Comment on this storyCommentAdd to your saved storiesSave
Plans for a Northern Virginia sports arena that could move the Washington Capitals and Wizards from downtown D.C. have drawn sharp questions from residents and elected officials, from the potential impact on the District's struggling downtown to how much Taxpayers may have to pay.
But the most important of these was a pragmatic question: How might commuting to, from and near the new arena change?
The $2 billion project, formally announced Wednesday by Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) and Monumental Sports & Entertainment owner Ted Leonsis, sees the relocation of both professional sports teams to a facility just steps away, $2 billion, 12-acre mixed-use complex in front of a new subway station in Alexandria's Potomac Yard neighborhood.
Officials have welcomed the project, which would be built by a public-private partnership, borrowing money from Wall Street, as one that could spur development in an underused corner of the D.C. suburbs.
But that would make the Wizards the only NBA team to play outside of their hometown and the Capitals one of the few professional men's hockey teams to do so. This has raised concerns about how sports fans across the region would be able to get to games, particularly given that the subway system is facing significant financial difficulties.
“Traffic and transportation options are probably the biggest unknowns here, and we still have a lot of work to do with the community on that,” Alexandria Mayor Justin M. Wilson (D) said at a neighborhood meeting to up to 450 people via Zoom on Wednesday evening. “This is an absolutely critical part and a part that could require a lot of work.”
The arena proposal is subject to a non-binding agreement and must receive enough votes to advance through both the Alexandria City Council and the Virginia General Assembly. Failure to secure enough votes on either committee – or a last-minute decision by Monumental to keep the teams in DC – would prevent the plan from coming to fruition.
If the teams move to Virginia, many fans across the region who can now get to games in D.C. on any subway line would have to travel longer to a train station in Alexandria served only by the Blue and Yellow lines. And that's if these lines even run.
Metro officials laid out serious financial challenges this week, saying if regional jurisdictions don't provide hundreds of millions of dollars more, the transit authority could face radical cuts, including ending all Metrorail service daily at 10 p.m. the end of government pandemic subsidies and inflation, including higher labor costs.
Commuters driving through the Potomac Yard area worry that the two main thoroughfares — Route 1 and George Washington Memorial Parkway — could become even more congested on game days. And residents in nearby, more suburban neighborhoods like Del Ray worry that their neighborhood could turn into a crowded parking lot.
At a Del Ray Citizens Association meeting that could draw 30 or 40 people on a good evening, hundreds of neighbors asked Wilson a series of questions about their concerns – many worried about whether the streets could handle more traffic.
“When you're talking about 20,000 more people coming to a venue 365 days a year, that's very concerning,” Adrien Lopez said after attending Wednesday's meeting. “That’s not what Potomac Avenue was built for.”
Lopez, who lives on the south end of Potomac Yard, said she has been in discussions to organize a formal residents' group to oppose the arena.
Preliminary development plans for Potomac Yard
Long term
Future
Development
new arena,
practice facility,
Monumental sport
Offices and
studios,
Fan space
And
carry out
Art venue
office, living,
Retail, hotel
And
Community
Assembly
rooms
Potomac
Yard VT
metro
Railroad station
Sources: Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Alexandria Economic Development Partnership,
GoogleEarthPro and Alexandria GIS open data hub
LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Preliminary development plans for Potomac Yard
Long term
Future
Development
new arena,
practice facility,
Monumental sport
Offices and
studios,
Fan space
And
carry out
Art venue
office, living,
retail, hotel and
Community
Assembly
rooms
Potomac
Yard VT
metro
Railroad station
Sources: Monumental Sports & Entertainment and Alexandria Economic
Development Partnership, GoogleEarthPro and Alexandria GIS
LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Preliminary development plans for
Potomac Yard
Long term
Future
Development
new arena,
Practice facility
Potomac
Yard VT
metro
Railroad station
Sources: Monumental Sports & Entertainment and
Alexandria Economic Development Partnership,
GoogleEarthPro and Alexandria GIS
LARIS KARKLIS/THE WASHINGTON POST
Other residents were concerned about the impact the arena would have on parking. The sports and entertainment complex would have an underground parking garage that some officials said would have about 2,500 spaces.
