Really, Ted? The Alexandria Capitals ?!?

[SaucyJack]

This morning, billionaire sports club owner Ted Leonsis, along with Virginia Guvnah Glenn Youngkin, announced a non-binding agreement to move the Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria Virginia’s ‘Potomac Yards’ area, just south of Reagan National Airport, as early as 2028.

 

We’ll see.  Early reviews from all the WaPo user comments include:

 

1) What, another billionaire getting tax breaks?

 

2) Traffic is already horrendous enough in the Northern VA suburbs of DC.

 

3) Virginia taxpayers ain’t gonna stand for the extra hits to their wallets.

 

4) Considerately more inconvenient for all the Maryland fans commuting over the Metro.  Yes, they’ll expand the Potomac Yards station capacity, but now a risk of Marylanders stranded at the DC transfer point if games run late and the last Red Line trains heading north have left.

 

5) Ruins being able to stop off for an early dinner in Penn Quarter or Chinatown (6th/7th Street corridors) that are right by Capital One Arena.

 

6) A financial and developmental disaster for the struggling District of Columbia and its ‘downtown district’ - first Covid now this.

 

7) All still needs approval from the local legislative bodies.

 

———————————————

 

C’mon Ted, you got yer Caesar’s Sportsbook right in yer arena, and now you own the TV network (Monumental Sports).  Now you want more Corporate Wellfare too?  
 

Keep the teams in D.C., dude.  Keep them more central, and where Metro Access is already well established at a high capacity.

[Math]

The Senators are doing everything possible to move back in downtown Ottawa, the current Panthers location is in the middle of nowhere and the franchise has a long and storied structural issue to have a decent attendance, not to mention the current Arizona situation and the damage caused by playing in freakin' Glendale... And The Caps want to do the exact opposite!?!? This is dumbest, most stupid idea ever since building the Canadian Tire arena in Kanata.

 

I truly hope for the franchise's sake and fans that this lunatic nonsense plan doesn't go forward.

Edited December 13, 2023 by Math

[mojo1917]

48 minutes ago, Math said:

the current Panthers location is in the middle of nowhere and the franchise has a long and storied structural issue to have a decent attendance,

Sunrise, sucks.

can confirm

[RonJeremy]

4 hours ago, SaucyJack said:

This morning, billionaire sports club owner Ted Leonsis, along with Virginia Guvnah Glenn Youngkin, announced a non-binding agreement to move the Capitals and Wizards to Alexandria Virginia’s ‘Potomac Yards’ area, just south of Reagan National Airport, as early as 2028.

 

We’ll see.  Early reviews from all the WaPo user comments include:

 

1) What, another billionaire getting tax breaks?

 

2) Traffic is already horrendous enough in the Northern VA suburbs of DC.

 

3) Virginia taxpayers ain’t gonna stand for the extra hits to their wallets.

 

4) Considerately more inconvenient for all the Maryland fans commuting over the Metro.  Yes, they’ll expand the Potomac Yards station capacity, but now a risk of Marylanders stranded at the DC transfer point if games run late and the last Red Line trains heading north have left.

 

5) Ruins being able to stop off for an early dinner in Penn Quarter or Chinatown (6th/7th Street corridors) that are right by Capital One Arena.

 

6) A financial and developmental disaster for the struggling District of Columbia and its ‘downtown district’ - first Covid now this.

 

7) All still needs approval from the local legislative bodies.

 

———————————————

 

C’mon Ted, you got yer Caesar’s Sportsbook right in yer arena, and now you own the TV network (Monumental Sports).  Now you want more Corporate Wellfare too?  
 

Keep the teams in D.C., dude.  Keep them more central, and where Metro Access is already well established at a high capacity.

You also left out another big reason Mariel Bozo the Mayor.

[SaucyJack]

1 hour ago, RonJeremy said:

You also left out another big reason Mariel Bozo the Mayor.

Well sure.  How dare Muriel Bowser and the City offer mere chump change of 1/2 billion dollars of public money to The Billionaire?  
 

Surely all can sympathize with Mr Leonsis for wanting an additional 100 million.  But noooooo said the Silly City to that extra 20% of taxpayer financing.

[GratefulFlyers]

It boggles my mind why city and state governments/administrations still fall for these billionaires’ claims that tax payers will surely benefit if they’d only foot the bill for a new stadium, new infrastructure etc. Of course they’re not actually “falling for” anything they’re in on the scam from the very beginning.
 

In NYC during Bloomberg’s administration he and his billionaire buddies were working the media nonstop to have taxpayers build them a football stadium in Manhattan on the west side of midtown. A gigantic hulking mass of concrete and steel that would sit vacant most of the year… we came thisclose to getting stuck with that eyesore.

[mojo1917]

@SaucyJack

Is the idea to put an arena near the National Harbor or something?

