Victory: City of Alexandria Rejects Potomac Yard Arena

Citizen Opposition Deals Stunning Blow to Monumental Sports Proposal, Local Coalition Urges City Council to Withdraw Support for Any Future Arena Deal

ALEXANDRIA, Va., – The Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard (The Coalition) celebrated the news that the plan to spend $1.5 billion of public money on a new home for the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals in Alexandria appears to have collapsed for good.

“Every day since Governor Youngkin and Ted Leonsis stood on stage in Alexandria to announce this project, we’ve been building a movement to hold them accountable,” said Adrien Lopez, a Potomac Yard resident and one of the founders of the Coalition. “In the face of a billionaire’s nearly limitless ability to pay for flashy presentations, slick videos, and armies of lobbyists, justice has prevailed. We thank Senator Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) and other leaders from across the Commonwealth who put Virginia and Alexandria ahead of a billionaire’s wish list and said ‘no.’”

Alexandria residents who opposed the arena thank Virginia legislators, including our hometown Delegates, Elizabeth Bennett-Parker and Adele McClure, who represent Alexandria’s Potomac Yard and Arlington’s Crystal City neighborhoods, respectively. The Coalition, and our national allies, celebrate today’s news with thousands of grassroots citizen activists from across the region who refused to accept the latest multibillion-dollar development deal for sports owners. 

While the Coalition celebrates its victory today, more work must be done. Arena backers in Richmond should state unequivocally that they will not seek to resurrect this deal in the 2024 state budget. Leaders in Alexandria should renounce any plans to devote city funds to subsidizing the arena. The Stop the Arena Coalition is calling for a full and transparent accounting of how this deal was negotiated by the City of Alexandria, the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership, and the Commonwealth.

“Economic development that benefits all residents of Alexandria and the Commonwealth can only happen with transparent input from the citizens who will be affected,” said Andrew Macdonald, former Alexandria Vice Mayor and co-founder of the Coalition. “Backroom deals negotiated in secret and sprung on the citizens at the last minute must not be standard operating procedure in Alexandria or anywhere else ever again.”

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The Coalition to Stop the Arena at Potomac Yard is a grassroots organization that advocates on behalf of the thousands of Alexandria and Arlington residents who would be directly impacted by the arena, the Virginians who will be negatively affected by an investment of this scale by the Commonwealth, and a bipartisan group of national advocacy groups, all of whom oppose the proposed arena deal. For more information, visit stopthearena.org.

Download the press release