Wilson promised at Wednesday's meeting to explore a parking zoning initiative that would limit on-street parking in neighborhoods like Del Ray to residents. Such a program exists for neighborhoods near Alexandria's other metro stations, he said.
Improvements to Route 1 were proposed even before the project. A state transportation study is underway that recommends converting the road, which is mostly elevated on its route from Alexandria to D.C., into an “urban boulevard” with more traffic lights at the same level as the rest of the road.
The state and Alexandria would contribute a combined $150 million to $200 million in transportation improvements to support the arena, but the exact amount is being negotiated by officials and could depend on which projects are selected.
Wilson and others have said a likely goal would be to provide additional service and expand the capacity of the Potomac Yard subway station, including a ramp that would connect it to the arena itself. Others have decided to connect the site with Amtrak or Virginia Railway Express, both of which will run on tracks adjacent to the complex and benefit from a $729 million federal grant announced earlier this month.
The plan would have had a “more robust” transportation component if the various parties involved had been able to discuss options with neighboring Amazon, but they were unable to do so until the Monumental deal was publicly announced, according to two Youngkin Employees who spoke Wednesday spoke on condition of anonymity to share confidential details of the project.
The improvements proposed for the Monumental project could match the $295 million pledged as part of the effort to move Amazon's new headquarters to Arlington County. The subway station was one of Amazon's transportation improvements, but more money still needs to be spent. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns the Washington Post, and the Post's interim CEO, Patty Stonesifer, sits on Amazon's board.)
Metro General Manager Randy Clarke said he was not involved in the process over a plan to woo Monumental, but reiterated Wilson's focus on expanding capacity.
“As everything moves forward, we will obviously need to work closely and coordinate with the larger development,” Clarke said. “If this is a $2 billion investment, I would like to assume there will be some sort of interaction with us to make that happen.”
The Monumental project also includes $110 million in “on-site infrastructure,” including road, signal and intersection improvements, which would be funded through bonds that would be issued by a stadium authority in Virginia. The authority would build the stadium by borrowing money from Wall Street, which would then be repaid in part with taxes generated by the project.
Sen. Scott A. Surovell (D-Fairfax) said he hopes the Monumental project will galvanize Youngkin and other Republicans to support finding solutions to the ongoing Metro funding crisis and provide a “fair, permanent and long-term funding solution for “This incredibly important project” to achieve public good.
“The only reason this project gets where it does is because it's next to a subway station, and I hope that reality makes the governor aware of the supercharger, the subway of Northern Virginia's economy gives,” he said. “If you look around Northern Virginia, all the construction cranes are near subway stations. And messing with Metro funding is a great way to poison the goose that lays the golden egg for the entire Commonwealth.”
Surovell said other Democratic lawmakers have been discussing with the administration how to address Metro's funding shortfall this year and ongoing structural deficiencies.
He declined to comment on the content of those private conversations, but expressed his hope that Youngkin would be more sympathetic to Metro with Monumental as a player.
Asked whether the Monumental project might make the governor more likely to support Metro funding, Youngkin spokeswoman Macaulay Porter did not respond directly, but said in an email: “Up to $200 million in external funding.” Transportation infrastructure costs will be borne by the Commonwealth and the City.”
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.), an Alexandria resident and former lieutenant governor of Virginia, said his bigger questions centered on transportation in the region. But he also pointed to the street, to the second headquarters that Amazon has built in Arlington.
“When Amazon came out, there were all these concerns about what it would do to transportation and housing. It’s no harder to drive Route 1 than it was before.”
Laura Vozzella in Richmond and Sam Fortier, Michael Laris and Bailey Johnson in Washington contributed to this report.