RICHMOND, Va. — Negotiations on luring the NHL’s Washington Capitals and the NBA’s Washington Wizards to northern Virginia have “ended” and the proposal to create a growth district with a brand new area for the groups “won’t transfer ahead,” the town of Alexandria mentioned Wednesday.
Virginia’s Home speaker additionally confirmed he was advised that Ted Leonsis, majority proprietor of the groups, is not contemplating a deal to relocate them from the District of Columbia.
Home Speaker Don Scott advised The Related Press he acquired that information from Justin Wilson, the mayor of Alexandria, the place Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin had hoped to land the groups.
Town mentioned in an announcement posted to its web site that it was disenchanted within the end result. The event got here after an incentive plan provided by Youngkin failed to realize traction within the Democratic-controlled Basic Meeting.
“We negotiated a framework for this chance in good religion and took part within the course of in Richmond in a means that preserved our integrity. We trusted this course of and are disenchanted in what occurred between the Governor and Basic Meeting,” the town’s assertion mentioned.
Daniel Gleick, a spokesman for D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, mentioned he had no info he may share “presently.”
Youngkin’s press workplace had no fast remark. A spokeswoman for the groups’ dad or mum firm did not reply to a request for remark.
Youngkin and Leonsis introduced at a public occasion in December that they’d reached an understanding on the outlines of a plan calling for a brand new $2 billion growth district with a brand new area in Alexandria, only a few miles from the place the groups at present play.
The proposal known as for the Basic Meeting to arrange an authority that may difficulty bonds to finance nearly all of the mission, backed partly by the town and state governments and repaid by way of a mixture of projected tax revenues recaptured from the event.
Youngkin and different supporters mentioned the event would generate tens of 1000’s of jobs, together with new tax revenues past what would have been wanted to cowl the financing.
However the plan confronted opposition from labor unions, Alexandria residents involved about site visitors and D.C. officers who feared the lack of the groups would devastate downtown Washington.
Youngkin and different backers additionally didn’t win over highly effective Democratic Sen. L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, who chairs the Senate’s budget-writing committee. She used that place to dam the laws, citing a spread of issues however foremost the financing construction of the deal: The usage of bonds put taxpayers and the state’s funds in danger, Lucas mentioned.
Wilson, the Alexandria mayor, mentioned in a video assertion, “We’re disenchanted that this proposal was not in a position to be thoughtfully thought-about on its deserves … and as a substitute bought caught up in partisan warfare in Richmond.”
Final week the legal professional for the District of Columbia wrote a letter to Monumental Sports activities & Leisure, the groups’ dad or mum firm, saying their lease saved them within the downtown area by way of 2047. The corporate had disputed that assertion.
Leonsis, founder and CEO of Monumental, had shifted his tone on social media in latest days, pointing to giant crowds in Washington’s Capital One Area this month for every part from the Capitals and Wizards to ACC Match basketball and a Zach Bryan live performance. He posted Wednesday that Monumental anticipated over 400,000 followers to go by way of turnstiles in March.
Leonsis was notably not on the ice Sunday for a ceremony honoring longtime Capitals winger T.J. Oshie for reaching the milestone of 1,000 NHL video games. He was booed by some followers when his message to Oshie got here up on area video screens.
