Efforts to lure the Redskins back to DC "have come up against a potentially insurmountable challenge: the Obama administration’s objections to the team’s name," according to Jonathan O'Connell of the WASHINGTON POST. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told DC Mayor Muriel Bowser this spring that the National Park Service, which owns the land beneath RFK Stadium, was "unlikely to accommodate construction of a new stadium for the Redskins unless the team changes its name." Jewell since joining the Obama administration two years ago has "repeatedly echoed the president’s concern that the name is offensive to Native Americans." Bowser, "jockeying with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe to land the team’s new stadium, had inquired with Park Service officials about extending the District’s lease for the RFK property to allow for a new stadium." Extending the lease "would also require congressional action." The Park Service’s position "hampers Bowser’s bid to return the team to the city from FedEx Field," in Prince George’s County (Md.). RFK will be "largely unused" by '18, when DC United is "expected to move into a new soccer stadium on Buzzard Point in Southwest." Events DC, the sports and convention arm of the District that operates the property, has "been studying how best to use the RFK land into the future" (WASHINGTON POST, 7/2). In Richmond, Michael Phillips noted Bowser "maintains that she finds the name offensive, but has begun using it in an effort to win over" Redskins Owner Daniel Snyder. Snyder is "still evaluating options on where to put the stadium, which currently exists only as a set of architectural drawings" (RICHMOND.com, 7/1).
