D.C. officials have offered MSE founder & CEO Ted Leonsis (l) $500M in "public funds to upgrade the downtown arena" Getty Images
D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb sent a “clear message” to Monumental Sports & Entertainment founder & CEO Ted Leonsis last week that the Capitals and Wizards are "legally stuck" at Capital One Arena for another two decades, according to Meagan Flynn of the WASHINGTON POST. Schwalb in a March 18 letter accused Monumental of “breaking promises to the city by negotiating with Virginia,” and said that the plan to pull the teams out of Capital One Arena before 2047 “was a no-go.” Schwalb wrote Monumental "should come back to the negotiating table with D.C. officials,” who have offered Leonsis $500M in "public funds to upgrade the downtown arena." Flynn noted a disagreement over the lease stems from Capital One Arena undergoing significant improvements in 2007. At that time, the D.C. Council "approved legislation hiking sales taxes at the arena, money that would go toward paying off" the $50M in bond financing. Former Wizards and Capitals owner Abe Pollin’s company "committed to extending the lease another 20 years at the same time." Schwalb “broached setting up a meeting” with D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson and MSE EVP & General Counsel Abby Blomstrom -- “not to debate the legal dispute over ending the lease, but to restart negotiations.” Schwalb said the "purpose of the meeting should not be to discuss ending MSE’s partnership with the District, but rather to resume exploring an agreement to keep the Wizards and Capitals in our great city through at least 2047” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/22).
ALTERNATE PROPOSAL: In D.C., Vozella & Armus reported with Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s plans to build a $2B arena for the Wizards and Capitals "in jeopardy," three political and business figures have been pitching an “unlikely Hail Mary: an idea to pair the sports arena with a new casino in Fairfax County.” Instead of building the arena in Potomac Yard with taxpayer-backed bonds, their plan calls for "putting it in the Tysons area alongside the casino, with tax revenue generated by gambling used to guarantee the arena bonds.” The effort comes as backers of the original deal "mount an 11th-hour scramble to rescue a project that much of Richmond has left for dead.” However, the idea has been “flatly rejected” by Youngkin and MSE, who “still hope that their original plan to build the arena in Potomac Yard will overcome setbacks” in the General Assembly. The casino idea itself has also been “unpopular in Northern Virginia." The three who have pitched the casino-arena idea say that it “could revive both projects” and leave Senate Finance Chair L. Louis Lucas -- the arena’s self-described one-woman “roadblock” -- "satisfied that the sports complex would not put the state’s finances at risk.” Comstock CEO Christopher Clemente pitched the proposal directly to Leonsis in a phone call Wednesday. Sources said that Leonsis then “called Youngkin on Thursday to voice disgust with what he saw as pressure to link his proposed arena to the casino” (WASHINGTON POST, 3/24).
RELATED: Report: Maryland Gov. met with Ted Leonsis about bringing Caps, Wizards to state
