Funding for the Alexandria arena project was cut from the Virginia State budget, and with the legislative session ending Saturday, Monumental’s dream is over for now – but why?
Sure, Senate Finance Committee Chair Louise Lucas had a lot to do with it, but in reality, it seems like the issue was this went from 0-60 on one day in December, but didn’t hit full gear until recently.
“It would have to be a special session to reconsider this, and at this point, that doesn't look likely,” Front Office Sports’ AJ Perez told BMitch on Friday. “I was at the NFL owner’s meetings in December when this was announced, and this was kind of negotiated in a secret committee and then we kind of had some details, but the lobbying effort really didn't get going until January or February, and there's still not a lot of details. A lot of the state legislators I’ve talked to were looking for details, they were asking me if I knew anything! They didn't get the lobbying effort going quick enough, and when you're in Virginia, where their legislative calendar is very short, you have to have all your ducks in the row to make it work, and really the only major ally they had was Governor Youngkin.”
So where does that leave things now?
“This is done, but will Ted Leonsis now look either at the same site in a different funding vehicle to make it work, or look elsewhere in northern Virginia?” Perez said. “This is fairly unpopular to say the least in Alexandria, and there’s a lot of blowback to the politicians who are on board with this so I think that makes another run at Potomac Yards a little more difficult. They're gonna need to get new people or more people on board, but the blowback was so harsh, can you even go back to Alexandria in the near term, or does he have to look at another area that would work, maybe with county leaders and less state money and all the other stuff? Would he consider that?”
Whatever happens, Perez thinks the next try needs to be hyped up just a little bit better.
“He needs to get the lobbying effort going, because Dan Snyder, for all his faults, he understood this; before it became public, we got those weird renderings of the moat in 2016, and that was about when he really started going to the lobby for his stadium,” Perez said.
This may be a good thing for many, as Perez noted that as a Loudoun County resident, Capital One Arena is an easier commute than Potomac Yards, and for now, they’re there until 2027 at least – but can both Ted Leonsis and Mayor Bowser both get what they need to keep Monumental in the District?
“The Mayor offered $500 million in December to upgrade Capital One Arena, and I think that’s a fine venue. It’s a little outdated, but it's in a great location and people know where they are and where to go, and there’s a Metro stop right underneath,” Perez said. “There's a lot of things going in its favor, but Leonsis wants to build a legacy project arena, and I don't think he can do it there. Could you upgrade Capital One Arena enough to get to a point where you're in the elite? Probably no, so do you raze it, and if so, where do the Caps and Wizards play for two to three years? It’s a complicated thing, but I don't think this has dampened Ted Leonsis’ desire for a new facility.”
BMitch wonders if, instead of refurbishing Cap One, Leonsis could put that $500 million the city has offered and some of his own money to just build a new arena in that same area, just as Abe Pollin did in the 1990s?
“If you're a professional sports franchise and you wanna be a key tenant in a big development that's gonna bring in all of this business, while your teams are losing and businesses are closing around your current arena, how much leverage do you have?” Perez said. “If you're gonna want all this public money, $1.5 billion or whatever the taxpayers would be on the hook for, you have to show the economic benefits. We know there are issues around Cap One, but if you're pitching a government about the economic benefits and there are businesses closing around your arena now, that's gotta be a tough thing to pitch.”
For BMitch, it’s gonna have to be the Wizards, who had lost 17 in a row when he spoke with Perez, who carry that, and given the state of that team, that’s a stretch right now – and Perez’s rebuttal is that even with new digs IN DC, the Capital One albatross still exists.
“Suppose he’s gonna put $400 million into Virginia, where the people don’t want it, and they're offering you 500 million here…you’re right here,” Brian said. “I really believe if you invest in that and also you're winning, I guarantee you can get a lot of the policing that you actually want.”
“That would be helpful, but you have teams that aren't making the playoffs or challenging for championships, and now you want public money for a new arena when you're not winning at your current one? That's tough, and that $500 million could do a lot of things for Capital One Arena, and that's the hard part,” Perez said. “You see Chase Arena in San Francisco, and I’m sure the Clippers’ arena is gonna look pretty awesome in L.A., and he wants that same thing, because it would be a net benefit for everybody if there was a first-class arena in the area. But, that doesn't solve the question of what do you do with Capital One, where he'll own the building but the city owns the land. What do you do with it? The whole idea of moving the Mystics back didn't make much sense, and you're gonna have basically just a mostly unused arena. They want to do other things like concerts to reconfigure it, but you still have to fix that concern as well.”