WASHINGTON – The Prince of Potomac Yard talks about water.
Ted Leonsis said Wednesday, “When I first came to this site, and stood on the roof of the adjacent building, and looked out, we forgot the power of the flow of two rivers in this community. And, the iconic Real estate is incredibly valuable. We have access – you can see the Washington Monument from here, Washington, D.C., the border is a mile and a half from here.”
That must be good! So good that the billionaire owner of the Wizards and Capitals will have a spectacular view of the Potomac and Anacostia confluence from his soon-to-be-built offices in Alexandria, where he will be the center of his entertainment and sports empire. that would be unfair to say Literally Will look down upon those who are financing his Jerryworld, his Ballmerville, Crystal City, or National Landing, or whatever name he prefers for his community across the river. But it would be a hilarious sight.
Still, it’s a spectacle for one person, for one audience. Finally, anyone who cares about and loves the District of Columbia should watch this imminent departure of the Wizards and Capitals for Virginia.
Some of us old enough to remember the “deal” made between Jack Kent Cooke and Virginia state representatives for a new football stadium on the same property a generation ago fell apart like cotton candy. Was. So, it is possible that the Virginia General Assembly will raise objections to this new project that will be very difficult to overcome. Maybe the NIMBYs in Alexandria will make their voices loud and annoying enough to force a reconsideration.
But, I doubt it.
“Hold me accountable,” Leonsis said Wednesday. Ok.
It is about one man’s grandeur and readiness to leave, when the city that has provided him so much over the past decades needed someone with his voice and influence to say it after Covid and after January. 6, and which is grappling with rising crime rates across the city that have many people uncomfortable, “You know what? Some things can go wrong here right now. But I’m lucky enough to be financially secure enough to go through this with you. I want to be part of the solution. So, I’ll be a little less rich. I’m staying.”
Don’t tell me rich men don’t do this. That’s exactly what Abe Pollin did when he built what is now Capital One Arena downtown in 1997 and transformed the city — mostly with his own money.
In contrast, Lyonnais went for the money. As I’ve said and written dozens of times over the years, owners of pro sports teams have every right to do so. They can play their teams wherever they want. They can make any deal that suits their wallets, allowing them to create multi-use “entertainment districts” that will bring the affluent and well-connected to their new playgrounds. No one doubts that Virginia will build a state-of-the-art arena for Lyonesse to envy and admire.
But, it will be difficult to take any future conversations by Lyonnais about his love for the district at face value.
Because he knows how much the Wizards, no matter their current group, have meant to generations of basketball fans in D.C. I’m well aware that the Wizards were once the Bulls, who once played in Baltimore — and, Before that, in Chicago. I am well acquainted with the history of franchise roulette, with multiple teams, in multiple cities. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt deeply, whenever it happens. Yours The team leaves town. When the Senators left, first, for Minnesota – and then, when the team that replaced them left for Texas, it hurt this city greatly. Then some of us followed the Orioles, because they were the closest team. We did not love them.
And when the then-Redskins left for Landover, MD, even though it was just a few miles from the DC line, it felt terrible. This still happens.
Add it to the ledger.
Because Leonsis knows more than anyone that the crowds that come to Wizards games, and have been coming to them for the last 25 years, are the most diverse racially, economically, socially in the NBA. Maybe there will be similar crowds for Hawks games in Atlanta. Most of the league’s buildings, these days, are full again post-Covid. But, in the main, their fan base is very white and very affluent. That hasn’t been the case here since I started covering the team and then played at the Capital Center in Landover in the late ’80s. The Wizarding Crowd looks like a district – at least that’s what it looked like. They will not do this when the team crosses the river.
(I’m not mentioning the Capitals crowd because the Caps routinely sell out Capital One. Caps fans have represented that for nearly two decades. I can’t imagine then that they won’t continue to do so in Virginia.)
Each owner swears that his fanbase will follow the team to the new location “right down the street.” The Warriors swore that light rail and express transportation would mean most of their middle-class fans would come from Oakland, across the San Francisco Bay, and follow the team to the new Chase Center in downtown San Francisco.
they did not.
Sure, Chase is full — but not with the same people who filled what is now Oakland Arena for three decades. You have to pay for a $2 billion field; You don’t do that with $15 tickets. You do it with six-figure suites and five-figure courtside seats. As John Salley, who won four championships back in the day while playing for the Pistons, Bulls and Lakers, explained when the Pistons moved to The Palace of Auburn Hills, 31 miles north of Downtown Detroit, in the late ’80s: “We “We used to play in front of auto drivers. Now we play in front of officials.”
