Commanders owner Josh Harris continues to pour money and resources into the team’s stadium and Ashburn training facility.
During his press conference on Monday, Harris was asked about his future plans for the facility. Previous owner Daniel Snyder continued to lose money due to the team’s repeated losing during his ownership reign. As a result, Snyder was cutting corners in Ashburn and the players graded the facility very lowly.
“So, first of all, we’re going to do a lot of things in the offseason to make players lives better, to make coaches’ lives better, to make front office lives better,” Harris said. “And obviously, whether it’s the wet area, the weight room, our indoor facility, you’re going to see a lot of changes here, and you’re going to see a lot of changes in the stadium.”
Harris knew he had much to do to bring the Commanders’ Ashburn facility (located at 21300 Coach Gibbs Drive) more in tune with the level of what other NFL teams have at their home facility. He has come through by giving huge amounts of money to both the stadium and the Ashburn property, though he plans to leave both for better homes.
“We’re going to continue to build on the $75 million we had earmarked, so that’ll be north of 100,” he continued. “We got a whole bunch of plans to help the premium areas, to continue to build infrastructure and to continue to make the upper deck better. I mean, a lot of stuff. But here, really, we’re going to focus right now on the stadium itself, and I think the players like to be here, coaches like to be here. That’s not to say that we won’t revisit it over time, but we’re focused on fixing this place up right now. We’re certainly going to look at that. But right now, the big project is the stadium and so, right now we’re going to spend a lot of money trying to make this place better for the people that work, live and play here.”
This serves as another reminder that though Daniel Snyder’s last season as Washington’s owner was in 2023, it requires both time and money to catch up, repair, and correct mistakes and negligence.
Harris has shown himself to be up to the task.