Leonsis and Youngkin will both be in public at the same time as venue talks heat up.

Leonsis and Youngkin will both be in public at the same time as venue talks heat up.

Several people who know about the plans say that Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Ted Leonsis, owner of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, will be at an event together on Wednesday in Alexandria’s Potomac Yard area.

This could mean that the Washington Capitals or Wizards will soon be able to play their home games there.

Monumental hasn’t said for sure if it will move the Wizards and Capitals across the Potomac River or not.

But when D.C. officials heard that Leonsis and Youngkin were going to be appearing together, they tried at the last minute to keep the two teams downtown.

The event on Wednesday in the governor and team owner was confirmed by seven people who asked to remain anonymous in order to talk about private matters.

As soon as word of the event spread, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser and Council chair Phil Mendelson (D) revealed a last-minute bill that, if passed, would give $500 million to Monumental, the owner of the Capitals and Wizards, to fix up Capital One Arena. The plan would also make Monumental’s ground lease last until the end of 2052.

Monumental is asking the District over $600 million within public funds to undergo major renovations at the arena.

Some D.C. leaders have framed this project as a key part of bringing life back to the struggling downtown area around the arena. According to a statement, Bowser, the bill was D.C.’s “best and final offer.”

Virginia and Monumental wrote up a rough plan for moving the Wizards and Capitals for a new building in Alexandria that would be the center of a bigger mixed-use development.

The plan needs more support from politicians at the state and local levels. On Tuesday night, tents could be seen near the Pentagon Yard Metro stop, getting ready for the event on Wednesday.

According to seven people who were involved in talks about the plan, both the NBA and NHL teams would move to a new building in Alexandria if the plan in Virginia goes through. All of these people spoke on the condition for anonymity to talk about details.

The District has a very tight budget and has to deal with a competition over where to build the next Commanders football field as well as requests for improvements to the Washington Nationals baseball team.

Bowser’s bill allows her office and Monumental to make a development deal. Under the deal, Monumental would get $167 million within public funds every year from 2024 to 2026. Bowser said that the whole D.C. Council agreed with the bill.

The mayor said in a statement, “Mr. Leonsis and Monumental Sports have been key partners in keeping our downtown thriving, especially after the pandemic.”

“The modernization of our Capital One Arena will prove to be an invaluable investment for our continued success and our future prosperity,” Bowser said in a statement.

Along with issuing municipal bonds to pay for the arena project, the state is scheduled to help pay for improvements to the area’s infrastructure worth $200 million.

The state would rent the rooms to Mr. Leonsis’s company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, for at least 30 years.

Instead of getting paid up front, someone familiar with the deal said that Virginia and Monumental would split future profits from the development that would happen around the arena.

This idea of a “mini-city” has become popular as the Atlanta Braves moved to Cobb County, Georgia, and made Truist Park, their new stadium, the center of a year-round destination.

The deal will only go through if Virginia’s General Assembly agrees this spring. The Democrats run the state House and Senate, but Mr. Youngkin is a Republican. Supporters from both parties are expected to show up on Wednesday.

The nearby neighborhood of Del Ray is likely to object. In the early 1990s, Cooke, the late NFL owner that wanted to move his team, then called the Redskins, to the site, but the neighborhood worked to stop his plans.