Executives from Monumental Sports & Entertainment have spoken about possibly looking to build a new arena in northern Virginia, potentially looking to replace the now 25-year-old Capital One Arena in DC proper, per a report in the Washington Post this weekend.
Should that happen before the Commanders get a new stadium (or if a new stadium isn’t in the District), a move to NoVa would leave just the Nationals in DC proper – and marking the first time since 1997, when the Wizards and Caps still played in the old Capital Center in Landover and the Redskins had just moved to FedEx Field, that DC was a single-team (or less) entity inside the District limits.
“What we didn’t know amidst all the Commanders and Nationals talk was that Ted Leonsis has spoken to DC officials – and we all know that he’s trying to buy the Nationals, and the MASN ruling could have a big impact on that,” Chris Russell explained Monday. “But, MS&E executives have also spoken to Virginia officials about relocating the Caps and Wizards to a building near the Amazon HQ2 facility.”
And Rooster’s take on that is, as you might expect, borders on that being extortion of sorts.
“So apparently, this meeting with DC about Capital One Arena happened on June 5…it’s one of the older venues in the NHL and NBA, but the city did invest $50 million in the arena in 2007, and Monumental also did some upgrades a few years ago, too” Russell said. “The whole thought is that their meeting with DC noted they want to stay, but the arena needs some upgrades – you’ve helped us before and we’ve been good to you, please don’t make us look elsewhere.”
The city owns Nationals Park, so in theory, it is responsible for upgrades there – but while the city is paying attention to the Commanders, it’s not really doing so for the other District-dwellers.
“The current city tenants are like, ‘hey, look over here! We’ve been paying taxes and bringing in revenue, to the arena and to Chinatown and the Navy Yard!’” Russell said. “That doesn’t mean you pay for everything blindly, but to them, it stands to reason that if you’re going to give a bunch of public funding to try to recruit the Commanders for a new stadium, you should pay attention to us, as we’ve been here all along.”
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Russell came to DC right as Nationals Park was being built, but as our Audacy studios are just a half-mile away, he knows as well as any what the stadium has brought in transforming the neighborhood and its tax base.
So, while he knows that the Commanders don’t care about coming to DC if it’s not the best package, and the other teams are probably in the same boat when push comes to shove – the fact that the city owns the land underneath the Monumental-owned Capital One Arena, they may be over the same barrel Bradley Beal had the Wizards over.
“It should be clear that Ted wants to stay in DC, but he apparently already said back in 2016 that he didn’t know what would happen when the arena’s ground lease is up,” Russell said. “It would take the city a lot of time and investment to do something else on that site, so it’s WAY in the city’s best interest to try and help out Ted Leonsis and Monumental, because Based on ticket revenue, taxes, all of that, not to mention all of the businesses in surrounding Chinatown…what happens if they leave?”
And that’s when Russell threw in the monkey wrench: what if the RFK site eventually made its way back to the city, or the Poplar Point spot was indeed developed…but its focus was a new arena, not a Commanders stadium, with all the bells and whistles?
Listen to Rooster’s entire rant above!
Follow Chris Russell on Twitter: @Russellmania621
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