Virginia Legislature Removes Alexandria Arena from Budget

Plans to build a new arena in Alexandria as part of a $2B, 9M SF sports and entertainment complex suffered a major setback on Thursday when a budget compromise in the state legislature did not include the project.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Ted Leonsis, owner of Washington DC’s NBA and NHL franchises, announced in December that the Wizards and Capitals would be moving across the river from DC’s downtown Capital One Arena to a new sports venue in Alexandria’s Potomac Yards area.

Language that would have created a sports and entertainment authority with the power to issue bonds for the arena development has been stripped out of a budget plan for the upcoming fiscal year by negotiators for the two chambers of the legislature, the Washington Post reported.

Louise Lucas, a staunch opponent of the arena project who heads the Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee, made it clear she hopes the arena project is dead.

“They’ve twisted my arm, they’ve bent my ears, and I still told them, ‘No,’” Sen. Lucas told the Post, after tweeting a meme of herself flashing a peace sign over a grave with a headstone that read “Youngkin and Leonsis’ $5 billion arena.”

Lucas’ estimate of the price tag for the project is nearly twice what proponents of the sports complex say it would cost.

Budget negotiators from Virginia’s House, which had previously approved budget language supporting the sports complex before the compromise, did not appear as eager to bury the project.

Mark Sickles, the House Appropriations Vice Chair, told the Post that the project proposal “is not ready for prime time” as currently configured. “The consensus bill has not been developed yet for the arena,” Sickles added.

House Speaker Don Scott Jr. told the newspaper he’s not ready to say the project is dead. “There have been several conversations back and forth. It’s not final until it’s final,” Scott said, adding “if we don’t get there, the Commonwealth will still be fine and we’ll still be able to make more economic development deals, whether this one comes through or not.”

The deal announced in December between the state and Leonsis’ firm, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, is a nonbinding agreement that envisioned the two DC sports teams moving to a facility in Alexandria’s Potomac Yards as soon as 2028.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has offered $500M in funding to upgrade Capital One Arena in an effort to convince Leonsis to keep the Capitals and Wizards in downtown Washington.