RFK Stadium's Long Goodbye
The National Park Service has finally approved its demolition, but we still don't know when or how the old park will get pulled down.
It’s been a long time since RFK Stadium mattered in the life of the Washington, D.C.
Professional football, baseball and soccer have all come and gone. It’s been almost nine years since the last concert of any consequence, a day-long July 4th blowout headlined by the Foo Fighters. I was in RFK’s upper deck that day, and even I couldn’t hold out till the end for the fireworks after sitting through a day full of rain.
RFK’s last game came back in 2017, when DC United of MLS lost a match 2-1 to the visiting New York Red Bulls. Ever since, it has sat quietly on the banks of the Anacostia, waiting patiently for the wrecking ball and the eventual renewal of the property that everyone expects will enable a return of the NFL to the city.
But the process of getting there has been long and drawn out. It’s taken five years for the National Park Service (NPS) to get its act together and finally approve the demolition of the stadium. But there’s still more work to be done before the NPS issues a permit to the city to start demolition, and what’s more critical to getting the U.S. Senate to pass legislation giving D.C. ownership of the property so they can get busy building a new stadium for the Washington Commanders and owner Josh Harris.
As I noted, my last trip to RFK came in 2015 for that Foo Fighters show, and it wasn’t exactly a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Originally opened as DC Stadium in 1961 as home to Version 2.0 of the Washington Senators and the Washington Redskins, the place was more than showing its age, not as if that hadn’t been the case while DC United and the Washington Nationals had called it home in the 1990s and 2000s.
Needless to say, preventive maintenance hadn’t been a priority for the city for a while. Paint was peeling everywhere, the plumbing leaked onto the concrete walkways and the concourse was suffused with the odor of deep-fried grease that had been cooking french fries and chicken fingers since before Sonny Jurgensen called the place home.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that the old place deserved a more dignified end. That it hasn’t gotten one in a more timely manner is a tribute to contemporary dysfunction.