Photo by Kirsten Stanley.

Mayor Muriel Bowser is sharing her playbook: she wants a football stadium in D.C.

After Bowser participated in the groundbreaking at RFK on Wednesday morning, she skedaddled over to the downtown Marriott Marquis, where she gave a speech during the Washington’s football team’s annual “Welcome Home Luncheon.”

According to those in attendance, Bowser made the case for the franchise to return to the District.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser just gave speech to VIP Redskins crowd pitching DC as the team’s home. She said the team’s name, she said they need to be “home.” She left no doubt: She wants an NFL stadium.

— Jonathan O’Connell (@OConnellPostbiz) August 29, 2018

Mayor Bowser putting on a SELL here. Shouts out Caps Stanley Cup title (huge cheer), the Bryce Harper led Nats (mild here), the Mystics (kind of a sad cheer), the new DC United stadium. Name checks every local team – “BUT what we think is – there’s something missing.” #Redskins

— Brian McNally (@bmcnally14) August 29, 2018

Bowser’s spokesperson, LaToya Foster, says this isn’t a new development. “The mayor has made it quite clear in the past that she wants the Washington football team home, period,” says Foster. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

But such a move is fraught with controversy, much of it rooted in the team’s name, which opponents point out is a dictionary-defined racial slur.

Under the presidency of Barack Obama, the Interior Department said the team would not be permitted to return to RFK Stadium, where the franchise played until 1996, without changing its name. A super PAC supporting President Donald Trump ran an attack ad over calls to change the name before the 2016 election.

The National Park Service leases RFK to Events DC, under terms that mandate the 190 acres be used for a stadium, “recreational facilities, open spaces, or public outdoor recreation opportunities,” or similar public uses.

Back when Bowser was a councilmember in Ward 4, she co-introduced legislation that called on the Washington football team to change its name. But since becoming mayor, she began to use the name on and off. NBC 4 reported in 2015 that “multiple sources, including a senior Bowser administration official, told News4 the mayor has been advised to start using the name as a way to show good faith with owner Dan Snyder.”

A flurry of legal and trademark challenges to the franchise’s name wrapped up in June 2017.

Aside from the name, there are questions about who would pay for such a stadium. At an April 2016 meeting about the future of RFK, Events DC proposed three options, each with a 65,000 seat NFL stadium, a 20,000-seat arena, or “no anchor.” The crowd of about 400 people was divided on whether they wanted a stadium.

Foster declined to comment on where the mayor would want the new stadium to be, other than to say, “She wants to bring them home. She wants them back.”