Virginia state senator L. Louise Lucas, chair of the Senate Finance & Appropriations Committee, has proclaimed the proposed bill that would see a new arena complex built in Alexandria for the purpose of relocating the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards is dead.
Lucas made the statement while taking questions from assembled reporters on Monday.
The legislation was not heard in Lucas’ committee this past weekend, effectively killing the Senate version of the bill due to it not meeting a procedural deadline. The early stages of the House version of the bill is still alive and was passed by the Virginia House Appropriations Committee in a 17-3 vote on Friday.
That bill, titled Virginia Sports and Entertainment Authority and Financing Fund, simply establishes the entity that will be charged with finding the financing for the entire Potomac Yard complex. Lucas has made it clear that the Senate will eventually vote that down as well anyway.
At the start of the Senate finance committee this morning, @SenLouiseLucas explained why the sports authority bill isn’t on the docket today. She fears it places too much risk on the Commonwealth and taxpayers and blames @GlennYoungkin for refusing to negotiate. @wusa9 pic.twitter.com/1GF727U1Eh
— Matthew Torres (@News_MTorres) February 12, 2024
The news appears to be a major hit to Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s plans to move their teams to the proposed Potomac Yard site. Ted Leonsis, the owner of MSE, seemingly has Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin to blame.
Lucas says Youngkin’s main fault was not getting the actual lawmakers responsible for handling the bills involved at the beginning of the process. Instead, Youngkin pushed the initial proposal through the Major Economic Investments process with outgoing legislators that cycled off of that panel soon after giving their votes of approval.
“Mistake number two was not bringing the legislature in early enough before all the information was just out there in the public,” Lucas told Hayley Milon Bour.
Youngkin then further dug a hole with the Democrat-controlled state legislature when he gave a speech this past weekend at Washington and Lee University. Among other inflammatory remarks, Youngkin said that Democrats “do not believe in — nor do they want — a strong America.”
Outside of Youngkin’s faults, Lucas and other Dems are highly concerned with the project’s planned funding through “moral obligation bonds.” The bonds would essentially obligate city and state governments to foot up to a third of the eventual check should proposed streams of revenue not meet expectations. Per the AP, examples of those revenue sources include ticket taxes, parking fees, concession taxes, income taxes on the players, and naming rights for the complex.
“As long as the full faith and credit of the commonwealth is backing this project, my answer continues to be an absolute no,” Lucas told the AP’s Sarah Rankin.
Monica Dixon, President, External Affairs and Chief Administrative Officer at MSE, said in a written statement to Rankin that the company is having “healthy discussions” with Virginia state legislature leaders and Alexandria City Council members, who would also need to sign off on any deal.
In addition to the trials and tribulations being faced in Virginia, MSE might still have a challenge on their plate coming from the city of DC. In a recent op-ed in The Washington Post, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said that she and the city “intend to keep our end of the bargain and enforce the leases” with MSE that require the Wizards and Capitals to play at Capital One Arena through 2047.
Boswer’s words conflict with MSE’s prevailing opinion that due to the language of their contract, they can get out of that lease early so long as they pay off the $35 million in currently outstanding bonds. The company went as far as tweeting out the amendment they are citing to combat the op-ed argument.
We've been clear w/ @MayorBowser that we will honor agreements to play at the arenas. Caps & Wiz have the right to pay off the bond in 2027 & end the COA lease early – MSE plans to exercise that right. And the Mystics will play at ESA through 2037 (unless city agrees otherwise). https://t.co/kwIDVd7BQz pic.twitter.com/Cj1FUOX7HH
— Monumental Sports & Entertainment (@MSE) February 11, 2024
Bowser added that DC “owns the land under the Capital One Arena” and “will own the building” should the teams leave. Back in December, Bowser and Council Chairman Phil Mendelson announced a last-minute bill that, if passed, would have offered Monumental $500 million in public funding in an attempt to keep the Capitals and Wizards within the city. MSE had previously asked DC for $600 million.
“If he’s willing to renege on a lease for the folks in DC, what’s to say he wouldn’t do that to us?” Lucas told WUSA 9 Matthew Torres. “I’m not willing to take those risks, not under my watch.”
