Photo by Adam Fagen

Now that there’s a new Washington football team stadium in the works, everyone is losing their shit over the prospect of where it might be. Stay in Maryland? Bring the team back to D.C.? Maybe into Virginia, where most local politicians don’t have an issue with the team’s name?

It’ll be a long time before we know where the new WFT stadium will be, but we do know that if the team wants to come back to D.C., changing the team’s name will be a contingency. Or it won’t. Who the hell knows anymore?

In February of last year, Mayor Vince Gray said that if the team ever wanted to come back to the District, “there’s going to have to be a discussion” about changing the team’s name, the Post reported. Then he retracted his comments, saying that the media “morphed” his words.

Later that year, the D.C. Council overwhelmingly passed a resolution urging the team to change their name. But realistically speaking, how important is the controversy surrounding the team’s name in getting them to build their new stadium in D.C.? Not at all, says Councilmember Jack Evans (D-Ward 2). Speaking on SportsTalk 980 today, Evans said that “Dan Snyder himself, the name of the team, should not be issues that are relevant to the relocation of the team to the city, and the construction of a new stadium.”

In an interview with DCist earlier this year, Evans was more uncertain on the subject, saying that he “[believes] they should change their name,” but added that “whether or not they can’t come back unless they change their name, I’d have to give that some thought.”

Well, it seems that he has given it some thought. In addition to wanting the team back in D.C., he said that he thinks the RFK site is the right place. Here’s more of what he said, via DC Sports Bog:

“Absolutely, we want it back on the RFK site,” he said. “We have tried the FedEx Experience, and it has failed. And it failed not because the stadium is kind of an antiquated stadium, but the ability to get there and get home is a disaster. It’s an all-day experience. And if you were to relocate it in Maryland and certainly in Virginia, you’re buying into the same problems. Can you imagine a stadium somewhere like in Loudoun County? How would you get there? How would you get back?”

Evans also said that in his ideal world, the Redskins could be playing football games on the RFK site as soon as the 2019 season. ESPN 980′s Kevin Sheehan asked if that were a realistic goal.

“It depends on what the organization wants to do,” Evans said. “If they’re serious about pursuing this, I think you could get this done in five years, yes. I’ll add this to the discussion: I was one of the leaders on baseball, and I have to say it was a very very acrimonious, as you remember, discussion and project to get done.

“When I traveled around the city, as I did recently when I ran for mayor, the Redskins, it’s a different deal,” Evans went on. “People love the football team. People want the football team back in the city. So I wouldn’t be dealing with that same acrimony or indifference to the baseball team. It’s a different mindset, and I think you guys know that. I mean, for all the winningness of the Wizards, Capitals and Nationals — and I love it — there’s still a very soft place in peoples hearts for the football team.”