U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., asked about the non-binding agreement that could bring Washington’s NBA and NHL teams to Alexandria on Thursday, said he was “excited to hear about it,” but let on that the devil will be in the details as the many sides to the equation are worked out over the next several months.
“The real issue on land-use decisions like this, I’m a former mayor, and I really respect the will of local officials on something like this,” Kaine said on his weekly conference call with reporters. “So, it’s local officials that need to say grace over the land use, and it’s state officials that need to say grace over the financing. There isn’t really a federal role in that, at least insofar as the discussions have happened already. So, I know those discussions will go forward.”
Kaine offered some criticism of Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who announced the $2 billion deal alongside Ted Leonsis, the billionaire owner of the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and the Monumental Sports Network, the former NBC Washington, which owns the broadcast rights to the NBA and NHL teams, on Wednesday.
“It doesn’t look like the governor had done significant work with both Alexandria officials and state legislators on it,” Kaine said, a nod to media reports that played up the lack of communication between the governor’s office, local leaders and Democrats in the Virginia General Assembly, who will be in the majority in both the House of Delegates in the legislative session that begins in January.
Local residents are already raising significant concerns about the impact of the proposed development on their daily life – most notably, parking for 20,000 fans on game nights, and traffic congestion in a road network that is already strained to capacity.
“As somebody who’s lived in Alexandria for most of my adult life, the Alexandria community, neighbors are our strong vocal community, the Del Ray community in particular,” said U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who also addressed the proposed development in his weekly conference call with reporters, also done on Thursday.
“I think the state and the city probably should have done more outreach in those neighborhoods, communities, because they will have to be assured that their quality of life is not going to be dramatically upset, that there’s going to be appropriate parking restrictions so that their neighborhoods are not flooded with fans parking in non-designated areas, and that there’s going to be adequate protection so that you don’t have any uptick in any kind of crime,” Warner said.
Warner said he likes the proposed financing for the state’s part of the deal – Leonsis is putting up $403 million, Alexandria $106 million, meaning state taxpayers would be on the hook for the other $1.6 billion.
“As somebody who’s was a business guy before I was governor, senator, I think the deal structure, which doesn’t require the state to put up any money upfront, but instead we absorb the tax revenues for this entertainment district, I think it’s a good structure,” Warner said.
One could cynically say, of course a business guy would think tax-increment financing looks good. Tax-increment financing involves the state creating an authority that would borrow the money, and the payback comes from tax revenues that are generated by the project.
In essence, Leonsis, and his company, Monumental Sports & Entertainment, get to use the state as a banker, and they get to use taxes they would already pay to go toward meeting the bond obligations.
This is a great deal for a billionaire sports-team owner who gets a $2 billion development with a 20 percent stake.
Not so much for local and state taxpayers, who are putting up the other 80 percent, without much of an obvious return on investment, other than, we get to say Virginia has a couple of pro sports teams, with Washington still in their name.
“On the land use, that’s for Alexandria and local community leaders. On the funding, I think it’s primarily for state legislators. But it would be great to have pro sports in Virginia,” Kaine said.
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Chris Graham
