Sam Fortier was one of the writers who broke the news in the Washington Post Monday: a select group of Virginia legislators met behind closed doors to discuss voting on a proposal that would bring the Caps and Wizards to Alexandria as the centerpiece of a new mixed-use development.
The news broke shortly before Grant & Danny went on the air, so during the show, Fortier jumped on with the guys to explain the situation a little further:
“I think it's important for people to understand this is step one in putting it on the table, but this is more serious than the RFK steps to put it on the table that we've talked about before,” Fortier said. “They could vote any time within a week, but that vote would make real the possibility that they could go that the Monumental could go to Virginia. There are a couple other bureaucratic steps, and Monumental would have to say this is where we wanna go, but it is a significant step in terms of the Capitals and Wizards going to Northern Virginia.”
Per the report, a Virginia stadium authority would own a new arena that is the big piece in a mixed-use development in the Potomac Yard section of Alexandria, and would then lease the arena to Monumental for use the same way Capital One Arena is utilized.
As Fortier said, this is a lot further of a “first step” than a possible RFK return for the Commanders, as Ted Leonsis has toyed with the idea of a move to NoVa as a hard stance if DC didn’t give him money to help renovate Cap One…and here we are.
“I think Monumental is very serious about Virginia; they've been active in these discussions, and if this project were to go forward, Monumental would put up hundreds of millions of its own dollars. We don't have a specific dollar figure, but it would be significant in terms of relocating to Virginia,” Fortier said. “If DC were to come up with the $600 million in public funds they’ve asked for, would they stay? We don't know the answer to that yet, but I don’t think this is just a negotiating tactic, I do think Monumental is serious about Virginia.”
Grant can’t imagine what the Chinatown neighborhood, which is already struggling since the pandemic, would look like if Monumental leaves Cap One, and he specifically wonders how the proposed location – which is only vehicle-accessible from DC and Maryland via the 14th Street Bridge or the Beltway to Route 1 and has two potential Metro lines instead of five in Chinatown – getting a full house every night.
“If you talk to northern Virginia people, they would point to the new Metro stop, but transportation certainly is a big part of the cost and concern,” Fortier said, “but again, I think this is pretty serious.”
Virginia is the largest state without a professional sports team, too, so after flirting with the then-Redskins pre-FedEx Field and then the Nats before the Navy Yard, this would be “a major economic development win” for a Governor in Glenn Youngkin who has seen his state flip away from his side.
“I know that a lot of national economists would say sports don't significantly affect economic development in a region, and there’s a lot of research that shows that, but I think the DMV is a unique case because suddenly, Virginia is capturing tax revenue that normally would be going to DC, and this market is different,” Fortier said. “It would be a big win for Youngkin, not only for those times before, but in the immediate future.”
So what’s the next step and possible timeline following the vote?
“After the vote is taken, it would go in front of the Alexandria City Council and then the full General Assembly in Virginia, and then once all the chips are on the table from Virginia, I would imagine Monumental would go back to DC,” Fortier said. “I don't see this getting done and being official of where Monumental is going to be until after the New Year, but it could happen sooner.”
And if it does…does that help the possibility that the Commanders’ next stadium would be in DC proper, basically eliminating NoVa as a contender?
“That's tough to say right now, but if DC were to lose the Caps and Wizards, I imagine that that would magnify the stakes of landing the commanders at RFK,” Fortier said. “That’s just kind of off the cuff without having talked to experts about how this affects RFK directly, but I imagine that if you lose downtown, I think creating a mixed-use development to kind of disperse some economic activity in the city would be more important.”
