The NBA’s Wizards and the NHL’s Capitals will continue to play in the city of Washington after a plan to move them to the state of Virginia imploded.
After the project collapsed, the owner of the basketball and ice hockey teams signed an agreement with the government of the US capital that includes an improved $515 million arena, financed with public funds.
Mayor Muriel Bowser and owner Ted Leonsis on Wednesday signed a letter of intent related to the new project, which will keep the two teams in the District of Columbia until at least 2050. The parties announced the plan minutes later during a joint conference at Capital One Arena.
“It’s a great day and I feel really relieved,” Leonsis said.
The project would include 18,580 square meters of expansion of the arena complex in the nearby space known as Gallery Place, the creation of an entertainment district in the surrounding Chinatown, as well as security and transportation improvements.
“We are the current and future home of the Capitals and the Washington Wizards,” Bowser emphasized. “As Ted often says, ‘We’re going to be together for a long time.’”
The District of Columbia Assembly will consider the agreement next week and is expected to approve it, Chairman Phil Mendelson said at the conference.
The agreement between Monumental Sports & Entertainment and the city council arose after the authorities of Alexandria, a city located on the other side of the Potomac River in Virginia, said that they had concluded talks seeking to build a new arena to which the teams would have moved.
Leonsis recognized that Virginia had land, an advantage not offered by the District of Columbia.
“One is in this arms race to build bigger, better and higher quality centers, and we have run out of space,” said Leonsis in reference to the new entertainment community that the agreement envisions but which is not as large as the 4 .9 hectares dedicated to sand in Virginia. “However, it is enough.”
The businessman said he did not want to talk about the problems with Virginia. However, he leveled some veiled criticism at the state, where political divisions between Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and the Democrats who control the General Assembly led to the plan being aborted.
2024-03-28 00:16:00
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