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A year ago, the Washington Wizards and Capitals were bound for Virginia.
Monumental Sports, the organization that owns both teams as well as the WNBA’s Mystics, set its sights on an entertainment complex in Alexandria while the company was deadlocked with D.C. over renovations to its downtown Capital One Arena, where the Wizards play.
Now, the teams could become D.C. trendsetters.
In March, Monumental Sports owner Ted Leonsis reached a deal with the city to keep his teams there with a $515 million renovation to Capital One Arena over the next three years. This came after Virginia’s state senate failed to get arena funding for the Alexandria project included in its budget.
Downtown Washington has struggled with crime, office tenant occupancy, and declining tourism in recent years. Yet the city’s ability to keep its teams within its borders now has Monumental at the forefront of the push to reinvigorate the area.
“We’re going to take a lot of pride in being part of downtown D.C.’s comeback,” Zach Leonsis, Monumental’s president of media and new enterprises said on Front Office Sports Today. “It is already coming back. And so we are sort of the anchor tenant.”
Monumental Sports and the Nationals, which the company hopes to buy if the team is put up for sale, have had downtown D.C. to themselves for years, but could be joined by the Washington Commanders down the road. The Commanders are currently lobbying Congress to give them permission to build a new stadium on the current site of RFK Stadium.
Leonsis said he doesn’t have any insight into the RFK Stadium situation, but he would welcome the city’s NFL team. “We’d certainly be supportive,” Leonsis said. “We’ve always been of the mindset that a rising tide lifts all boats.”
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