This is the first full day.
It's a big day, a first full day
of the new Commanders ownership
and we will hear from those new
owners in just a couple of hour.
Josh Harris leads the ownership group,
which includes Mitchell,
Rails and Magic Johnson.
Our Eric Flack joins us live
from FedEx Field with a preview.
Flack, this is a big deal.
It's a new era for fans.
I see you got a small crowd
behind you already.
What's the mood out there right?
Oh, the mood. Is is really exci.
Marcella, I mean, this is a fan
pep rally that's supposed to stt
at 1:00 o'clock and fans have bn
lining up since 10:30 this morn.
We only got here about 20 minutes ago.
The line was right here when I got here.
It is already stretched all they
back here and fans continue to w
up to celebrate and kick off this new
era for the Washington Commande.
As you mentioned, Mitchell rails
and Magic Johnson expected to j.
Josh Harris today,
possibly to make an appearance
at this pep rally. There
is a stage set up inside this area at
that pep rally starting at 1:00 o'clock.
Then at 2:00 o'clock,
full press conference with the
entire ownership group for a nur
of members of the ownership grop
in which Harris and others wille
asked about a new stadium,
about whether or not they're
going to change the name again,
about changing the culture
within this organization.
In fact, after shortly after he was named.
Are approved by the NFL to be the next
owner of the Washington Command.
Josh Harris talked about how important
it was and the responsibility he felt
to help turn this organization around.
Take a listen. I've
had many sleepless nights and I
will have many sleepless nights.
Like I'm going to sweat this.
I feel an awesome sense of responsibility.
The city of Washington,
I know what I got to do and ultimately
that comes down to winning.
And it's not easy.
There are 31 other owners that
are good at what they do.
There are 31 other cities,
but it's on me and it's on
our ownership group to deliver
and that's what we're going to
do. Harris, at least yesterday,
seemed to be taking the tone tht
focusing on just changing the
culture here and in the tenor
around the team was the priorit.
We'll see if we get more detail,
Marcella, about things like
a stadium in a name change at
that press conference at 2:00.
O'clock Marcella.
Flack, I want to ask you,
what do we know about any specic
plans under this new ownership
to really get into the communit,
to kind of build this fan base back up?
Well, I think it's a priority, right?
And I think that's the one thing
they're willing to go on the red
about is to say First things fi,
we need to get back in the community.
We need to be transparent.
That is something that these fas
have not seen from a lot of the
past ownership and some of the
experiences they've had, I think and.
Matt Broom joins me here.
I mean you've been in this
market for a long time.
You know what this franchise mes
to these fans. What sense do you get about
why so many fans are showing
their support for for this?
Eric, it's interesting,
you just mentioned culture and
that's the the number one questn
one of the individuals I just
spoke with wanted to talk about.
He said when he was a kid with a
boys and Girls Club, he was brot
to the stadium under Jack Kent .
It made him a fan.
Let's let's go talk to to some of these fans.
Hey, gentlemen, gentlemen,
live TV Channel 9, an immediate reaction.
What are your thoughts?
I'm just ecstatic.
I'm happy the commanders we bac.
You know the new life we back u,
that hope was taken from us,
from all those years it's back.
We have that hope back to be winners.
Now we can go in the season with hope,
knowing that we can win.
And we can be confident we can.
You and I talked about a sense
of community a little while ago.
Tell me about that.
I mean, can an ownership
really change things that
way? Oh, definitely community.
Like I said, remember I remember
growing up in the city as a youngster,
how they would give free tickets
to the communities that couldn't
afford to get to the games.
I remember going to training
camp when they were in Carlisle
and and getting to eat lunch
with with some of the players.
So that's that's what I remember
in the sense of community.
Number one question
you would ask this new ownership group,
if you had a chance to be in this press
conference in the next hour or ,
what what would you want to kno?
Stadium, the name?
What do you want to know?
Honestly, I'm just feel relieved
where I don't have any question.
I know they're going to do a good job,
you know, not really. We, you k,
just getting rid of what we got rid of.
Just a big weight.
Don't want to talk about that.
It's negative.
It's all positive from here on .
So that's a family community.
Redskins are back.
This is a sense of love.
This is a Friday.
Most of these people have took .
I will never drive from Annapols
on a Friday.
I got a hit.
Traffic, traffic on the way bac.
I came up here.
I haven't been to the
stadium for 20 years to say,
yeah,
baby,
you can feel the enthusiasm if I
use that term. End of an error.
It sounds like that captures
what you're thinking.
All right. All right,
you got a feel for the fan reactions.
A lot going to happen this afternoon.
We're going to finally hear
from this ownership group.
We're going to be covering
it like a blanket the rest of
the day here at WUSA Nine.
So stick with us until then.
Back to you.