New Commanders president says RFK stadium will bring team back to its ‘spiritual home’

During his first insufficient months on the job new Washington Commanders President Mark Clouse had a lot on his plate Now he s working to manage a franchise that is reinvigorating fans after a playoff run last season My function is really to then build the rest of the business that both supports and amplifies the football but also does the things that we aspire to do whether that s in the group whether that s building a new stadium and how we build the business Clouse communicated the Economic Club of Washington D C on Monday Clouse came to the Commanders not from the sports world but instead the food world where he previously was the CEO of Campbell s Company Before that he worked at Mondelez International where he joked he was responsible for Oreo s having several different flavors of stuffing that can be seen in the present day Related stories Nearly billion deal reached for Washington Commanders to return to DC DC Council chair thinks city will reach a deal to build Commanders stadium at RFK site votes needed Here s where each DC Council member stands on RFK stadium deal Prince George s Co leaders hold out hope DC stadium deal will fall through The Commanders appear ready to capitalize off his corporate background What I hope to be able to accomplish with the Commanders is really to create that blueprint or that playbook for the future of this intersection between sports and commercial enterprise management Clouse disclosed He disclosed he has hit the ground running already being part of numerous negotiations with the city over the plan to bring the squad to D C with a new stadium at the old RFK Stadium site This is about much more than just completely building a stadium This is an opportunity to take acres that should be the crown jewel of the District and turn it into both an economic and area engine that is going to be absolutely part of the road map for the future Clouse revealed He commented organization and club owner Josh Harris believes D C is the club s spiritual home and this project is about building off the squad s heritage which includes the Super Bowl wins at RFK The billion redevelopment plan is still being considered by the D C Council and several members have explained they do not aid the current deal due to the more than billion in taxpayer money that will go into the redevelopment Mark Clouse left and Economic Club of Washington D C Board Officer Lawrence Di Rita speak at a live event on Monday May WTOP Mike Murillo Clouse explained the goal is to make the project a pipeline of jobs similar to what he has seen building factories I ve done in a lot of building and manufacturing facilities built the largest bakery in the world was the advance and training of folks to be able to work in the construction of the stadium and then translating that expansion so that they can authentically go to work in the stadium he announced Clouse announced the gang also hopes to see the entire RFK campus cater to not only Commanders fans but also people who may not follow the band How the stadium will be built will play a role in that he noted We will be the only roofed facility on this side in the mid-Atlantic whether that s Taylor Swift or the Final Four Clouse noted We are going to be able to host everything that s in the city on a national stage and because of that roof it gives us a chance to veritably create a pipeline of jobs and advancement In his work at Campbell s which is based in Camden New Jersey he stated a mistake he saw that he doesn t want to recreate in the redevelopment plan was a lack of an anchor for the work Clouse added that in D C the stadium is that anchor The good news is we re starting from a site that authentically had a stadium so a lot of the infrastructure thinking was contemplated in the original RFK we re just going to enhance that and build off of it Clouse noted Source