Leonsis was frustrated that the D.C. government seemed more interested in moving the Commanders than his teams. But he only began serious discussions with the Virginia governor in 2023.
Monumental Sports & Entertainment CEO Ted Leonsis began serious negotiations with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin about building a new sports arena and campus in Alexandria on July 21, 2023, according to a Washington Post investigative report by Jonathan O’Connell, Sam Fortier, Teo Armus, Meagan Flynn, Gregory S. Schneider and Laura Vozzella.
In the investigative report, Leonsis and Youngkin, who have known each other since the Governor was previously a business executive at The Carlyle Group, met in secret at an office in Falls Church. Though Youngkin was initially skeptical about funding for the project, he was ultimately convinced.
Monumental Sports began looking at possible new arena options as early as 2022, and called this initiative “Project Potter.” Here were the goals of that initiative from the piece:
The emails laid out Monumental’s requirements: 10-12 acres for the arena, an additional 5-16 acres for parking, 5-17 acres for training facilities and 10-75 acres for a “mixed-use complex (commercial, residential, entertainment).”
Another desire was “a community that would welcome the engagement of approximately 2.5M+ people annually through games, concerts and events.”
Virginia was not the first state to propose a site to Leonsis and Monumental Sports. A site in Landover, Prince George’s County, Md. was among the first proposed, but ultimately not considered.
The report also went into detail on why the D.C. government couldn’t offer more money. It was due to a self imposed borrowing limit. It isn’t clear whether D.C.’s efforts to court the Washington Commanders to move their stadium was also why, but this did frustrate Leonsis.
Youngkin’s proposal to Leonsis was far from a firm deal in the summer, because Leonsis and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser were coming to terms on an agreement for an $800 million renovation of Capital One Arena. Though Leonsis wanted the city to contribute $600 million, Bowser proposed less, around $433 million, which included new taxes, per the report. The two sides met on Sept. 7 in the Walter E. Washington Convention Center but were unable to come to a formal agreement. This was in part because Leonsis didn’t want to incur too much financial risk with the project, and he didn’t want to see local businesses incur new taxes. Perhaps it was this meeting that ultimately got things going with Virginia.
Though Bowser was ultimately able to get a $500 million package for the renovation of Capital One Arena by Dec. 10, she was just a little bit too late in a meeting on Dec. 12 when Leonsis told her bluntly that he would have accepted her offer if it was presented at an earlier time.
This whole article is a must read, and I only laid out the most pertinent points.
From reading it, I feel like Leonsis did what he could to keep the Wizards and Capitals in Chinatown. However, the D.C. government’s self imposed fiscal rules were the Achilles’ heel when other states, like Virginia, came up with the funding for a bigger campus that Monumental couldn’t refuse.
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