ALEXANDRIA, Va. — While Monumental Sports and Entertainment makes its big push to bring an arena to Alexandria, a group of concerned residents are pushing back in Richmond.
The group “Stop the Arena” is a coalition of Northern Virginia and DC residents who do not want to see the Capitals and Wizards vacate the Capital One Arena for a new site in Potomac Yard.
For several weeks, the group has hosted virtual town halls and protests against the proposed move. At the same time, the legislation to grant Monumental Sports and Entertainment $2 billion in bonds to build the arenas is making its way through the General Assembly.
Thursday, the Stop the Arena group met at a Target parking lot in Alexandria, not far from the proposed arena site. They took a bus to Richmond to plead their case with lawmakers.
“Clearly the General Assembly is getting close to, at least the Senate Finance committee is, to passing this,” Andrew MacDonald, an Alexandria native, said.
“We are going down there to tell them we want them to stop the bill right now, and let the voters of Alexandria have a say in what happens.”
It’s not just Alexandria residents in the coalition. Ron Moten from Don’t Mute D.C. wants to see the Wizards and Capitals stay in DC, that is why he got on the bus to Richmond.
“We’ll be here to talk to lawmakers just to see, are they going to listen to the region, or three billionaires?” Moten said.
Meanwhile, Monumental Sports CEO Ted Leonsis said he was surprised by the outrage on social media about his plan to move from Capital One Arena in Penn Quarter to a state-of-the-art 20,000-seat arena in Potomac Yard.
“I've been hurt but that's my personality,” Leonsis said in a one-on-one interview with WUSA9 Chief Investigative Reporter Eric Flack. “I'm not your typical average businessperson. I care what people think.”
RELATED: Coalition calls into question the economic impact of the proposed sports complex in Potomac Yard
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