Monumental’s Move Across the Potomac River

Dictating what is right for a region and what is right for the long term growth of a sports entity is what is at the heart of a decision made by Monumental Sports owner Ted Leonsis who is heralding a partnership with the state of Virginia to move the NBA’s Wizards and NHL’s Capitals to a new mixed use development in Alexandria Virginia.?

30 years ago the former team owner Abe Pollin successfully helped transform an overlooked area of downtown Washington by building what is now known as Capital One Arena. Businesses opened and flourished. Old vacated properties found new life and interest in living in the Chinatown area brought development and a property value spike. But things have changed in recent years. New development specifically in Southwest DC where the Washington Nationals and MLS’s DC United play has become the new hot area of interest both residentially and commercially. And the pandemic which led to a troubling trend nationally of commercial vacancy never appeared to have recovered in the area where Capital One resides. Crime has increased, so much so, Leonsis has lamented the necessity of hiring a substantive number of security personnel on game nights.?

That reasoning is only part of the decision to move the franchises. The sale of the Washington Commanders in the summer reopened calls for a much needed new stadium for the NFL franchise. The announcement of new ownership immediately acted as a call to action for Maryland (the current home of the Commanders stadium) and DC proper to raise their hands in interest to find ways to advance a new stadium bill. The former home to the then Redskins was the RFK site which, under federal control, has become a dilapidated property in need of renovation. But the federal government has been reluctant for decades to allow district lawmakers the ability to develop the property as they see fit.?

The change in Commanders ownership reinvigorated calls for DC to take control of the site with the likelihood of selling or leasing the land to the NFL team for a new stadium. In this moment, Leonsis seized on an opportunity to publicly remind lawmakers in Washington who has been their partner and who has needs in an aging (but certainly not old) arena.?

At the same time, Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin had pledged to land the state’s first professional team since the Virginia Squires of the American Basketball Association some half century ago. After a failed attempt to lure the Commanders to various sites in northern Virginia during the end of former owner Daniel Snyder’s tenure, Virginia had seemingly just been waiting like Maryland and DC to get in front of new ownership to invigorate new talks. But that never materialized, not publicly at least.?

Leonsis, failing to get commitments from the district to (and I speculate here) get the RFK site for his own new arena and development site or secure a public commitment to a large amount of tax dollars to “repair and improve” Capital One arena had the leverage needed to make a move.?

So it leads to two basic questions: Does a sports entity that acts as a private investment and a public trust owe it to a region not to do harm to a city by its decisions? While the team says the WNBA’s Mystics will move back into Capital One Arena and concerts will continue to operate out of the venue, the possibility of becoming a large vacancy more often then not is a more then likely outcome. This would then lead to a larger and more precipitous decline in a region of the city that was reborn by an arena that will mainly be dark.?

Second, Leonsis is not moving the team’s away by any real tangible way. The new site of their home is a 10 minute metro ride from its current hub. A major airport is 5 minutes down the road and Alexandria literally sits on the Potomac river and situated property, the stadium will have a view of the district. Plus, a move to Virginia has always made sense for professional teams for a variety of reasons most notably population growth, business development specifically in the technology sector and accumulation of regional wealth.?

This is all a long way of saying Leonsis is making the right decision for his franchises taking advantage of the growth potential in northern Virginia and preemptively jumping the line for a stadium before the Commanders make a decision about the location of their new home. Does Monumental have to own a decision that will inarguably do harm to the region they vacate? Yes. But ultimately, a sports entity can’t be responsible for sticking out changes in a neighborhood any more than a dedicated resident. The move makes too much sense for Leonsis and the future of his teams not to do what he knows is right even if he’ll be forced to watch a further decaying of a city he loves.?