What now feels like an appropriation of the city’s culture, by nicknaming Washington’s G-League team the Capital City Go-Go’s, and putting D.C. at the center of attention at every opportunity – trumpeting “For the District” and “The District of Columbia.” It would be impossible to forget what happens. Promoting this year’s alternate jerseys on your Twitter feed and Wizards players’ jerseys, or with a breathless history about the city’s Boundary Stones, or slapping “DC” on hats and clothing – only to have them all walk away. For, dear bargain river, your brave new world.
And is there any truth to the report that Leonsis was irritated by teenage kids performing go-go music outside Capital One? Well, it’s hard to know how to process this. Buskers? he is an issue?? Good God.
(After this was initially published, I was told that Leonsis’ issue was not with the street musicians who perform in front of Capital One on event nights, but rather a concern about one person in particular who accompanied passersby. has been aggressive, both in front of the arena and other nearby businesses.)
If you’re not from here, you won’t understand why the Wizards/Capitals moving to Virginia is especially hard for DC residents to accept. It’s just four miles from Capital One, Leonsis said Wednesday.
Mentally it feels like the Grand Canyon.
First, traffic. The idea of installing a 20,000-seat arena, practice facility and new restaurant/entertainment venue in an area surrounded by Reagan National Airport, Amazon II and a large, busy mall, with several up-and-coming and surrounding streets that currently have one or two -Laners, challenging. Sources involved in the discussions said on Wednesday that significant improvements to roads around the proposed site, as well as increased light and heavy rail services, are part of the deal. Still, it will be too long a trip for many – if they choose to come.
Would fans who take a 30-45 minute subway ride from the Maryland suburbs to downtown’s Gallery Place be willing to add another 20-30 minutes to the round trip to Alexandria? Will Wizards or Caps games start at 7pm?
Second… well, let’s put it this way. The way many Virginia residents feel about coming to the District for a night out when they have One Loudoun or Reston Town Center available? District residents feel the same way about going to Alexandria for a night out, when we have Penn Quarter or Columbia Heights or NoMa for patronage. Don’t you feel safe coming here? Many of us do not feel safe going there. You have your reasons. We have our own.
It seems as if, once again, the District has been kicked in the stomach — to blame, as COVID has cut the number of offices operating downtown like a sickle, leaving restaurants and bars There are fewer customers left for lunch or dinner. However, make no mistake: Mayor Muriel Bowser takes a Big L here. His job was to prevent something like that from happening, because you can’t replace Caps and Wizards and the energy they brought to the city. I know it was difficult to raise the kind of money needed to save Lyonnais from wanderlust. However, that’s the job. They cannot go under your supervision. They’re going at it.
I have no doubt that this decision was difficult, perhaps even painful, for Lyonnais. In such a situation, it would have been helpful for him to express what he was feeling on Wednesday to the journalists who asked to talk to him after the press conference, rather than rebuffing him. And he and his team have ideas for how to transform Capital One, now freed from having to carve out dozens of potential days on the calendar each year for Wizards and Capitals games to keep the building occupied more often. Could. Shows snow. music program. The Mystics return to Capital One after playing at the DC Convention Center, and/or activities in conjunction with Event DC, the entertainment and sports arena in Southeast. (Speaking of which: What exactly is Lyonesse now planning to do with the ESA he talked about so grandly a few years ago?)
But, nothing can replace a sports team in the soul of a city. Nothing.
You know a big reason for me coming here athletic In 2018? I was in San Francisco in the spring of that year, covering the Warriors and Rockets in my hotel room while watching the Capitals play the Penguins in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. If you’re from D.C., you know, whether you rocked the Reds regularly or not, how much of a pain in the Penguins’ butt the Caps were for a decade, how desperately Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom wanted it. was required. Defeated Sidney Crosby and Pence. This was town business.
So when Evgeny Kuznetsov scored on that breakaway overtime goal to seal the series on the Penguins, and the broadcast cut to the cheering crowd outside Capital One in Penn Quarter, who were extremely happy, and young, and diverse, the Beast finally Killed him, he did something to me. In that hotel room I said to myself, “Look how happy the city is. This is very good. I would like to be a part of scripting it.”
And me, as I watched the Nationals win the World Series for the first time, and the Mystics win the WNBA title behind “Playoff Emma” within just a few weeks of each other in 2019. And the joy those franchises brought to my hometown was immeasurable. , forever.
I love this city, my city. And my city was seriously wounded, on Wednesday morning, while the men and women on the other side of the river celebrated their good fortune, their deal made good, and did not care about the pain left behind.
(Photo of Ted Leonsis and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin: Vin McNamee/Getty Images)
