Monumental Reportedly Asking D.C. For $600M To Renovate Capital One Arena

Monumental Sports & Entertainment is reportedly asking the District to pitch in $600M for a four-year renovation effort to upgrade the Capital One Arena, the home of the Washington Capitals and Wizards and an anchor of the Chinatown neighborhood. 

The request would cover three-quarters of the total $800M renovation to the 20,000-seat arena, with Monumental investing the rest, The Washington Post reported Friday, citing two unnamed sources.

The ask comes as Monumental, which owns the Capitals and Wizards, is also in talks with Virginia officials about the possibility of moving to Alexandria’s Potomac Yard neighborhood, according to the Post. 

A Monumental spokesperson declined to answer questions about the $600M request of D.C. or the talks with Virginia officials. 

“Monumental Sports & Entertainment is committed to delivering the best fan experience, winning championships, giving back to our communities, and becoming the most valuable regional sports and entertainment enterprise in the world,” the spokesperson wrote in an email to Bisnow. “We will continue to make decisions with these goals in mind.” 

A spokesperson for Mayor Muriel Bowser's office also didn't comment on the specifics of the reports. 

“The District and Monumental Sports are proud to have had a longstanding and positive relationship that has contributed greatly the vibrancy of this city,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “The District recognizes that Capital One Arena serves as an important economic anchor as we continue to reimagine and reinvigorate our Downtown.”

The funds Monumental is requesting from the city would be used primarily for construction, which would begin next summer and proceed over the next four summers to avoid disrupting games, the Post reported. 

Priorities would include reducing the number of nosebleed seats and creating more seating closer to the floor, adding a food court that would be open outside of game hours and a new glassy entrance at Seventh and F streets, the Post reported. 

The renovation’s price tag would be more than the amount spent on the arena’s construction in the 1990s. The arena opened as the MCI Center in 1997 and cost $220M, equivalent to roughly $425M today. 

“It’s one of the greatest accomplishments the District has ever had,” Federal City Council Executive Vice President Ken Sparks told the Post at the time.

Capital One Arena's home in the Chinatown/Gallery Place neighborhood has been hit by rising office and retail vacancy since the onset of the pandemic. A February report from the DowntownDC BID pointed to visible drug sales, the growing presence of people experiencing homelessness, and panhandling and disruptive busking as challenges facing the area.

D.C. owns the land on which Capital One is built, and Monumental has a 30-year ground lease that expires in 2027. The DowntownDC BID report lists extending the ground lease as one of the three major economic development priorities for the area.

“The renewal of the Capital One Arena ground lease is critical to the Gallery Place – Chinatown corridor remaining an entertainment center for the District and the region,” the report says.