In 2023, Ted Leonsis’s Monumental Sports & Entertainment came within a signature of moving the Wizards and the Capitals across the river to a new arena in Alexandria. The District countered, kept the teams, and put public money behind keeping Capital One Arena competitive. This year, Monumental and Capital One announced a 20-year naming-rights extension attached to a renovation of that same arena priced past $1 billion.
The leverage works plainly, in two steps: an ownership group threatens relocation, and a city government supplies public concessions to prevent the loss of the civic and economic identity a franchise carries. Then, having secured that public backing, the team turns around and signs a long-term private naming-rights deal on the newly upgraded asset. The public absorbed the downside risk of losing two franchises. The ownership group collects the naming-rights revenue on the upside. Both things are true about the same building.