrative stadium naming rights to corporate sponsors for hundreds of millions

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — President Donald Trump wants the Washington Commanders to name their planned $3.7 billion stadium after him, according to multiple sources with knowledge of the situation who spoke with ESPN.

A senior White House source told ESPN there have been back-channel communications with a member of the Commanders’ ownership group, led by Josh Harris, to express Trump’s desire to have the domed stadium in the nation’s capital bear his name.

“That would be a beautiful name, as it was President Trump who made the rebuilding of the new stadium possible,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told ESPN Friday night via email. Leavitt declined to answer additional questions, but the senior White House source told ESPN, “It’s what the president wants, and it will probably happen.”

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Stadium project approved despite controversy

The new stadium is being built on the old RFK Stadium site that served as the team’s home from 1961 to 1996. The D.C. Council voted 11-2 in September to approve the RFK Stadium Project, marking a historic moment for the franchise’s return to the district after nearly three decades in suburban Maryland.

The Commanders will invest $2.7 billion and pay for all cost overruns to build the 65,000-seat stadium that sits on a 174-acre parcel two miles from the U.S. Capitol. The district will chip in $1 billion and lease the stadium to the team. Construction is expected to take years, with officials projecting the stadium doors will open in 2030.

Mayor Muriel Bowser and Harris announced the deal earlier this year, representing the largest private investment in a single project in city history. The city projects $5 billion in tax revenue over the next 30 years from the project.

Trump’s earlier threats over team name

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The president’s request for naming rights comes months after he threatened to block the stadium deal if the team did not change its name back to the Redskins, which is considered offensive to Native Americans.

In July, Trump posted on Truth Social that he “may put a restriction on them that if they don’t change the name back to the original ‘Washington Redskins,’ and get rid of the ridiculous moniker, ‘Washington Commanders,’ I won’t make a deal for them to build a Stadium in Washington.”

Former owner Dan Snyder dropped the Redskins name in 2020 during a broader national reckoning with systemic racism and police brutality. The team was called the Washington Football Team for two years before Snyder dubbed it the Commanders in 2022.

A 2020 study from the University of Michigan and the University of California, Berkeley found that at least half of more than 1,000 Native Americans surveyed were offended by the team’s previous name.

Naming rights typically sold to corporations

Nearly all NFL teams have sold lucrative stadium naming rights to corporate sponsors for hundreds of millions of dollars, as the Harris ownership group presumably intended to do with the new Washington stadium.

A handful have nicknames and sponsors, such as Empower Field at Mile High in Denver and GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Only a couple fields, Green Bay’s Lambeau Field and Chicago’s Soldier Field, bear no sponsor names.

Trump’s golf courses and hotels have long carried his name, and during his second term, the president and his supporters have pushed to name other structures for him.

Ownership group’s stance unclear

Harris, whose group bought the Commanders from Snyder in 2023, said earlier this year that the Commanders name was here to stay. Not long after taking over, Harris quieted speculation about going back to the former name.

The Commanders currently play at Northwest Stadium in Landover, Maryland, a venue nine miles from the RFK site that was the team’s home for three Super Bowl wins. The RFK Stadium site is deeply sentimental for Washington fans and members of the current Commanders ownership group.

A Commanders spokesperson declined to comment on ESPN’s report about the president’s desire for naming rights.

The Commanders and the surrounding development plan include six districts featuring a Sportsplex, retail, green space and 6,000 new housing units, 30% of which will be affordable. Council members pushed through new commitments from the team, including preserving heritage trees on the site and working toward zero-waste operations at the stadium.

Federal land transfer secured

Congress gave the city control over the site of the proposed new stadium in December 2024, which former President Joe Biden signed into law in January. The bill transferred jurisdiction of the stadium site from the federal government to local D.C. government for 99 years.

Despite Trump’s earlier threats, it remains unclear what authority he would have to block or influence the stadium deal. The D.C. Council and Bowser have maintained focus on securing the best deal for district taxpayers.

D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said in July he had heard from “zero” district residents complaining about the name change or saying it was an issue in connection with the stadium.

The team has said it does not plan to change its name back, and Harris has been clear that the Commanders name will remain.

Should public stadium projects funded with taxpayer dollars allow for political figure naming rights, or should they remain neutral civic spaces?

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