Washington Wizards & Capitals owner wants everyone to know how much the community is atop his mind
Last year, local taxpayers provided Leonsis with $515 million of taxpayer money to purchase and renovate the arena. Washington, DC, an area that was deep into an economic crisis last year and still is this year, gave a man with a net worth of $4 billion that amount of money? In fact, why on earth is DC buying the arena? Oh, that is right..."so Leonsis and his partners won't have to pay taxes on the $515 million the city is giving them." When someone brought up the absurdity of this entire…
Read More
Speaking of business done in secret, Washington D.C. officials clearly broke the open meetings law
Last week, the city of Alexandria pulled out of negotiations with the Ted Leonsis, owner of the Washington Capitals & Wizards, on his plan to move to Alexandria, Virginia. This killed the deal. One of the reasons the deal was scuttled was due to the Governor of Virginia trying to force the state legislature to accept a “take it or leave it, already-done deal that they can’t kick the tires on and look under the hood on before voting”. In didn't take more than 24 hours for Leonsis to agree to an…
Read More
Are the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards relocating to Arlington? No
Weeks ago, MSE met with DC leaders to discuss expensive improvements that the team wants to be done to the arena. MSE apparently went into this meeting with the hope that “the city (would) help pay for (the project) as an investment in a major economic driver in the struggling downtown”. Normally, the city is obligated legally to give the sports team whatever it wants for renovations or upgrades (see the Bengals as the king of this tactic). Here, the District has no obligation or requirement.…
Read More
