Commanders reveal glass-roofed 70,000-seat bowl with Capitol view
Football in Washington, DC, could soon be watched under glass, with the dome of the US Capitol in view.
The Washington Commanders, the American football team, and HKS, the global design firm behind the project, have released the first interior renderings of the planned 70,000-seat stadium in Washington, DC. The images show a seating bowl — the tiered stands that wrap the field — covered by a glass ceiling Dezeen.
The bowl is steep. It forms a continuous ring of stands, with no box seats jutting out and no upper decks hanging over lower tiers. HKS architect Aaron Hollis said the priority was a unified viewing experience, with every fan feeling part of one room.
At one end, the stands pull apart. That gap frames the dome of the US Capitol building in central Washington. The sightline ties the inside of the stadium directly to the city beyond it.
It will be loud. HKS said the enclosed shape is intended to hold crowd noise inside and push it back down toward the field, with the aim of creating one of the loudest stadiums in the National Football League (NFL), the top US league for American football.
Screens are part of that wall of sound and colour. Digital banners run around select tiers, with a larger banner wrapping the top of the stadium. In the renderings, the bands of light circle the crowd and draw the eye around the full bowl.
The design also looks back as well as forward. HKS said the bowl was informed by RFK Stadium in Washington, the team's former home known for its close, steep stands. RFK Stadium is being demolished to clear the site for the new building, which is planned for the same RFK site.
The team published its first-look seating bowl announcement on 16 September, with an animation released alongside the still images. The Athletic reported the unveiling on the same day, and the team now hosts the images in a photo gallery on its official New Stadium page.
The interior views follow updated exterior renderings of the HKS-designed stadium shared in March 2026. The club has also been explaining the build in a series of interviews, including a "Behind the Build Q&A" with Andy VanHorn, its Head of Real Estate, about the stadium project.
What makes this stand out is the mix of enclosure and openness. A roof and a sealed bowl to keep noise in, plus a clear opening out to Washington.