Interestingly the Sixers have been hinting at building a venue in "down-town" Philadelphia, next to or in Chinatown.

I think Josh Harris is a scum-sucking-rat-bastard who could have been a cartoon villain, maybe it's not too late (i digress). 

Anyway, I think the Sixers should be careful what they wish for because an example of a so-so endeavor lies in the Verizon center.

The Verizon center didn't really build the blocks around that venue up the way people may have envisioned 30 years ago. It's not bad there but it's also not an oasis of sports and family fun either. 

I 100% agree about the ridiculousness of the cities having to pay billions for stadiums so the billionaires don't take their ball and go home.

It's a terrible business all the way around. 

 

 

[radoran]

7 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

Anyway, I think the Sixers should be careful what they wish for because an example of a so-so endeavor lies in the Verizon center.

The Verizon center didn't really build the blocks around that venue up the way people may have envisioned 30 years ago.

 

The arena is still very much "just an arena" and doesn't offer many of the year round amenities you find in, for example, the arena in Brooklyn.

 

DC is also very much "not a city" especially in the downtown area

 

I think if you look at the Navy Yard and the Capitals ballpark you might find more what they are hoping for - albeit with half the number of guaranteed dates.

 

The thing is there is actual residential area nearby.

 

The flip side of the argument is that Market East isn't great now and nothing has really worked for many years to revitalize.

 

That said there are a LOT of new condo construction not to mention possible office conversion in the Center City area - and Market East.

 

If done well they could have a real winner. If done badly, it's Philadelphia.

 

[SaucyJack]

9 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

Is the idea to put an arena near the National Harbor or something?

No, that would require everyone drive to the games, as there is no Metro there.  (But it is close by the new Potomac Yards arena site; take US 1 south for a short bit, take I-495 “Beltway” East across the Potomac River, and the National Harbor is there in Oxon Hill, MD very near the Southeast DC line on the east side of the river.)

 

I’ve not been to either locale.  The subway stop opened a half year ago.  Potomac Yards area is just west of a bunch of railroad tracks by the river (hence the “Yards”), has townhomes, and some typical retail.  Google Maps shows a Target that might be retail space for sale.  Maybe they tear it down for more arena space.

 

2 hours ago, radoran said:

DC is also very much "not a city" especially in the downtown area

Correct.  I remember 15 years ago, before all the local department stores closed or became Macy’s, doing some Christmas shopping at the old Woodward & Lothrop around 11th or 12th street, just a tad west of the arena.  Not a ton else around it, and the whole place closed at either 5 or 6.  No nightlife in those streets.

 

9 hours ago, mojo1917 said:

The Verizon center didn't really build the blocks around that venue up the way people may have envisioned 30 years ago. It's not bad there but it's also not an oasis of sports and family fun either.

I suppose that’s mostly right.  Chinatown didn’t expand.  A bunch of restaurants did pop up south of the arena on 7th Street for a few blocks , but how much business do they get except on game nights?  The huge Washington Convention Center is just north, that probably helps the restaurants some.

 

———————————————

 

Apparently crime downtown has risen since the pandemic.  And carjacking surely discourages driving.  
 

Arena or not, it is hard to see what can be done to increase downtown visitation.  (Museums abound but none super close except for the National Portrait Gallery.)  Every suburb now has typical and ample retail outlets.

 

Before broadband took off in the early 2010s, big cities could draw people in to visit amazing book and music collections like a huge Borders, or the truly amazing Tower Records that was located right near George Washington University.  (Immense rooms with immense collections for pop, jazz, rock, and classical.  Immense!) With all that killed by Internet Broadband, city centers are just not terribly unique or enticing any more.

 

As Tony Soprano often said, “Whadda ya gonna do?”

[nickp]

remember Jack Kent Cooke had an entire ceremony about moving to the Commanders Potomac Yards What happened they ended up in Landover It ain't over until the Fat Lady Sings

[SaucyJack]

Breaking news on local DC television:  the proposed move of the Capitals and Wizards away from Capital One Arena, to Potomac Yards at Alexandria VA…

 

…is now OFF.

 

Fiiight, for oooold, Dee Ceeeee!

Edited March 27 by SaucyJack

[SaucyJack]

So at the just-televised press conference, Caps/Wizards owner Ted Leonsis said he was impressed and convinced to make a new deal with the District of Columbia per:

 

a) other recent DC funding to revitalize the downtown area

 

b) recent crime bill legislation to reduce it downtown 

 

Ted wanted $600 mil from the city to upgrade Capital One Arena, but the deal is for $515 mil over 3 years.  He’d sign a 25-year lease.

 

The Virginia Senate did not approve the move to Alexandria nor did they put into place any plan for public funding.

 

The DC City Council still needs to approve this new deal early next week, but since the terms are nearly identical to plans they already unanimously approved months back in discussions with the mayor, this looks like a done deal.