There is always politics involved whenever there's a massive development for a new sports arena or other complex like Monumental Sports is building in Virginia – so who better to get an opinion from about this case than someone involved in the political end?
Chap Petersen is a Virginia State Senator whose term expires at the end of this year, but over the last 25 years, he has been a member of the Fairfax City Council and both the House of Delegates and State Senate for the districts representing Fairfax and surrounding areas – so he has seen a lot of NoVa's attempts to bring not only sports, but other large entities like Amazon, to the DC suburbs.
And, as JP joked that meant he could be fully honest – and he shot back "I think that's one of the reasons I'm not coming back!" – Petersen didn't hold back on what makes this attractive.
"Alexandria is accessible to transit and is right across the river from DC, and it's already a dense neighborhood. The Redskins wanted a stadium at that exact same site 30 years ago," Petersen said. "There are some positives there, and I think Ted Leonsis is a more stable ownership situations than what we had with the Redskins at that point."
But, there is, of course, all the red tape still to cut through.
"If I was to look in a more critical way, any time you see these deals, you have to know bonds will be issued, and the tax proceeds from the stadium will pay those down, instead of going back to the state to be property of the taxpayers via the state," Petersen said. "So, there is an issue of taxpayer money being used to finance something to benefit a private company.
I don't know the full details, but that's just something to keep an eye on."
U.S. Senator Mark Warner said at the presser that today is "just Day 1 of the process," and Petersen is old enough to remember the Redskins finding that out the hard way, too.
"Years ago after the Redskins had just won the Super Bowl, the Governor and Jack Kent Cooke had a press conference at the very same site – so you can have that press conference, and everyone is all lovey-dovey, and six months later, it falls apart," Petersen said. "You want to make sure that the state taxpayer is held whole, and that if they use money to pay down the bonds, they get some kind of indemnity. That, to me, I'd be pretty firm on, because when I expand my business, nobody's giving me a loan to do it and then telling me to keep it."
Petersen is undecided if he would support this if he remained in the legislature because he doesn't know all the details yet, reiterating his desire to see the taxpayers kept whole – but if he had to predict, he thinks this will eventually pass the state legislature.
"I think it will, but it depends on if the Governor wants it bad enough that he's willing to give the Democrats something they want in return," Petersen said. "No one ever gets anything for free in politics."
