The owners of the NFL’s Washington Commanders fear they will have to snub the woke mob and restore the original Redskins name – or risk President Trump throttling their deal for a new stadium, On The Money has learned.
That, at least, is the word from insiders close to private equity titans Josh Harris and David Blitzer, who in addition to the Commanders own the NBA’s Philadelphia 76ers and the NHL’s New Jersey Devils through their holding company, Harris Blitzer Sports and Entertainment.
The buyout billionaires are facing heat to bring back the Redskins name – and its famed, feathered logo, too – after the commander-in-chief has repeatedly ripped the new nomenclature, recently referring to the franchise as the “Washington Whatevers.”
“I 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,” Trump posted last week.
Since then, Harris and Blitzer have been privately warning business associates that the White House does indeed have some leverage over their plans to build a new, $3.7 billion stadium for the team, a source said.
“They’re really getting nervous about Trump’s attacks and how they might impact the stadium deal,” said one person with direct knowledge of the matter.
Publicly, Harris and Blitzer have said the Commanders will remain the Commanders. Much of the stadium deal involves working with the decidedly woke DC government run by left-wing mayor Muriel Bowser. The deal has no direct federal funding, with DC agreeing to cover about $1 billion of the cost.
Behind the scenes, they say they are parsing all the ways Trump could screw things up for them. The stadium is on federal land leased to the DC government for the next 99 years.
That means it will need certain approvals from US agencies like the National Capital Planning Commission and the US Commission of Fine Arts – the boards of both are occupied by some Trump appointees. It also needs a nod or two from the Trump administration’s environmental team.
The fear is that Trump could, as he’s done with left-leaning law firms, colleges and major media outfits, use his control of the administrative state to extract concessions, the people at Harris-Blitzer concede.
Would Trump ever use his sway over such entities to meddle in a private business deal? Well, we know the answer to that since fighting wokeness appeals to the MAGA base, and quite frankly, most Americans.
Note that Trump is a master troller. He can generate unfavorable news cycles and skewer Harris and Blitzer as woke Wall Streeters, potentially hurting team attendance since most football fans are right of center, people close to them fear.
Recall that former owner Dan Snyder renamed the team in 2020 at the height of the social-justice movement, bowing to the woke NFL and its commissioner Roger Goodell, as well as some advertisers and activists who argued the name was an affront to Native Americans.
Snyder had been fighting the switch for years, arguing that the Redskins moniker was hardly a slur, but instead a term of pride in Native American culture.
A lot has happened since 2020, including Snyder selling the team to Harris and Blitzer in 2023 for $6.05 billion. There also has been a public backlash against all things woke: See what happened to Bud Light after it used a trans activist in a beer commercial.
One sports executive, who asked not to be quoted by name and knows Trump well, said the duo will at the very least have to do what other big companies are doing when confronted by The Donald – bow and kiss the ring.
“He may not ultimately try to kill the stadium deal if they don’t change the name but Harris and Blitzer are going to have to grovel before Trump relents,” this person said.
A press rep for Harris-Blitzer didn’t return a request for comment.
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