Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard

[Anonymous]

Bowser presser was a three-ringed circus and a disaster.

[Anonymous]

What is the Mayor actually trying to retain for the city? The government stuff is slowly leaving. Billionaire sport teams are leaving. What is coming? Why don't we want the FBI in DC?

The Mayor just seems lost.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowser presser was a three-ringed circus and a disaster.

Was she prepped for the conference? She seemed unprepared. How is she claiming that this was a surprise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Caps will be fine. It's a good franchise. What they lose in MoCo and NW DC fans attending games, they'll make up with NoVa fans. I'm in MoCo near the DC line. We go to Caps game all the time. I cannot imagine trekking all the way to Potomac Yards for a weeknight game during rush hour. Not happening. But the Virginia fans will be there.

The Wizards are going to suffer. It's been a losing franchise forever with little hope of changing anytime soon. Most of their fan base - such as it is - is DC based. They are not going to Potomac Yards. You need a winning team for people to go through the inconveinience of going to Potomac Yards. It'll be a pretty empty arena for the foreseeable future when it comes to the Wizards.

The real loser, of course, is DC. This is hundreds of millions in lost revenue. All those restaurants in Gallery Place are going to die. It will be impossible to sell a condo in that neighborhood. It was the arena that turned everything around downtown 30 years ago. It will revert back to the crack era so fast it'll make your head spin. The future for downtown DC is bleak.

I blame Bowser and the City Council, of course. Absolute idiots. But the real villain is the USAO. When you decline to prosecute nearly 70 percent of all arrests, there are consequences. Leonsis said it himself. Most of his employees have been attacked and harassed just going to work. No wants that kind of stress in their day to day life. These are all repeat offenders well known to the police. The average murder suspect in DC has 11 felonies - pretty impressive for a teen or someone in their twenties. And USAO does nothing about these violent people.

So people and businesses are leaving DC. Until DC gets serious about putting criminals in prison, the city will continue to decline.

Plenty of people from Loudoun and western Fairfax travel to DC for Nationals BASEBALL(!) games. Plenty via Metro too (shock). Are MD people from Bethesda and CC too provincial to cross the Potomac? I’m sure a few are but C’mon. If you’re a fan, the move to a neighboring DC community won’t be a big deal.

BTW the commute from western Fairfax to Baltimore via car at rush hour is not that much longer than getting to DC for baseball games.

Why do you think people in Bethesda and CC pay so much for rather basic houses? It's because they value time over space.

Alexandria and National Harbor are the furthest places from there in the region. It's a full loop around the beltway to get there and back. I'd rather drive to Baltimore.

If you are BCC or SS resident, the Baltimore stadiums, FedEx or RFK, Nats Park, and Audi Field are all closer than PY. My purchases of tickets will reflect that reality.

If you haven't noticed by now, this region doesn't revolve around MoCo. Virginia is the economic engine powering the DMV. If that wasn't evident by the Tysons development, new Metro lines and Amazon, hopefully you realize it now.

It is strange. You’d think that MD would have more economic development on par with VA but it just doesn’t. I’ve never seen the upside to living there especially Montgomery County. PG (where I worked for many years) and Howard Counties seem like better places to invest.

Come to think of it — was PG County even considered? Doubtful it would solve the issue of getting BCC types to games there though.

PG is always considered in these deals. It has the same problems in regards to Arlington.

Did PG County present an offer? That’s the issue: it sounds like Alexandria and Youngkin presented an offer to Leonsis and no one else did. No other jurisdiction can claim it should have been there if they didn’t give an offer (and DC’s wasn’t really an offer at all).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
It's annoying to me that our DC rulers take businesses and residents for granted. They just have assumed for a decade now that they don't need to offe anything. FBI leaves... Flippant. Sports leave.... Flippant. Residents leave "we need more condos". Nightmare rulers.

This. Bowser and the DC Council completely took Monumental Sports for granted. Potomac Yards is a vastly inferior site in terms of public transit but Virginia aggressively pursued Monumental. What is infuriating is that the Mayor was so focused on bringing football (8 to 10 games to year) back to RFK that she (and the Council) ignored retaining the Wizards and the Caps ---which is over 40 home games (with all the attendant economic benefits) in the heart of downtown. And what is worse is that a significant number of the current council neither understands nor cares that they just killed one of the golden geese that lays those eggs they like to soak to pay for their current progressive pipe dream du jour.

