Capitals, Wizards must play in Washington through 2047, DC attorney general says
WASHINGTON - The attorney general for the District of Columbia contends that the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals are obligated to play their games in the downtown arena through 2047, the city’s latest salvo to keep the teams from leaving.
In a letter Brian Schwalb wrote this week to Monumental Sports and Entertainment that was obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, Schwalb cited a 2007 bond agreement for renovations that extended the teams’ lease for 20 more years beyond the initial timeframe through 2027.
The letter comes as Monumental’s $2 billion plan for a new arena across the Potomac River in Alexandria has stalled in the Virginia legislature.
Schwalb said D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s $500 million offer to renovate Capital One Arena still stands. Bowser in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post last month urged Monumental to consider that and said the city would enforce the lease terms if necessary.
Mayor Bowser unveils $400M plan to revitalize Downtown DC - with or without Capitals, Wizards
Mayor Muriel Bowser unveiled a $400 million plan Monday she hopes will help revitalize Downtown D.C.
"The District very much prefers not to pursue any potential claims against MSE," Schwalb wrote in a letter dated Tuesday to Monumental general counsel Abby Blomstrom in response to one she sent to the city last month. "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. 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."
Virginia budget bill leaves out $2 billion deal to relocate Wizards, Capitals to Potomac Yard
A proposal to lure the NBA’s Washington Wizards and NHL’s Washington Capitals to Alexandria took another big hit Thursday, when top Virginia lawmakers confirmed the budget they will take up later this week would not include language enabling the deal.
Monica Dixon, a top executive at Monumental, laid out the company’s case Feb. 12 when asked about the lease ramifications. A Monumental spokesperson referred to Dixon’s comments when reached Friday.
"We wouldn’t have started negotiations with the city or Virginia over the last two years without sound, legal counsel, and we feel confident in it," Dixon said at the time. "If this is something that results in litigation, we oughta let that process play out — I hope it won’t — but we do feel confident about the lease we signed and the amendments."
Since then, Virginia Democratic Sen. L. Louise Lucas used her perch as chair of the Finance and Appropriations Committee to keep the arena deal struck by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Ted Leonsis, the head of Monumental, out of the state budget. That development doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road for the plan, but it complicates the path forward.
"Why are we discussing an arena at Potomac Yard with the same organization that is breaking their agreement and commitments to Washington DC? " Lucas wrote on social media. "Does anyone believe they wouldn’t do exactly the same thing to us?"
A Monumental Sports spokesperson sent a statement to FOX 5 saying, "We fundamentally disagree with the Attorney General’s opinions, which are contradicted by the DC General Counsel as recently as 2019 when the city ratified the Ground Lease. If there were any questions on Monumental Sports’ ability to pre-pay the bonds (an agreement articulated by Mr. Pollin and his team and inherited by Ted Leonsis and Monumental Sports), then the District’s legal authority should have not affirmed the agreement in 2019 – but it did."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.