WASHINGTON — Monumental Sports and Entertainment President of External Affairs Monica Dixon said Washington Capitals and Wizards owner Ted Leonsis’s potential arena deal at Alexandria’s Potomac Yard is not dead despite the Senate Finance Committee’s decision Monday not to consider the legislation to fund the project.
“We believe that by being open and transparent we can gain the support we need to pass the project,” Dixon said.
Dixon said the proposal has strong support in the Virginia House of Delegates, where it sailed through its first hearing, and she believes Monumental can still negotiate a deal with opponents in the Senate.
“We are eager to engage with the Senate Finance Committee and all the legislators to make sure they have all the information they need to evaluate this proposal,” Dixon said.
But just two hours before Monumental met with the media, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was in front of news cameras. The Mayor said if Leonsis attempted to use a provision of his Capital One lease to get out of his lease with the city in 2027, 20 years early, the city would fight him in court.
“I won't be able to talk about our legal strategy,” Bowser said. “But we have one.”
The provision Leonsis plans to use is part of a 2007 amendment to the Capitol One lease. It says the Capitals and Wizards can leave the arena in 2027 if Leonsis pays off the bond early. The Mayor didn’t provide specifics, but she said she did not plan to allow that to happen.
“Like any lease that I have anywhere in the District of Columbia, I expect that we are going to go through any agreement that we have to make sure that D.C. taxpayers are protected,” Bowser said. “And this case is no different.”
Monumental responded to the Bowser’s threat saying they never would have moved forward with the proposed move to Northern Virginia if they weren’t confident they could legally exit the agreement early.
“We would not have started negotiations with the city or Virginia over the last two years without sound legal counsel,” Dixon said. “And we feel confident in it.”
Dixon said the new Potomac Yard arena is not scheduled to be complete for the start of the 2028 season, meaning if the Virginia plan gains approval, the Capitals and the Wizards would need to figure out where to play for some if not all of 2028.
Dixon said Monumental hopes Mayor Bowser would negotiate a one-year lease to allow the teams to remain in Capital One while the new arena is being completed. It is unclear if the Mayor would agree to do that in light of the legal challenges she said the city plans to bring if Monumental goes through with its move.
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