Chuck called it back in August: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/08/01/dc-stadium-deal-capital-one-arena-rfk-stadium/

So the guy who defunded the police and provided “oversight” to a crime lab that lost its accreditation and the debacle that is the 911 call center wrote an op-ed opposing football in the District? If he truly believed that the Cap One center was critical to retain in the city, what did he do to improve public safety in the area? Did I miss his legislative proposal or budget allocation?

Charles Allen - he writes letters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DC (and MD for that matter) just made their tax policy competitive with VA, it would be a different story.

Safety is easy, Leonsis could hire a private security team outside Cap One if he was treated fairly from a tax standpoint.

MD and DC are going to continue to spiral until they get competitive.

I live in MD making about 750k. I truly think about the additional 3% or so of income tax in playing - would cover my daughters day care. I can pretty much see VA from my home in Bethesda..

I guess you don't get that the tax/fee burden for DC individuals is lower than VA or MD, right? Look at the studies, this myth that VA is some sort of tax haven compared to the neighboring jurisdictions has been pure fantasy for years.

I’m a CPA, you’re factually incorrect.

Va is the best, then DC, the MD. If you’re poor, sure DC is great.

Then you aren't much of a CPA

https://eliresidential.com/2019/02/19/2019-2-18-does-virginia-washington-dc-or-maryland-have-the-most-favorable-taxes/

I can provide many other links that show the same thing - YOU are factually incorrect.

DC will never offer the sports play book area VA can. Simple, DC need to legalize gambling to have a skin in the game.

NoVA is already moving in a casino in Fairfax unfortunately. I hope it gets quashed but the developer is persistent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DC (and MD for that matter) just made their tax policy competitive with VA, it would be a different story.

Safety is easy, Leonsis could hire a private security team outside Cap One if he was treated fairly from a tax standpoint.

MD and DC are going to continue to spiral until they get competitive.

I live in MD making about 750k. I truly think about the additional 3% or so of income tax in playing - would cover my daughters day care. I can pretty much see VA from my home in Bethesda..

I guess you don't get that the tax/fee burden for DC individuals is lower than VA or MD, right? Look at the studies, this myth that VA is some sort of tax haven compared to the neighboring jurisdictions has been pure fantasy for years.

I’m a CPA, you’re factually incorrect.

Va is the best, then DC, the MD. If you’re poor, sure DC is great.

Then you aren't much of a CPA

https://eliresidential.com/2019/02/19/2019-2-18-does-virginia-washington-dc-or-maryland-have-the-most-favorable-taxes/

I can provide many other links that show the same thing - YOU are factually incorrect.

DC will never offer the sports play book area VA can. Simple, DC need to legalize gambling to have a skin in the game.

NoVA is already moving in a casino in Fairfax unfortunately. I hope it gets quashed but the developer is persistent.

Casinos are so trashy. MGM level is barely tolerable to me. The rest are disgusting human debris collectors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Caps will be fine. It's a good franchise. What they lose in MoCo and NW DC fans attending games, they'll make up with NoVa fans. I'm in MoCo near the DC line. We go to Caps game all the time. I cannot imagine trekking all the way to Potomac Yards for a weeknight game during rush hour. Not happening. But the Virginia fans will be there.

The Wizards are going to suffer. It's been a losing franchise forever with little hope of changing anytime soon. Most of their fan base - such as it is - is DC based. They are not going to Potomac Yards. You need a winning team for people to go through the inconveinience of going to Potomac Yards. It'll be a pretty empty arena for the foreseeable future when it comes to the Wizards.

The real loser, of course, is DC. This is hundreds of millions in lost revenue. All those restaurants in Gallery Place are going to die. It will be impossible to sell a condo in that neighborhood. It was the arena that turned everything around downtown 30 years ago. It will revert back to the crack era so fast it'll make your head spin. The future for downtown DC is bleak.

