Northwest Stadium

About Northwest Stadium

In Landover, Maryland, about 10 miles east of the National Mall, a stadium built to be the biggest in the NFL is quietly waiting to be replaced. Northwest Stadium seats roughly 64,000 for the Washington Commanders, down from the 91,704 it opened with in 1997. It has hosted presidents, Army-Navy games, and Beyoncé, and it has drawn a decade of criticism for its suburban location, aging concrete, and a franchise that has spent years in transition.

The Commanders have played here since 1997, when the stadium opened as Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, named for the late owner who championed its construction. Built for $250 million and designed by Populous, the stadium was the successor to the beloved RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C. The move to suburban Prince George’s County gave the franchise a massive venue and ample parking, but it traded the urban energy of RFK for a location that felt disconnected from the city the team represents.

The stadium has had four names in 27 years, Jack Kent Cooke Stadium, FedExField, Commanders Field, and Northwest Stadium, more identity changes than any other NFL venue. Thousands of upper-deck seats have been removed as the franchise dealt with declining attendance during years of on-field struggles and off-field controversies. The original capacity of 91,704, once the pride of the franchise, proved unsustainable.

Despite all of this, Northwest Stadium has had its moments. The 2011 Army-Navy Game, the 2004 BCA Classic (a record 91,665), major concert tours, and the odd Commanders playoff game have shown what the venue can be when the circumstances are right. But its days are numbered: in April 2025 the Commanders reached a deal to build a new stadium on the old RFK Stadium site back in Washington, D.C., which will end nearly three decades in Landover once it opens around 2030.

Getting to Northwest Stadium

Public Transit

Northwest Stadium is served by the Washington Metro, with Morgan Boulevard station less than a mile from the stadium.

Metro is the best option for visitors staying in D.C. The walk from Morgan Boulevard is straightforward, though the 0.9-mile distance can feel long in bad weather. Driving is the default for most fans.

Driving + Parking

The stadium address is 1600 Ring Road, Landover, MD 20785. The Capital Beltway (I-495) is the primary approach.

The stadium complex has massive surface parking lots at $40–$60 on game days. Lots open 3.5 hours before kickoff. Tailgating is permitted in all general lots and is the centerpiece of the game-day experience here, the suburban location means the parking lot culture is more developed than at most NFL stadiums.

Rideshare

Uber and Lyft have designated zones near the stadium’s main gates. From downtown D.C. hotels, expect $20–$30. From Arlington, $25–$35. Post-game surge is heavy, walk to Morgan Boulevard station and take Metro, or wait 30 minutes for rideshare rates to settle.

From the Airport

Construction & Design

The stadium exists because Jack Kent Cooke wanted a bigger house than RFK, and he was willing to pay for most of it himself. The team’s longtime owner picked a site in Landover, in suburban Prince George’s County, over the objections of fans who wanted the team to stay in the District, and he financed the roughly $180 million building largely with his own money, with Maryland covering some $55 to 70 million of roads and infrastructure. HOK Sport, now Populous, designed it, Clark Construction built it, and it opened in September 1997, months after Cooke died. His stadium, without him.

It opened as the biggest stadium in the NFL, all 91,704 seats. Too big, as it turned out. Built for a franchise that had sold out RFK for decades, the enormous upper deck grew hard to fill through years of losing and off-field turmoil, and the team started pulling seats, first covering them, then removing them, dropping capacity into the low 60,000s by the 2020s. A stadium designed to be the league’s largest spent its middle age shrinking.

Now it is the lamest of ducks. In April 2025, under new owner Josh Harris, the Commanders reached a deal to build a roofed, roughly 65,000-seat, $3.8 billion stadium, designed by HKS, on the old RFK Stadium campus in Washington, D.C., bringing the team back to the city it left in 1996. Northwest Stadium is the home until then, likely around 2030, after which the Landover venue’s story ends.

History of Northwest Stadium

Northwest Stadium was built to replace RFK Stadium, where Washington’s football team played from 1961 to 1996. Owner Jack Kent Cooke chose a site in Landover, Maryland, controversial even then, as many fans wanted the team to stay in Washington, D.C. The $250 million project, designed by Populous, was the largest stadium in the NFL when it opened with 91,704 seats.

First Game (September 14, 1997): Washington defeated the Arizona Cardinals 19–13 in overtime before 78,270 fans. The stadium was named Jack Kent Cooke Stadium in honor of the owner, who had died six months earlier.

FedEx Naming Rights (1999): FedEx purchased naming rights for $205 million over 27 years, and the stadium became FedExField, one of the most expensive naming deals in sports at the time.

2004 BCA Classic (September 4, 2004): A college football doubleheader, Hampton vs. Howard and USC vs. Virginia Tech, drew 91,665 fans, setting the stadium’s all-time attendance record and proving the venue could still fill when the event was right.

2011 Army-Navy Game (December 10, 2011): The annual rivalry between Army and Navy was played here before a crowd of over 82,000, with midshipmen and cadets filling the field in a pregame ceremony that remains one of the most stirring scenes in American sports.

Franchise Transition (2020s): The team rebranded as the Washington Commanders in 2022, and Josh Harris’s group bought the franchise for about $6.05 billion in 2023. The stadium briefly became Commanders Field in early 2024 before Northwest Federal Credit Union bought the naming rights that August. In April 2025 the Commanders reached a deal to build a new stadium on the old RFK site in Washington, D.C., targeted for around 2030.

From RFK’s farewell to the naming rights carousel to the deal that will take the team back to D.C., Northwest Stadium represents a franchise in transition, a venue that was built for 91,000 but now seats about 64,000, waiting for the next chapter of Washington football to begin.

Sources & Further Reading

• Stadiums of Pro Football, Northwest Stadium: stadiumsofprofootball.com. Capacity history, cost, the design team, and events.
• NFL.com, Commanders’ Northwest Stadium naming deal: nfl.com. The Northwest Federal Credit Union deal and current capacity.
• DC Mayor’s Office, RFK campus stadium agreement: mayor.dc.gov. The 2025 deal to build the new D.C. stadium.
• Wikipedia, Northwest Stadium: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Stadium. Naming sequence, capacity reductions, and the RFK plan.