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The bill to create a stadium authority is stalled in the VA Senate. I'm sure this isn't the end of the process. Right now it looks like the Chair of the Senate Finance Committee is holding it up. Perhaps it can still pass without going through the Senate committee or can be reworked to win over sufficient support. But it is certainly a setback for the move to VA.
It's certainly not dead. It's a timeline issue, the first deadline was tomorrow. All that has to happen is the Governor can propose the bill to the General Assembly as a part of his budget, and then the process starts over with a bit more oversight.
"Youngkin’s office released the following comment in response: “The Governor is confident at the end of the day that the General Assembly will come together because this project is good for the entire Commonwealth."
"The decision in effect killed the Senate version of the legislation because of a procedural deadline this week, though another bill is making progress in the House of Delegates, which is also controlled by Democrats."
It's certainly not dead. It's a timeline issue, the first deadline was tomorrow. All that has to happen is the Governor can propose the bill to the General Assembly as a part of his budget, and then the process starts over with a bit more oversight.
"Youngkin’s office released the following comment in response: “The Governor is confident at the end of the day that the General Assembly will come together because this project is good for the entire Commonwealth."
"The decision in effect killed the Senate version of the legislation because of a procedural deadline this week, though another bill is making progress in the House of Delegates, which is also controlled by Democrats."
Yeah, not dead by any means. But, another sign of friction for a project that needs a lot of things have to line up for this to come into being. There is likely to be a lot of other roadblocks between getting the needed state and city approvals, funding the WMATA upgrades, and staving off the inevitable lawsuits. The Mayor of Alexandria is holding to the fiction that people will use Metro at similar rates as with the current arena. Meanwhile, the Governor is proposing road expansions to facilitate the all the added traffic.
Virginia lawmakers did not include arena funding in the budget. NBC Washington characterized the situation as “likely ending” plans to move the caps & wizards to Virginia [with taxpayer dollars]
Good for Virginia. It's a waste of resources for one jurisdiction to pay to rearrange economic activity that's already occurring elsewhere within the region. It's one thing to offer incentives for outside businesses that will grow our region's economy; it's another thing to bribe people just to rearrange deck chairs.
I hope that Monumental puts as much effort into renovating their arena -- and redeveloping the Gallery Place complex, which Monumental is petitioning to gain control over -- as they did into this dead-end idea.
Looks like this could be the start of an ugly breakup between DC and Monumental if the teams do continue with their plan to leave.
Monumental opposes a proposal to package a casino and arena out in Tyson’s. Doesn’t look like many were interested in the proposal but it seems like proximity to DC is appealing to Monumental.
Maryland doesn’t seem interested. Virginia Democrats effectively killed the Government handouts to Monumental and will probably remain that way so long as the GOP has power. DC is stating Monumental must remain until 2047 which must mean their agreement has some bite to it.
Monumental, really, should’ve played nice with Washington until, you know… they had firm commitments from VA. I’m sure Washington will still give subsidies but. They didn’t do themselves any good will amongst any of the 3 jurisdictions.
Looks like this could be the start of an ugly breakup between DC and Monumental if the teams do continue with their plan to leave.
I would be interested to see an 3rd party legal opinion on this. As I understand it, this comes down to the language in the lease agreement that appears to allow Monumental to pay off the debt early and exist the lease without the 20 year extension to 2047. The AG appears to say those provisions exceeded the District legislation and are therefore unenforceable?
I don't know enough about the law to form an educated opinion on the legal case. But, I do have some skeptisms toward the AG's letter.
1) The AG is an elected official and the first 2/3rds of the letter talk about the benefits of having the teams in the district and only the last 1/3 addresses the legal argument/
2) this was released a couple months after the fact, that may indicated this view was not immediately obvious and required some creative lawyering.
3) Monumental has very well resourced attorneys, it seems they would understand the terms of the lease. It maybe what Ted says goes, but it seems unlikely Monumental would undertake all of this proposed move without legal uncertainty.
I have long been skeptical that this move would actually happen and the problems in the State House have increased the odds they stay in the District. But, a NoVa arena isn't completely dead. Right now it is one (powerful) Chairwoman who is blocking the deal. It is not inconceivable a deal is worked out and VA's legislature approves this or a modified version. I still think VA's actions are more important that this lease agreement legal dispute.
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