Tag: RFK Stadium

Report: FedEx requests Washington football team change its nickname

FedEx has asked Dan Snyder to change the nickname of the Washington football team.

The pressure is ramping up on Washington team owner Dan Snyder to change the nickname of his football team. Snyder hasn’t shown any indication he will budge, — calling the nickname a “badge of honor” — but there now are a lot of dollars that could evaporate from his business model.

And now, the team sponsor of the stadium the Washington team plays in wants the nickname to change, too:

A FedEx spokesperson releasing this statement, per WJLA :

We have communicated to the team in Washington our request that they change the team name.

FedEx holds the naming rights to the home stadium, a deal that pays Washington around $8 million per year and runs through 2025, according to reports. FedEx President and CEO Frederick Smith owns a minority stake in the Redskins.

This comes on the heels of major companies looking to pull their dollars and association with the team. The team name is widely held to be a racist slur against Native Americans.

NFL Insider Doug Farrar of Touchdown Wire reported:

Per Adweek’s Mary Emily O’Hara, 87 different shareholders and investment firms, whose financial involvement totals more than $620 billion in assets, have asked Nike, FedEx and PepsiCo to end their business relationships with the Washington Redskins due to the racist nature of the team’s nickname.

While team owner Dan Snyder has said that he will never change the team’s name, citing franchise tradition, he has been pressured for years by different groups to do so. Now, the pressure is financial in a way it hasn’t been before.

Letters from the investors to the three major brands include representation from First Peoples Worldwide, Oneida Nation Trust Enrollment Committee, Trillium Asset Management, LLC Boston Common Asset Management, LLC Boston Trust Walden Mercy Investment Services and First Affirmative Financial Network. About 80 other firms and trusts have added their names.

Snyder hopes to build a new stadium on the site of RFK Stadium, where the team used to play. Those plans received a jolt, per the Washington Post:

There is no scenario in which Daniel Snyder will be able to build a new Washington Redskins stadium on the federally owned RFK Stadium site unless he changes the team’s name.

That was the unequivocal message from Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives; D.C. Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio; and U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, in separate telephone interviews with The Washington Post on Wednesday.

“I call on Dan Snyder once again to face that reality, since he does still desperately want to be in the nation’s capital,” Norton said. “He has got a problem he can’t get around — and he particularly can’t get around it today, after the George Floyd killing.”

 

 

 

Redskins not allowed to build on RFK Stadium site unless name is changed

The Redskins are looking for a site to build a new stadium in the near future, and the RFK site in D.C. was a top option for Dan Snyder.

Dan Snyder and many fans of the Washington Redskins may not wish to change their team name, but there are growing pressures to do so.

Not only was it announced that several big-name sponsors are being encouraged to cut ties with the Redskins over their name, but there is also a report, via The Washington Post, that Washington may not be able to get the stadium deal that they wish for in D.C. unless the mascot changes as well.

There is no scenario in which Daniel Snyder will be able to build a new Washington Redskins stadium on the federally owned RFK Stadium site unless he changes the team’s name.

That was the unequivocal message from Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), the District’s nonvoting delegate to the House of Representatives; D.C. Deputy Mayor John Falcicchio; and U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, in separate telephone interviews with The Washington Post on Wednesday.

“I call on Dan Snyder once again to face that reality, since he does still desperately want to be in the nation’s capital,” Norton said. “He has got a problem he can’t get around — and he particularly can’t get around it today, after the George Floyd killing.”

Said Falcicchio: “There is no viable path, locally or federally, for the Washington football team to return to Washington, D.C., without first changing the team name.”

Of course, there are other sites where Washington could build their new stadium, be it somewhere in Maryland, or even in Richmond, VA. However, if the calls for a name change increase and more and more advertisers are pressured to cut ties with the Redskins over their name, it could become increasingly hard for Snyder to find a new home. It seems that the ball is well in motion now, and there doesn’t seem to be many things that can stop it at this point.

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George Preston Marshall Memorial removed from RFK Stadium in Washington

A historically racist and problematic man had his memorial removed from in front of RFK Stadium in Washington on Friday.

No statue is safe in America in today’s day and age.

The George Preston Marshall Memorial was rightfully removed from in front of the Washington Redskins RFK Stadium on Friday morning after calls for it’s destruction became prevalent. Marshall, who is notoriously remembered as one of the more racist owners that the NFL has ever seen, as he worked against integration in the league, and was credited with changing the name from the Braves to the Redskins.

Across our nation, as protests against racial injustice still carry on strong almost four weeks after the murder of George Floyd, statues and monuments of former slave owners and Confederate figures have been torn down with prevalence. It is right and just that the GPM monument was removed, and the first step in a long overdue process that will hopefully lead to the team eventually changing their name from ‘Redskins’ to something less offensive to indigenous people.

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