DC Attorney General Warns Sports Teams About Relocating to Virginia
WASHINGTON — The District of Columbia’s attorney general is invoking a contract provision with local professional sports teams in the city’s latest bid to keep them from relocating to Northern Virginia.
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb told Monumental Sports and Entertainment in a letter last week that it must keep its Washington Wizards basketball team and Washington Capitals hockey team in Washington through 2047.
Monumental is seeking Virginia General Assembly approval for a $2 billion plan to build a new arena in Alexandria.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin supports the plan but some Alexandria residents are concerned about the disruption it might cause for their neighborhoods. The proposal is stalled in the state Legislature.
Monumental Sports and Entertainment Chief Executive Ted Leonsis said relocation to the Potomac Yard neighborhood in Alexandria would help the company consolidate its operations.
“Right now, we have 3.8 acres,” Leonsis said on his company’s website about Capital One Arena in downtown Washington. “In Potomac Yard we will have 12 acres. Currently, we can only program inside the arena. At Potomac Yard, we will be able to program the entire area, creating an exceptional and contiguous fan experience.”
The new site is planned to have practice facilities, hotels, office spaces and a bigger arena.
Schwalb’s letter said relocation is not an option for Monumental because of a 2007 municipal bond agreement with the city. Money from the bond paid for renovations of Capital One Arena in the Chinatown neighborhood.
In exchange, the city said the bond agreement extended the teams’ lease for 20 years beyond the initial expiration date in 2027.
Monumental argues the extension is not mandatory as long as the company pays off its debts to the city.
“The district very much prefers not to pursue any potential claims against MSE,” Schwalb wrote in his letter to Monumental general counsel Abby Blomstrom.
“It remains committed to maintaining and growing its partnership with MSE and to keeping the Wizards and Capitals at the arena until the end of the existing lease term in 2047, if not beyond,” Schwalb wrote. “It is in that spirit that the district urges MSE to re-engage with district officials around a mutually beneficial arrangement that advances the long-term interests of both the district and MSE.”
A spokesperson for Monumental Sports said in a written statement provided to The Well News that the company fundamentally disagrees with the attorney genera’s opinions, “which are contradicted by the DC general counsel as recently as 2019 when the city ratified the ground lease.”
Even if they fail in their bid for the Alexandria site, they still have an opportunity for the Maryland suburbs.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore spoke with Leonsis about bringing his basketball and hockey teams to the suburbs of Washington after Virginia lawmakers left out plans for the planned sports complex in Alexandria from the state budget this month.
The two teams played at the Capital Centre complex in Landover, Maryland, from the early 1970s through 1997.
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