In a statement released Tuesday, Governor Glenn Youngkin committed to see through his plans to bring the Washington Wizards and Capitals to Alexandria, Virginia with a new sports and entertainment district complete with new facilities for the teams to play.
Youngkin made the declaration after a breakdown of negotiations with two major unions resulted in their opposition to the arena, and after Virginia State Senator L. Louise Lucas (D-Portsmouth) successfully stalled a Senate bill necessary for the arena project to begin and now controls the fate of the House version of the bill after it landed in the Senate Finance Committee she chairs.
The governor declared in a statement, “My administration and the partners in this project have worked in good faith over the last few months to give union workers a substantial role in this project. Today, labor leadership backtracked on that progress and announced their opposition to a project that creates 30,000 jobs, including 12,000 construction-trade jobs.
“Virginia is a right-to-work state and unreasonable demands from union leaders will not derail this project,” The governor promised. “I will continue to work with the General Assembly to complete this opportunity and bring $12 billion in economic contributions that will fund shared priorities in Virginia.”
His statement followed news that UNITE HERE Local 25 and the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the country, officially announced their opposition to the arena.
In a press release, multiple union officials asserted the arena would not create high-quality work for Virginians, and claimed the project would serve to enrich Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the Wizards and Commanders.
NEWS: We join @va_labor in opposing the Monumental, JBG Smith Arena and Entertainment District plan pic.twitter.com/al5ijmwe2V
— UNITE HERE Local 25 (@UHLocal25) February 20, 2024
On Wednesday, the governor’s office sent members of the press an opinion column published in The Richmond Times-Dispatch, written by Virginia Restaurant, Lodging, and Travel Association President Eric Terry, who celebrated the plans for the arena as a possible boon to the commonwealth’s tourism industry as well as its tax revenues.
“Rarely has a project been met with such excitement for its potential impact on our industry and for the trajectory of travel in Northern Virginia,” Terry concluded. “And because of what tourism means for our state’s economy, Richmond should love it, too.”
The future of Youngkin’s plans is currently dependent on Lucas, who told reporters on Sunday the arena “is not a good deal for Virginia” and on the same day wrote to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, “The last thing anybody should ever try to do is bully me.”
Lucas previously predicted Democrats would not cooperate with Republicans if Youngkin did not plan to sign her bill to increase the commonwealth’s minimum wage to $15 per hour by 2026.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Background Photo “Washington Wizards Playing Basketball” by All-Pro Reels. CC BY-SA 2.0.
