Hours after the owner of the Washington Capitals and Wizards announced tentative plans to move the teams out of downtown D.C. to Northern Virginia, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) pledged that the fight to retain them was not over.
If the move goes through, it will mark a stunning upset for a mayor who just five months earlier had branded the city the nation’s “sports capital” and announced an entire staff dedicated to keeping and recruiting sports franchises. Bowser made a $500 million offer to billionaire Ted Leonsis ahead of Wednesday’s announcement in an 11th-hour bid to keep the teams at Capital One Arena in the heart of downtown D.C. — an offer she said Wednesday remains on the table.
But it appears to have been too little, too late. By the time she and D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) had rolled out formal legislation for the investment late Tuesday night, celebratory tents had gone up near the Potomac Yard Metro station in anticipation of a joint appearance between Leonsis and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).
While Bowser said she had been negotiating with Leonsis in good faith for months, the seemingly last-minute nature of the “best and final” offer caused critics to privately question whether she had moved with enough urgency as Virginia’s efforts to woo Leonsis ramped up.
