People are paying close attention to Bowser’s talks because D.C. could lose both the Capitals or Wizards.
Monumental Sports and Entertainment as well as Virginia officials joyfully announced the deal early Wednesday morning.
The Washington Wizards and Capitals will move from Capital One Arena within Chinatown to the huge new 70-acre campus and complex that will be built in Potomac Yard in Alexandria.
Ted Leonsis, the owner of the Monumental, made the idea sound like a done deal. It is a $2 billion public-private partnership.
Democrats and Republicans in D.C. say Virginia’s deal is not final as well as could fall apart. They are leaving their own deal open in case Virginia’s deal falls apart.
Not only could the city lose two sports teams, but it could also lose an economic engine in downtown D.C., that economists say helps businesses, creates jobs, and pays for much-needed social services within the district.
At a news conference on Wednesday, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser said that it looked like the teams were going toward Virginia.
She still said, “It’s not done.” He said in a late Tuesday news release that the bill was the city’s “best and final offer” to keep the teams.
In an interview with DCist/WAMU, Phil Mendelson, Chairman of the D.C. Council, shared the mayor’s doubts.
Bowser told the press, “I don’t know what the state’s process is, yet we expect it to run into some problems.”
She said, “I don’t want to say anything bad about Virginia, but it ain’t over until the corpulent lady sings.” “We keep letting Monumental know that we mean business and want them to stay”
After the Virginia deal was first reported on Tuesday night, Bowser and Mendelson introduced legislation that, with unanimous backing from the D.C. Council, would give the sports as well as media company a $500 billion deal to fix up the arena.
Bowser says that the law formalized the deal the city made with the team on Sunday. It is an attempt to meet Leonsis’s request, which was first reported by the Washingtonian last month, for $600 million donated by the city to fix up the venue.
Wednesday, Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto said that she and other members of the D.C. government have been talking with Monumental over months about a deal to pay for renovations to the arena. Pinto serves the neighborhood surrounding the arena.
Mendelson said, “70 acres versus downtown in all of its pros and cons is an example of an apples and oranges comparison.”
He also said that most of his talks with Monumental were about how the company could expand its presence in the city.
Chinatown and other parts of D.C. are having a hard time with rising crime, but Pinto said that Monumental has “repeatedly reiterated” that the move to Virginia is “much more about the 70-hectare campus who Virginia is offering.”
Mendelson and Pinto said they still think D.C. will be able to keep the teams. They said that the Virginia General Assembly and an Alexandria City Council still need to approve the deal before it is official.
It’s not clear what will happen. Virginia’s governor is a Republican and the General Assembly is made up of Democrats.
Piño said, “This process has more steps to come.” But some supporters of the Virginia plan also say that the teams’ choice to move to Virginia is because crime is getting worse in the area.
Even though Leonsis had support from the whole Alexandria City Council along with other Virginia officials or politicians on both sides of the aisle at the press conference on Wednesday to announce the deal, officials in D.C. were not convinced.
For example, Mendelson asked how Virginia would pay for the huge project and the facilities needed for a new stadium, especially Metro, that has its own money problems.
Ted Leonsis, CEO of Monumental Sports or Entertainment and majority owner of the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards, met with Virginia Gov.
Glenn Youngkin on Wednesday morning to talk about their plans to move the sports teams to Potomac Yard.
Mayor Bowser and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson released details of a bill Tuesday night that could keep the teams in the city. This is what they said this morning.