I blame Bowser and the City Council, of course. Absolute idiots. But the real villain is the USAO. When you decline to prosecute nearly 70 percent of all arrests, there are consequences. Leonsis said it himself. Most of his employees have been attacked and harassed just going to work. No wants that kind of stress in their day to day life. These are all repeat offenders well known to the police. The average murder suspect in DC has 11 felonies - pretty impressive for a teen or someone in their twenties. And USAO does nothing about these violent people.

So people and businesses are leaving DC. Until DC gets serious about putting criminals in prison, the city will continue to decline.

Plenty of people from Loudoun and western Fairfax travel to DC for Nationals BASEBALL(!) games. Plenty via Metro too (shock). Are MD people from Bethesda and CC too provincial to cross the Potomac? I’m sure a few are but C’mon. If you’re a fan, the move to a neighboring DC community won’t be a big deal.

BTW the commute from western Fairfax to Baltimore via car at rush hour is not that much longer than getting to DC for baseball games.

You aren't getting it. The reason people from all corners go to the games in DC is because DC is in the middle of the region with the transit hubs in the city. When you move attractions to one corner or another, it becomes at best inconvenient and at worse burdensome to untenable, to attend. So sure, you have people from western fairfax to Baltimore going to events in DC because it is DC. For people from Baltimore, it is an easy train ride to Union Station and then walk to the Arena or capital bike share to the arena or stadium. Really for people from upper NW DC and Montgomery County, adding an hour commute to attend games on a weeknight during rush hour (not an hour commute, ADDING an hour) is simply not an option for most people.

I'm a different poster but I promise you the owner doesn't think this is an issue. People will absolutely come to these games. I live here and I can tell you that these politicians and business people are looking to redefine this area. A few years ago I went to a local meeting about Amazon HQ coming to Arlington and the leaders running the effort told us that their goal is to make this area (Crystal City/Pentagon City/Potomac Yard/beyond) less car dependent and more metro/bike dependent. They told us that they don't want people dependent on cars. They are trying to build a dynamic metro like city. I believe there will be even greater changes to come that have not been shared yet.

[Anonymous]

Calm down. Mayor Bowser has established a Task Force!


WTOP

Bowser announced a task force on the future of Gallery Place-Chinatown will be lead by Jodie McLean and Debby Ratner Salzberg.

McLean is the chief executive officer of EDENS, which is a national retail real estate developer based in D.C., and Salzberg is the former chair of the Federal City Council.

Both have experience — McLean oversaw the development of the Union Market District and Salzberg of the Yards in Southeast.

“These are women who know how to bring fantastic experiences for residents, business and visitors and quite frankly, create neighborhoods where there were different uses,” Bowser said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Calm down. Mayor Bowser has established a Task Force!


WTOP

Bowser announced a task force on the future of Gallery Place-Chinatown will be lead by Jodie McLean and Debby Ratner Salzberg.

McLean is the chief executive officer of EDENS, which is a national retail real estate developer based in D.C., and Salzberg is the former chair of the Federal City Council.

Both have experience — McLean oversaw the development of the Union Market District and Salzberg of the Yards in Southeast.

“These are women who know how to bring fantastic experiences for residents, business and visitors and quite frankly, create neighborhoods where there were different uses,” Bowser said.

You can bring whatever you want but the fact remains crime will always deter people away. Bowser lost!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If DC (and MD for that matter) just made their tax policy competitive with VA, it would be a different story.

Safety is easy, Leonsis could hire a private security team outside Cap One if he was treated fairly from a tax standpoint.

MD and DC are going to continue to spiral until they get competitive.

I live in MD making about 750k. I truly think about the additional 3% or so of income tax in playing - would cover my daughters day care. I can pretty much see VA from my home in Bethesda..

I guess you don't get that the tax/fee burden for DC individuals is lower than VA or MD, right? Look at the studies, this myth that VA is some sort of tax haven compared to the neighboring jurisdictions has been pure fantasy for years.

I’m a CPA, you’re factually incorrect.

Va is the best, then DC, the MD. If you’re poor, sure DC is great.

