Washington Post poll reveals majority support for public funding of D.C. stadium

Over the past 10 or 15 years, a clear trend has emerged throughout the nation — don’t use public money to pay for football stadiums. In the nation’s capital, the pendulum is apparently swinging in the opposite direction.

In a Washington Post-Schar School poll conducted from April 22 through May 4, 55 percent of the respondents either “favor strongly” or “favor somewhat” using D.C. funds to help build a new Commanders facility at the site of RFK Stadium.

While I won’t pretend to be an expert on polling (or, basically, anything), the Post is the same publication that, in 2016, published a poll in which 90 percent of Native Americans supposedly weren’t offended by the dictionary-defined slur of a name that was abandoned only four years later. That poll was widely criticized and scrutinized.

This time around, the timing is critical. The poll was conducted at the height of a P.R. blitz that included the formal unveiling of a deal between the Commanders and D.C. mayor Muriel Bowser to build a new stadium.

A similar poll had 47-percent support for public funding in 2024 and 30-percent support in 2022. The latest poll specifically included the proposed expenditure of $850 million in the question.

How about this? Instead of relying on the opinions of 651 adults in D.C., put the question on a ballot. A group that opposes the plan currently is attempting to harvest enough signatures to make that happen. If we care about public opinion, use the ultimate test of it. Put it to a vote.

The poll comes at a time when the Commander, the NFL, and Bowser are engaged in a subtle yet obvious political play, aimed at getting D.C. Council to approve the deal. The poll will now become one of the primary points made as those who want $850 million in taxpayer money to be diverted to the project lobby D.C. Council members to relent.

Regardless of the opinions provided by 55 percent of 651 people, D.C. currently has a budget crunch. Bowser reportedly has delayed the submission of a proposed 2026 budget by more than a month.

Whatever the arguments to be made for subsidizing a multi-billion-dollar business that keeps getting more valuable all the time (and will have another big spike in a few years, when new TV deals are done), if we’re going to rely on the opinions of some of the eligible voters in D.C., why not rely on the outcome of an official vote from those who are sufficiently motivated, one way or the other, to show up and cast a ballot?

The fact that Bowser would oppose a public vote says it all. A public vote likely would fail.

So that’s the fair and proper response to the poll. Put the question on a ballot, and let far more than 55 percent of 651 people decide the matter.

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