Ted Leonsis’s bid to move the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards to Northern Virginia ended in late March when he officially signed a $515 million deal with Washington DC to keep his teams at Capital One Arena through 2050.
Both fans and the Virginia government resisted the move to Alexandria. Leonsis, a once popular figure in the area, saw much of his goodwill and political capital evaporate in the effort with Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin.
“I look at outcomes, not process, and we got to the right outcome,” Leonsis said in a statement. “I know this was a difficult process and I want people to understand how much I love Washington D.C. and how much I’ve always loved Washington D.C. Mayor Bowser and her team heard us and worked with us and gave us the tools for us to meet the needs of our business to expand right here in downtown.”
Since then, Leonsis has focused not only on how to transform his space at Capital One Arena but Downtown DC at large to draw more crowds and make Gallery Place and Chinatown more of a destination.
The agreement Leonsis signed with DC Mayor Muriel Bowser gives Monumental Sports & Entertainment nearly 200,000 square feet of newly programmed space throughout Capital One Arena and Gallery Place, safety improvements around the venue, and the creation of an Entertainment District allowing no-vending/loitering/noise restrictions.
“We are going to have a state-of-the-art urban arena in Downtown DC and that’s a great deal for DC, for the teams, and for the fans,” Mayor Bowser said in a statement. “This is a catalytic investment in Downtown DC. We are excited to have Monumental as our partners in DC’s Comeback and we look forward to working together to win for DC.”
A rendering of what a revamped Capital One Arena could look like in the future was shared by the Washington Business Journal’s Drew Hansen.
This is a low-res rendering of a renovated Capital One Arena that D.C. pitched to Monumental last year as part of its bid to keep the teams. To be clear, this isn't Monumental's plan, but gives an idea of what might be in store. #dc #dcsports #ALLCAPS #ForTheDistrict pic.twitter.com/NYM0ihOShk
— Drew Hansen (@Drubaru) March 27, 2024
Since the beginning of 2024, several task forces and action plans have been established to ensure that commercial affairs, public safety, new development, and general investment are prioritized to ensure the long-term success of the Gallery Place/Chinatown neighborhood.
Leonsis believes the area must be reimagined and connected with other historic parts of DC to draw more people into the downtown area.
He shared his vast thoughts with FOX 5’s Steve Chenevy:
Ted Leonsis: I see more connectivity between federal Washington, DC, and the Mall. How do we get those 30 million tourists that come in to feel connected to downtown? That’s going to take some smart planning around traffic flow and streets and closures.
I see more walkable spaces, more outdoor dining. I see more integration of how the traffic flows. I see an uplift in Metro – last week when the Caps were in the playoffs we were playing at Madison Square Garden and I took a tour around the building and right across the street now is the Moynihan train station. It’s spectacular. It’s the welcome to New York and it’s so different than it was five years ago. Well lit, big, lots of dining, felt safe.
We have to take our cues from the greatest, world-class cities in the country and how do we make Capital One Arena a new front door for downtown? How do we make this a portal for the 2-2.5 million people that come in every year? Only 15-20 percent are from Washington, DC. That means we’re bringing people in from Virginia and Maryland. How do we get them around?
And, I think we can also look at an expansion of what the definition of downtown is. To me, downtown should be Howard University to the White House lawn all the way to the Capitol. We should be very bespoke, program it that way, outdoor festivals, outdoor film viewing.
And, then how do we activate the universities locally to bring young kids here? I think it’s very, very important that we remain a young, vibrant community. Right now, when we send kids to college, 70 percent of the kids from DC that go to college don’t come back to DC. We need to make cues here for young people that they want to come back and they want to get jobs here, they want to get apartments here, they want to contribute locally.
So, it’s going to be a 20 to 30-year kind of grand master plan. We’ll play a big role in it but I’m thrilled that the Mayor has had a big embrace and brought in really great thinkers, city planners, real estate people, economic development people. We’re going to have to relook at how quickly we can process change orders.
During the conversation on Fox 5, Leonsis revealed that he wants the city to reconsider its strict 130-foot height limitations inside the district that prevent Capital One Arena from further expanding vertically. The law was put in place to preserve the historic sight lines of the city featuring the Washington Monument and Capitol building.
“I know that’s very, very hard but that’s been one of our biggest issues,” Leonsis said. “We’re landlocked here with four acres and maybe we can go up one floor. I drive in every day and I go by Virginia right across the Key Bridge and that’s as vertical as can be. Yet, on this side of the bridge, we can only be like ten stories.”
To make downtown a thriving area again, Leonsis has a three-point plan in mind to help achieve his goals. He conceded that any successful reimagining requires that his sports teams are popular, successful, and drive interest.
Ted Leonsis: Our first constituency has to be our players, coaches, and employees because if we don’t have great teams – that’s our product. That’s why people come in to watch and to participate and give us three hours of their day. So, that’s the bottom floor here, the infrastructure. That’s where we’re making our first work but we can only do it during the offseason. So, the amount of rigor that we will have in scheduling and project management is because we have to still fly the plane. We still have to play Caps games and Wizards games and some Mystics games and all the concerts.
Once the season ends, then we go to double shift. I think it’s going to take four years from next offseason to complete it. First phase will be downstairs, the players’ area, the infrastructure. Then we’ll move up to the bowl, that’s mostly for the fans – better sightlines, better sound systems, more technology, new seats, new dining options.
Then we have to focus on our partners and the city community around. How are we going to have traffic flow where people come in hopefully early, they dine, they shop around, we win a game, they are in a good mood, they want to stay afterwards.
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We’re going to have to keep that discipline on what’s best for the fans, what’s best for the employees, what’s best for the small businesses. This will be a long-term, billion-dollar-plus kind of renovation. My expectation is that the building will be considered world-class but the neighborhood also will be uplifted as well.
Leonsis estimated that the overhaul of Capital One Arena will take approximately four years to complete and construction will begin next offseason. The first phase will be downstairs, including the players’ areas and the infrastructure of the arena. Then MSE will work on the bowl of the and look to improve sightlines, the soundsystem, and seating while also adding more technology and dining options.
