Wizards, Capitals moving to new site in Virginia as leaders heave Hail Mary to keep teams in city

A triumphant mood filled the air Wednesday in Alexandria‘s Potomac Yard as business magnate Ted Leonsis and heavyweights from Virginia’s political class announced that the D.C. suburb will be the new home of basketball’s Washington Wizards and hockey’s Washington Capitals.

Mr. Leonsis, who owns both franchises, would end Virginia’s status as the most populous state without a major professional sports team playing there if the organization is able to relocate to the 70-acre site in late 2028.

The $2 billion complex must be approved by local and state lawmakers.

A new performing arts venue, a satellite campus for Virginia Tech and the headquarters of Monumental Sports & Entertainment — Mr. Leonsis‘ company that broadcasts Wizards and Capitals games — would be built alongside the 20,000-seat arena steps away from the Potomac Yard Metro Station.

The Virginia General Assembly is expected to give the project final approval during its legislative session that starts next month.

The announced move comes at the expense of the District, which would lose out on both teams — and at least $25 million in annual tax revenues — if they leave their downtown home of Capital One Arena. 

Hopeful D.C. leaders put forward one final offer earlier this week, but Capital One’s urban setting appears to be at odds with Mr. Leonsis’ idea of a sprawling, mixed-use complex.  

“Our commitment will be to build really iconic, fan-centric businesses,” Mr. Leonsis said during the media event Wednesday. “What we are about is putting unity in a community and really helping this region bring up to its full promise.”

The Alexandria Economic Development Partnership said the project would be expected to break ground in 2025, as long as the approval process goes smoothly.

Officials project the sports and entertainment complex will bring a combined $12 billion in revenue to the city and Virginia over the life of the project.

The development would be expected to create 30,000 jobs once complete and is estimated to host over 220 events during a calendar year.

Mr. Leonsis was joined by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, Sen. Mark Warner, a Democrat, and Alexandria Mayor Justin Wilson — as well as the entire Alexandria City Council — in announcing the news at the development site.

While Mr. Warner acknowledged this was only the first step, the potential move represented a much-needed win for Mr. Youngkin after his party’s electoral defeats last month. Republicans lost control of the Virginia House and failed to gain control of the state Senate.

“This spectacular sports and entertainment district will be at the heart of the most vibrant innovation corridor in the world,” Mr. Youngkin said jubilantly during his prepared remarks. “A corridor that starts at Amazon HQ in Arlington and stretches through the Virginia Tech Innovation Campus and will find its anchor here in Alexandria.”    

Traffic flow in and out of the Potomac Yard site has been a concern expressed by some Alexandria residents. One woman briefly heckled Mr. Youngkin during his press gaggle and a handful of others held signs opposing the development near the parking lot entrance.

Mr. Wilson, the Alexandria city mayor, said that the potential project will be “accountable to our taxpayers, respectful to our incredible neighborhoods, and helps us create more housing, schools, transportation improvements and higher educational opportunities.”

Mr. Youngkin said separately that he expects traffic concerns around the proposed development to be alleviated if the project gets underway. He added that the General Assembly will be reviewing a transportation plan for the site once it convenes in January.

The governor refused to comment on speculation that crime around Capital One Arena in the District was a factor in the decision by Mr. Leonsis to relocate the teams. The governor said the move was more “affirmative” of Virginia than it was a slight at the nation’s capital.

Previous reporting indicated Mr. Leonsis has been frustrated by problems around Capital One Arena, including hostile vagrants and open drug use in addition to robberies and shootings. Monumental Sports began hiring more off-duty Metropolitan Police officers to patrol the area this past spring.

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, a Republican, wasn’t as diplomatic as Mr. Youngkin when he zeroed in on the District’s crime problems in his social media response to Monumental’s announcement: “D.C. politicians pretend they don’t have a public safety issue.”

A year-long crime wave in the District has resulted in a record number of carjackings, ambush-style robberies on sidewalks and streets and the most homicides the city has seen in over 20 years.

A few hours after the announcement in Alexandria, Mayor Muriel Bowser called her own press conference in the District and expressed hope that the city still had time to convince Mr. Leonsis to reconsider. She downplayed the impact crime had on the decision. 

She said Monumental’s representatives previously told her that they viewed the crime issues around Capital One Arena as a “blip” in the grand scheme of things. The mayor said she agreed with their assessment.

“I presided over crime increases in the time that I’ve been a city council member and mayor, and when we work together to have the right policies and enforcement in place, we drive crime down, and we will drive it down,” Ms. Bowser said. “Again, I did not mean to suggest that I don’t think we have a serious situation.”

The comments came as the mayor discussed the District’s last-gasp attempt to keep the Wizards and Capitals downtown: an offer of $500 million in cash to go toward modernizing the aging Capital One Arena over a three-year period.

Ms. Bowser struck an optimistic tone, saying that Monumental and Mr. Leonsis could have their money as early as this upcoming spring. She said she’s not familiar with Virginia’s approval process, but expects the massive project to hit some snags.

The mayor said the District was able to put forward its final offer late Tuesday after its chief financial officer refinanced D.C.’s bonds and gave the city more debt capacity. The offer was unanimously backed by the 13-member D.C. Council.

But Ms. Bowser also acknowledged that D.C.’s offer — which is $100 million less than Monumental was seeking from the city — is competing against Mr. Leonsis’ own vision.

“What I was struck by was when [Leonsis] said he had goosebumps going and having the opportunity to build from scratch,” Ms. Bowser said. “In our view, there’s a difference between being committed to an urban arena and being interested in a suburban arena. We obviously think that urban arenas are more interesting, more fun, there are more opportunities for additional activities. And we think our fan base, also coming from around the region, likes that.”

The sports and entertainment complex proposed by Monumental seems to be inspired by similar developments seen around the country. For example, the Atlanta Braves move from downtown to suburban Cobb County, Georgia, in 2017 birthed The Battery Atlanta — a 2-million-square-foot shopping, dining and entertainment district centered around the baseball’s home park.

That kind of real estate scope is simply unavailable in the Chinatown neighborhood around Capital One Arena, where businesses are still trying to rebound from the pandemic.

Yo Srcharoen, the owner of Absolute Thai on G Street Northwest, told The Washington Times that about half of his business is generated on game days.

Just up 6th Street Northwest at the Chinatown Express restaurant, Liya Zeng told The Times her husband quit his high-paying office job four years ago so he could take over the business his dad started in 1986.

She said she quit her own job in the last two years to help her husband run the popular eatery. With Monumental planning to move the Wizards and Capitals away, she said it would cut out about 30% of their revenue.  

Much of the District’s economic nosedive downtown is attributed to vacant federal offices.

A July report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that 17 of 24 federal agencies based in the District only used about 25% of their building capacity on average. Many federal workers are still allowed to work remotely, putting a damper on foot traffic for nearby businesses.

Mayor Bowser has pushed the White House to end federal work-from-home policies since the beginning of this year.

Monumental’s plans announced Wednesday, should they come to fruition, would signal an end to the downtown development designs of former Wizards and Capitals owner, Abe Pollin.

Pollin, who died in 2009, moved both franchises in 1997 from the Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland, to the then-MCI Center in Chinatown.

The late owner is credited with revitalizing the District’s languishing downtown at the time. Ms. Bowser hopes current owner Mr. Leonsis can see through what she says is a temporary downturn.

“We know Abe Pollin’s decision to take a bet on Washington, D.C. that paid off handsomely for him and for the current ownership,” the mayor said. “We know that D.C. fans and D.C. residents are loyal, and they are disappointed today.”