A D.C. comeback: Why the Washington Wizards and Capitals are staying in the District

The Politics Hour with Kojo Nnamdi

It's game over for the Alexandria arena with the Washington Wizards and Capitals now poised to stay in the District.

On Wednesday, D.C. councilmembers, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and Monumental Sports owner Ted Leonsis announced a deal to keep the sports teams at Capital One Arena in D.C. until 2050. It came weeks after a proposal to move the teams to a new arena in Alexandria fell apart in the Virginia General Assembly and only hours after the City of Alexandria said it ended negotiations with Monumental Sports to build an arena and entertainment complex in Potomac Yard.

On this week’s Politics Hour, we brought together several of the major players involved in this region-defining reversal.

Alexandria City Councilmember John Chapman said that the city’s decision to end the project was largely based on the disapproval they heard from residents.

“A good number of people were not happy with the proposal,” he said. “The biggest concern for everyone was traffic and what transportation would look like.”

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser explained how D.C. was able to convince the teams to stay. She said she kept meeting with Leonsis, despite the ongoing negotiations he was having with Virginia officials.

Bowser says she knew it was not a done deal and that’s why there was a hope the decision would be ultimately reversed.

“We decided not to give up and just let our teams go across the river to what we thought was at best a risky proposition for them,” Bowser said. “It was risky... to get approved. We thought it was risky to get delivered. And we thought it was a huge risk to the Monumental brand if the fans would follow or not.”

D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson explained that the $500 million being offered to renovate Capital One Arena doesn’t come at the expense of social services.

“We have two budgets. One is the operating budget and the other is the capital budget. The operating budget is where social service programs are, public safety programs, public education programs so forth. The capital budget is very different.

Prince George's County Councilmember Krystal Oriadha also spoke with Kojo and Tom about budget troubles, crime, and school absenteeism.

Oriadha connected increasing rates of crime and truancy, saying many of those committing crimes are young people. Because of that, the Prince George’s County Council is prioritizing keeping kids in classrooms.

“We started a work group focused on truancy because what we realized is a lot of repeat offenders, when we had a meeting with the State’s Attorney if they pulled their transcript, were truant,” said Oriadha. “We realized we didn’t have an actual mechanism that triggered an early warning system with that young person early enough.”

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