Photo by mosley.brian

So much for that proposed Redskins facility on the east end of Capitol Hill. The team announced today that it is strengthening its bond with the Commonwealth of Virginia with the news that beginning in 2013, training camp will move to Richmond. Furthermore, the Redskins’ headquarters and practice facility in Ashburn will receive a $30 million upgrade, some of which will be paid for by Virginia taxpayers.

“Virginia considers the Redskins our team,” Gov. Bob McDonnell said in a press release announcing the deepening ties between the football squad that takes the name of our city and our neighbor to the south. “The team is based here. The team trains here. The players live here. Virginians root for the Redskins on the field, and off the field the team contributes greatly to the economy and culture of the commonwealth.”

A venue for the Redskins’ future summer camps has not yet been determined, but one possible location could be City Stadium, the Redskins blog HogsHaven reported. (Redskins owner Dan Snyder visited the arena earlier this year.)

Meanwhile, Redskins Park, all the way out in Loudoun County, will see a major renovation expansion. Of the $30 million price tag, $4 million is being kicked in by a state-funded grant approved by McDonnell.

This news all but scuttles any hope the District had of reclaiming the Redskins for itself anytime soon. For the past several months, Mayor Vince Gray and other D.C. officials had talked up the possibility of building a facility for the Redskins at Reservation 13, a 67-acre plot in Hill East and not far from the team’s former home at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium. Gray’s proposal never got too detailed, but it did attract the support of Councilmembers Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7) and Michael A. Brown (I-At Large).

But the District’s dreams of moving some part of the Redskins’ operation back to Washington never really got going. There are, however, proposed plans for mixed-use development at Reservation 13.

Still, all this love between the Redskins and Virginia today is smothering. “We are very pleased to continue our relationship with the Commonwealth of Virginia that my father established 41 years ago,” General Manager Bruce Allen said in McDonnell’s press release.

Suburban relationships are where it’s at for the Redskins, it seems. The team is based in Virginia, practices there and plays its home games in Maryland. They’re more like the Suburban Redskins, but calling them that might irk the team’s notoriously litigious owner.

So instead, we are making the following change to the DCist Stylebook: Henceforth, the local NFL team shall be known on this website as the “Washington” Redskins. Note the quotation marks.

Editor’s note: The author of this article is an admitted fan of the New York Giants, who play their home games in New Jersey. But at least they have their training camp in New York State. Yeah, yeah, whatever.