Ted Leonsis and Monumental Sports Entertainment announced this week a plan to bring the Washington Capitals and Washington Wizards to Northern Virginia. The move isn’t expected to happen until 2028, but it’s already sent shockwaves through the political and sports worlds.
Here now are the winners and losers of the deal.
Winner: Ted
He successfully played the DC and Virginia governments against each other to score hundreds of millions of dollars of public money, regardless of which side of the river he ended up on. He’ll take reputational bumps in the press and from fans, but the increase in his capital will be much, much bigger.
Winner: Glenn Youngkin
The, um, divisive governor of Virginia has signaled to his constituency that he can bring Big Business to the commonwealth, a massive win as long as those constituents don’t ask how he managed to do it. Youngkin has his sights on higher office, and this deal is just one more arrow in his quiver.
Winner: The players
The new facilities mean practice and games will be even closer to the cloistered, rich suburbs of Northern Virginia where most of them live. The proximity of the new arena to National Airport means shorter commutes on those late-night flights back home. Americans really hate commuting, and millionaires are no exception.
Loser: Muriel Bowser and DC Council
Literally a day late and figuratively a dollar short, the DC government misplayed their hand and lost an entertainment anchor to their neighbors in Virginia. However rigged the game is, DC still wanted to play it. They lost.
Winner: Real estate company JBG Smith
The DMV real estate titan negotiated Amazon to put their fabled HQ2 at Met Park just a few years ago. (Its status is a bit murkier today.) Now they have secured public funding for the Capitals and Wizards to take more. Whoever had the idea to speculate on that plot of land a long time ago sure is feeling good about it today.
Loser: People of Virginia
Pending legislation, Virginians will see public money go into private pockets rather than into mass transit, schools, and public goods. Nearby residents of Potomac Yard who subscribe to the “not in my backyard” ethos are going to be irate. But if you live in like Dumfries and you go to 30 Caps games a year, I suppose you’re going to save like 15 minutes each time? Americans hate commuting.
Loser: Ward 2
Chinatown and the Penn Quarter had already been in financial trouble since the pandemic (excepting the real-estate owners, who have increased rents despite the economic hardship), and losing Capital One Arena crowds on almost a quarter of the year is going to hurt dearly. Workers will be laid off, and businesses will fail.
Idly, I recall a conversation I had a long time ago with a someone who praised the impact MCI Center had upon its opening on the then-squalor of the neighborhood around it. Will the squalor return?
Loser: Ward 8
DC and Monumental opened the 4,200-seat Entertainment and Sports Arena (ESA) in 2018. The city paid for ninety percent of its costs, which included significant overages. With the Mystics moving to Capital One Arena, the future of the ESA is dismal, though they will continue to host the G League’s Capital City Go-Go and live esports events, though I’m not sure the latter is a real thing anymore.
Loser: Washington Mystics
The 2019 champions will move (back) into a bigger building at Capital One Arena, at least until Monumental has its exit option in 2027, but they’ve been left out of the relocation to the new hotness of Potomac Yard.
Winner: Qatar
The sovereign wealth fund of the emirate bought five percent of Monumental Sports and Entertainment over the summer. That’s already a good deal, as about half a billion in American public funds will now amend their investment.
Loser: Metro
WMATA was well-prepared for the Capitals and Wizards. Gallery Place, the second busiest stop in the system, is located beneath Capital One Arena. New spending will have to be allocated to increase the throughput of the newer and smaller Potomac Yard stop. On the same day news broke of the relocation, WMATA proposed a wage freeze for their workers.
Winner: Cars
If you’re a car, this deal rocks for you. Fans from suburbs north of Shady Grove or northeast of Greenbelt will be less likely to take mass transit to the game. The GW Parkway will be a major artery for getting to Potomac Yard for pretty much anyone to the north and east. A massive parking lot will be reportedly be constructed underground at the arena location, so there will be lots and lots of cars coming and going from the area, particularly right as work lets out.
Loser: Washington Wizards and their fans
The new arena doesn’t matter; they still lose a lot of basketball games. They’ve made the loffs once in the last five years, and they’re just 3-20 this season. At least they’re not the Pistons? Meanwhile, their fans — notably more diverse socioeconomically and racially than the Caps’ or other NBA teams’, and in fact more representative of the District overall — will have to leave that District to see a game.
Loser: Dan Snyder
He’s not connected to the deal at all, but it never hurts to mention this.
Headline photo: Ian Oland/RMNB
