Among Commanders fans, the preference for D.C. grows to 63 percent, and among District residents it is 76 percent. City residents are now more open to public funding of a stadium. In 2022, two-thirds of D.C. residents opposed using city funds to help finance a new stadium in the District; now residents are split on the issue.

The Post-Schar School poll, which randomly sampled 1,683 residents from D.C., Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland, finds support for a D.C. stadium spans the region. Along with a majority of District residents, nearly half of people in the Maryland suburbs (46 percent) and Northern Virginia (48 percent) prefer the team return to D.C. About 3 in 10 in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia prefer the stadium be built in their states.

The Commanders’ stadium search is in limbo. The team is contractually obligated to play at its current Landover site until September 2027 but can stay longer. Managing partner Josh Harris has carefully avoided indicating a preference for a future home in the hopes of stoking a competition among D.C., Maryland and Virginia, but the District cannot negotiate seriously without congressional legislation that would make the federally owned RFK Stadium site a realistic option.

The D.C. RFK Memorial Stadium Campus Revitalization Act cleared the House in February with overwhelming bipartisan support, but last week, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said he intends to block it unless the team honors a Native American family that helped design the team’s former logo. Washington Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) has said that she supports a mixed-use development at the RFK site and that “there’s really only one place for the team in this region.”

Meanwhile, Virginia seems to be an unlikely destination after a deal to lure the Washington Wizards and Capitals there imploded this year, and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) has been building a relationship with Harris and has said he wants to keep the team in his state.

“When people say, ‘Do you want the Commanders in Prince George’s County?’ my answer is, ‘Hell, yeah!’ ” Moore said last year.

But even in Prince George’s County, where the team currently plays, 48 percent of residents prefer the team return to D.C. while 34 percent believe it should remain in suburban Maryland. Some neighbors of the current stadium have said they’ve seen little benefit since the team arrived in 1997.

Mark Williams and Carl Barnes, lifelong fans in their 60s who live in Prince George’s County, said they prefer the team return to D.C. because it’s the spiritual home of the franchise, echoing language used by team president Jason Wright. They had fond memories at RFK: the stands bouncing and the crowd bellowing, “We want Dallas!”

“They were there for a long time, that’s where they had their winningest records, and there was a lot of history made there,” Barnes said.

Terry Clower, director of the Center for Regional Analysis at George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government, which partnered with The Post on the poll, said the findings reflect a sense of tradition.

“Folks were never particularly happy with this huge edifice out in the middle of nowhere Maryland,” he said. “There are enough folks that also realize that having your central city be … the default for your big entertainment complexes is probably better than having them distributed out throughout a metropolitan area.”

The region’s preference for a stadium site in D.C. has grown over time. In 1992, when the team was exploring its post-RFK options, a Post poll found 41 percent of residents preferred the District, 27 percent Virginia and 21 percent Maryland. Last year, 44 percent wanted it in the city. This year, it has grown to 51 percent.

The poll finds support is high near the team’s old home in Ward 7. In Wards 7 and 8, 75 percent of residents favor the team’s return to the District, and in Wards 5 and 6, it’s 77 percent.

Those findings contrast an October community meeting near the RFK site in which Bowser outlined her vision to bring back the Commanders to a packed room of skeptical residents and anti-stadium advocates.

“If we’re going to call [the team] the Washington Commanders, why not bring it to D.C.?” said Angela Gorham, a 49-year-old fan who lives in Ward 7. “It didn’t work out in Landover at FedEx Field, and [they] don’t need to go to Virginia.”

An increasing share of residents support using city funds to help finance a new stadium. In 2022, 30 percent of D.C. residents were in favor of using city funds to help finance a stadium and 67 percent opposed; this year, 47 percent are in favor and 46 percent oppose.

Clower suggested the uptick in funding support could be related to Daniel Snyder selling the franchise and the near departure of the Capitals and Wizards from downtown.

Jackie Monahan, a Commanders fan in her 50s who lives in Ward 3, said that she was “upset” the NHL and NBA teams nearly left the city and that she now supports using public funds to bring the Commanders back — up to a point. She said that the city should be “responsible” and avoid putting an “undue burden” on taxpayers but that the cost could be worth it because “sports events are part of the vibrance of a city.”

“There is probably a reasonable amount [of public subsidy] that we could all bear and we would all probably not even notice or not mind,” she added.

Residents in Northeast, near the RFK site, reflect other subsets of the city: 51 percent oppose public subsidies for a stadium while 46 percent support them. Among Commanders fans in the city, support rises to 59 percent.

In the District, support for using city funds is highest in Southeast (57 percent). One of those supporters is Derrick Jackson, 44, a lifelong fan and former team employee who lives in the Hillcrest neighborhood and wants the franchise to return to the city.

“We already pay high taxes in D.C.,” he acknowledged. But he added that using public funds is “just something I personally wouldn’t mind as a fan because I think we’ll see the residuals in employment for the city [at the new stadium].”

Teneisha Gorman, 30, lives in Anacostia and is also a lifelong fan who wants the team to return to the city, but she opposes using public funds because she believes money would be better spent on other needs, such as infrastructure and parks.

Suburban Marylanders and Northern Virginians largely oppose using state and local funds to finance a new stadium for the Commanders in their states. In suburban Maryland, 55 percent oppose this, and in Virginia, it is 61 percent (including 74 percent of non-sports fans).

“It’s very clear to me that public support for the fundraising element says that Northern Virginia is not a player” for the new stadium, Clower said, echoing a former Commanders official who in March said that, if the RFK bill passes, the competition would come down to Maryland vs. D.C.

Thomas Burrill, 29, is a fan who lives in Arlington but said suburban Maryland is the best place for the stadium because the area would benefit most from the development. Burrill isn’t sure if he would support using public funds for the stadium because it’s unclear where the money would come from.

If the RFK bill passes and a stadium competition materializes, it will put the spotlight on Moore, who has said he’s willing to use public funds on a new stadium. The poll’s findings suggest it could be an uphill battle to convince the team, legislators and constituents that, even though the public prefers D.C. and the Landover stadium has disappointed, Maryland should double down on a football stadium.

The Post-Schar School poll was conducted April 19 to 29 among 1,683 adults in the Washington area — 655 in D.C., 522 in Northern Virginia and 506 in suburban Maryland. The margin of error is plus or minus 3.2 percentage points overall and between 5.1 and 5.7 in each state and D.C.