“Tedland” just got a lot smaller.
In December, at Ted Leonsis’ tone-deaf press conference announcing plans to abandon Capital One Arena in the District and build a new home at Potomac Yard for his Monumental Sports franchises, “Tedland” seemed to spread from the District, Maryland and Delaware south into Virginia all the way to Richmond and beyond.
The Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals weren’t defined or limited by the boundaries of the District, Leonsis’ teams were part of a sprawling DMV — a supercity stretching across entire states.
“The notion of community in the DMV really is what our business is about,” Leonsis crowed from a stage in Alexandria before running off and hiding without answering questions.
Now here we are, a little more than three months later, and “Tedland” is back to being an F Street corner in the District.
Turns out there were a few questions.
Transparent Ted announced a new deal Wednesday with District mayor Muriel Bowser to stay in the city at a renovated Capital One Arena with his Wizards and Capitals teams until the year 2050.
Who said you can’t go home again?
“It’s a great day, and I’m really relieved,” Leonsis told reporters. “This was not only the right thing for the community and the right thing for us. It’s a really smart business deal.”
Is he kidding? The billionaire owner wound up getting a few dollars more and some parking spaces than the city’s initial offer of $400 million months ago. In the process, he damaged his reputation and let his Monumental Sports business take a public relations hit.
With a basketball team that has barely existed in the NBA for decades and a hockey team trying to squeeze into the all-inclusive Stanley Cup playoffs, his business can’t afford to become any more of a source of ridicule.
Transparent Ted’s lack of preparation for the political fight for his arena project in Virginia, a notoriously politically volatile state, was stunning. He got suckered by his old Carlyle Group buddy, Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who must have assured Leonsis that the money from a Democratic Legislature would be there when he needed it — a marriage of supreme arrogance.
Never, never go public with plans for a $2 billion arena and entertainment center until the money is locked down. Heck, I could have stood on a street corner in Alexandria and told everyone I was going to build a new arena. It would have had the same degree of credibility.
Where were these guys — Raul Fernandez, David Blair, Scott Brickman, Neil D. Cohen, Jack Davies and the rest of Transparent Ted’s Monumental Sports business partners listed on the company’s website?
Couldn’t one of them have grabbed Leonsis by the lapels and said, “Stop. Where’s the money?” This makes that group look bad as well.
The vision Leonsis had of a new $2 billion arena and entertainment center to propel his wish to take Monumental Sports public blinded him. Now he only needs to see across F Street and around the arena. With boarded-up businesses, it’s not a vision for Wall Street. It’s a vision that the city will try to improve, Bowser has promised her new good friend, Transparent Ted.
The cost of those improvements — the $515 million Leonsis got for coming back home — may also include the opportunity of bringing the Washington Commanders back to the District at the RFK site, which may soon be under the control of the city if federal legislation is approved. The Department of the Interior owns the land the vacant stadium sits on.
Owner Josh Harris spoke about their stadium search at the NFL owners meetings this week — before the news broke of the Wizards and Capitals staying in the city — and the possible impact that the Monumental Sports outcome could have on the football stadium plans.
Harris said his group was “super focused” on where Monumental Sports landed, the Athletic reported. “We’re certainly watching it, looking at it and learning from it. But there’s not a lot we can do to affect that process, so we’re a little bit removed from it,” Harris said. “But clearly, what happens there could have implications.”
Those implications are the city no longer has $515 million to spend on a Commanders football team. Any new stadium on the RFK site will likely require at least a $1 billion commitment from the District.
It seems to give Maryland a leg up in the stadium competition— putting the new stadium next to the existing one – only closer to the Morgan Station metro stop. It remains the path of least resistance.”
“We’re in deep discussion with Maryland,” Harris said. “But at the time, we’re continuing to pursue the possibility of having a site at RFK.”
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said at those NFL meetings that a new stadium at the RFK site was “warranted.”
No, he didn’t say Warrenton, Virginia.
Did someone mention Virginia?
Virginia is for lovers — not sports franchises.
• You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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