Mayor Muriel Bowser has said that she wants to bring a football stadium to D.C., and now she faces less competition to lure Washington’s team, whose name is a dictionary-defined slur, back within District lines.

Maryland Governor Larry Hogan told the team that he was pulling out of negotiations over a new home for the team for now, the Washington Post reports. Hogan had previously said he would “do whatever it takes” to keep Dan Snyder’s team in the Old Line State, and had secured land for a new stadium by making a deal with the federal government for a land swap for what is currently a national park: Oxon Hill Farm and Oxon Cove Park.

Hogan is still working on the land transfer, only now his office says it wouldn’t be used for a stadium. “We believe this site holds significant potential benefits for the region and the state, as does the proposal to expand protected federal parkland in Western Maryland,” his office said in a statement. “We are working closely with our federal partners to finalize the transfer.”

The team’s return to its previous home of RFK Stadium in D.C. would also require a federal land transfer, or at least an extension of a federal lease. Bowser has worked with Republicans on Capitol Hill in an attempt to extend the city’s lease on the 190-acre property, and expand its use to commercial development. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton has been working to have the land permanently transferred to District control.

“We’ve always believed we have the best location,” Bowser said on Wednesday in response to the news from Maryland. “We think RFK is the most suitable site for not just for a stadium but a whole mix of uses and that’s been our approach with the National Park Service—that the District has to extend its control of the RFK site as well as be able to do more than sports and entertainment uses.” She said the NFL team “would have to build its own stadium,” but did not say whether the District would provide a free long-term lease or other perks.

Just like Hogan, Bowser faces opposition to her scheme to woo the team back. “As a D.C. resident, I am against a deal that gives away a single square foot of land or a single District tax dollar to build a new stadium for billionaire NFL owner Dan Snyder,” reads a petition created by Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who represents the neighborhoods surrounding RFK. More than 3,700 people have signed it. Snyder’s purchase of a new $100 million luxury yacht didn’t help his optics.

Bowser’s chief of staff, John Falcicchio, says that “we can’t dictate who we work with or how we work with them. What we want to plan for is how to make the RFK site vibrant for the next 50-100 years.” Their vision for the RFK campus is a mixed-use community. “We would want residential as well as other mixed use like retail and office and even a hotel,” he says. Right now, D.C.’s lease for the site lasts through 2038 and includes a clause that only allows the land to be used for a stadium or “recreational facilities, open spaces, or public outdoor recreation opportunities.” Falcicchio says the RFK site will be among the mayor’s major issues to discuss with legislators when she goes to Capitol Hill this spring.

As for the criticism that NFL stadiums sit unused for much of the year, Falcicchio says that “the next generation of NFL stadiums are more active throughout the year,” pointing to Atlanta’s new $1.5 billion arena and the forthcoming $2.6 billion stadium in Los Angeles, which will also be surrounded by a new residential neighborhood and shopping complex, as examples. “That would definitely be something that we would seek in the deal,” he says.

Currently, RFK Stadium is sitting empty, after D.C. United moved to its own glitzy new home at Buzzard Point, Audi Field. (The first phase of redevelopment for other parts of the campus began this summer, and include playing fields and pedestrian paths.) While the city did not pay for any construction of Audi Field, it secured the land in a free long-term lease for the team through land swaps valued at $150 million.

Often, jurisdictions will compete with one another to lure a sports team by offering primo public financing deals, though a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers in D.C., Maryland, and Virginia is trying to revive an interstate compact that would prevent local governments from spending tax dollars on a new stadium for Snyder.

But if Hogan is taking Maryland out of the running altogether, that similarly prevents Snyder from pitting the jurisdictions against one another. The Post reports that Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is also sitting on the sidelines when it comes to the stadium, in contrast to his predecessor Terry McAuliffe.

Even though Snyder has voiced a preference for bringing the team back to the District, either Hogan or Northam could decide to throw their hats back in the ring at any time.

Right now, the team plays at FedEx Field in Landover, Md., under a lease that goes through 2027. While then-team owner Jack Kent Cooke paid for the lion’s share of construction with his own money, Maryland contributed $70 million for infrastructure improvements.

Falicicchio says that whether the team comes to D.C. hinges on whether the city has control over the RFK site, “which would be a mixed use development whether there’s a stadium or not.”

This story has been updated with comment from John Falcicchio.