The offer from the mayor was just what Ted Leonsis had been looking for.
For months, the billionaire owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals had been pressing the D.C. government to pay at least half the cost of modernizing his aging downtown arena. Now, in an email on Dec. 10, a Sunday afternoon, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser was offering just that — $500 million toward an $800 million project to keep his basketball and hockey teams playing in the city for decades to come.
Leonsis responded two hours later, saying he would review the proposal right away and suggesting they meet. On Tuesday morning, the mayor presented her offer at Leonsis’s corporate offices at Capital One Arena, in a conference room with windows overlooking the street below.
They spoke for an hour before the Democratic mayor brought up the elephant in the room. She said she had heard chatter that Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was about to announce a deal to build an arena for the teams on the other side of the Potomac River. She asked Leonsis if it was true.
Leonsis spun 360 degrees in his chair. Nothing had been signed, he said, but he acknowledged he would be joining Youngkin for an announcement the next day.
Suddenly, it became clear: He hadn’t invited the mayor to his offices to discuss her offer. He’d done it to tell her she was too late.
“If you would have offered this to me earlier,” he said, “I would have accepted it.”
The District faced competition from Virginia only because Leonsis had begun quietly exploring a new home for his teams in 2022, after years of complaining about crime and the noise of buskers outside his arena. He had come to believe the mayor was more interested in other professional sports teams, particularly the Commanders, whom Bowser was courting to return to the District.
Leonsis first raised specific options for an arena renovation with city officials in March 2022. Talks dragged on for over a year, leaving the owner frustrated.
I’m not going to support the team if he moves them. No tickets, no television watching of games… Nothing.
Poopybuttsuck
VAs governor is killing me. Wasting our tax dollars on a billionaires stadium when they’re having to put tolls on interstates and bridges
BoyznGirlznBabes
I don’t know how to say this so Ted will understand (oh wait, he does but DGAF), but no one wants a « bespoke experience » for a hockey game. Some of us poors would like to be able to take our families to more than one game a year, lawyer from Jurassic Park « have a coupon day » mofo.
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The offer from the mayor was just what Ted Leonsis had been looking for.
For months, the billionaire owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals had been pressing the D.C. government to pay at least half the cost of modernizing his aging downtown arena. Now, in an email on Dec. 10, a Sunday afternoon, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser was offering just that — $500 million toward an $800 million project to keep his basketball and hockey teams playing in the city for decades to come.
Leonsis responded two hours later, saying he would review the proposal right away and suggesting they meet. On Tuesday morning, the mayor presented her offer at Leonsis’s corporate offices at Capital One Arena, in a conference room with windows overlooking the street below.
They spoke for an hour before the Democratic mayor brought up the elephant in the room. She said she had heard chatter that Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin was about to announce a deal to build an arena for the teams on the other side of the Potomac River. She asked Leonsis if it was true.
Leonsis spun 360 degrees in his chair. Nothing had been signed, he said, but he acknowledged he would be joining Youngkin for an announcement the next day.
Suddenly, it became clear: He hadn’t invited the mayor to his offices to discuss her offer. He’d done it to tell her she was too late.
“If you would have offered this to me earlier,” he said, “I would have accepted it.”
Leonsis’s decision to pull his teams out of the city represents a consequential rupture in what has been a successful partnership between a three-term mayor and an owner who had invested in the District for more than two decades and pledged to stay there. If local and state officials in Virginia sign off, the move could also stall an economic engine that has [drawn](https://www.downtowndc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/3q2018-Culture-Entertainment.pdf) more than 2 million visitors per year to Chinatown, an area that has lately [struggled](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/08/05/chinatown-crime-dc-police/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9) with empty storefronts, office vacancies and [crime](https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/02/12/chinatown-dc-security-guard-shooting/?itid=lk_inline_manual_9).
The construction of a sports and entertainment complex at the site Leonsis has chosen in Alexandria would further shift wealth and spending to the prosperous Northern Virginia suburbs. It would be a legacy-defining coup for a Republican governor who has flirted with [running for president](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/presidential-candidates-2024/?itid=lk_inline_manual_11).
The District faced competition from Virginia only because Leonsis had begun quietly exploring a new home for his teams in 2022, after years of complaining about crime and the noise of buskers outside his arena. He had come to believe the mayor was more interested in other professional sports teams, particularly the Commanders, whom Bowser was courting to return to the District.
Leonsis first raised specific options for an arena renovation with city officials in March 2022. Talks dragged on for over a year, leaving the owner frustrated.
**Read more:** [**https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/02/17/wizards-capitals-leonsis-bowser-youngkin/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com**](https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2024/02/17/wizards-capitals-leonsis-bowser-youngkin/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com)
Fuck Bowser and Ted.
I’m not going to support the team if he moves them. No tickets, no television watching of games… Nothing.
VAs governor is killing me. Wasting our tax dollars on a billionaires stadium when they’re having to put tolls on interstates and bridges
I don’t know how to say this so Ted will understand (oh wait, he does but DGAF), but no one wants a « bespoke experience » for a hockey game. Some of us poors would like to be able to take our families to more than one game a year, lawyer from Jurassic Park « have a coupon day » mofo.
He’s doing it for himself. Enough said.