Then you aren't much of a CPA

https://eliresidential.com/2019/02/19/2019-2-18-does-virginia-washington-dc-or-maryland-have-the-most-favorable-taxes/

I can provide many other links that show the same thing - YOU are factually incorrect.

DC will never offer the sports play book area VA can. Simple, DC need to legalize gambling to have a skin in the game.

NoVA is already moving in a casino in Fairfax unfortunately. I hope it gets quashed but the developer is persistent.

Casinos are so trashy. MGM level is barely tolerable to me. The rest are disgusting human debris collectors.

Ted has been asking the city for years to exercise flexibility around online gambling within the district. VA sweetened the deal with this legislative component. DC will never recover from the financial loss of two major sports teams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The Caps will be fine. It's a good franchise. What they lose in MoCo and NW DC fans attending games, they'll make up with NoVa fans. I'm in MoCo near the DC line. We go to Caps game all the time. I cannot imagine trekking all the way to Potomac Yards for a weeknight game during rush hour. Not happening. But the Virginia fans will be there.

The Wizards are going to suffer. It's been a losing franchise forever with little hope of changing anytime soon. Most of their fan base - such as it is - is DC based. They are not going to Potomac Yards. You need a winning team for people to go through the inconveinience of going to Potomac Yards. It'll be a pretty empty arena for the foreseeable future when it comes to the Wizards.

The real loser, of course, is DC. This is hundreds of millions in lost revenue. All those restaurants in Gallery Place are going to die. It will be impossible to sell a condo in that neighborhood. It was the arena that turned everything around downtown 30 years ago. It will revert back to the crack era so fast it'll make your head spin. The future for downtown DC is bleak.

I blame Bowser and the City Council, of course. Absolute idiots. But the real villain is the USAO. When you decline to prosecute nearly 70 percent of all arrests, there are consequences. Leonsis said it himself. Most of his employees have been attacked and harassed just going to work. No wants that kind of stress in their day to day life. These are all repeat offenders well known to the police. The average murder suspect in DC has 11 felonies - pretty impressive for a teen or someone in their twenties. And USAO does nothing about these violent people.

So people and businesses are leaving DC. Until DC gets serious about putting criminals in prison, the city will continue to decline.

Plenty of people from Loudoun and western Fairfax travel to DC for Nationals BASEBALL(!) games. Plenty via Metro too (shock). Are MD people from Bethesda and CC too provincial to cross the Potomac? I’m sure a few are but C’mon. If you’re a fan, the move to a neighboring DC community won’t be a big deal.

BTW the commute from western Fairfax to Baltimore via car at rush hour is not that much longer than getting to DC for baseball games.

Why do you think people in Bethesda and CC pay so much for rather basic houses? It's because they value time over space.

Alexandria and National Harbor are the furthest places from there in the region. It's a full loop around the beltway to get there and back. I'd rather drive to Baltimore.

If you are BCC or SS resident, the Baltimore stadiums, FedEx or RFK, Nats Park, and Audi Field are all closer than PY. My purchases of tickets will reflect that reality.

If you haven't noticed by now, this region doesn't revolve around MoCo. Virginia is the economic engine powering the DMV. If that wasn't evident by the Tysons development, new Metro lines and Amazon, hopefully you realize it now.

It is strange. You’d think that MD would have more economic development on par with VA but it just doesn’t. I’ve never seen the upside to living there especially Montgomery County. PG (where I worked for many years) and Howard Counties seem like better places to invest.

Come to think of it — was PG County even considered? Doubtful it would solve the issue of getting BCC types to games there though.

PG is always considered in these deals. It has the same problems in regards to Arlington.

Did PG County present an offer? That’s the issue: it sounds like Alexandria and Youngkin presented an offer to Leonsis and no one else did. No other jurisdiction can claim it should have been there if they didn’t give an offer (and DC’s wasn’t really an offer at all).

Way back in the mists of time, like 20 years ago, PG County had a sports stadium. They decided they didn't want that. Why would they bid on a new one?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the Mayor actually trying to retain for the city? The government stuff is slowly leaving. Billionaire sport teams are leaving. What is coming? Why don't we want the FBI in DC?

The Mayor just seems lost.

She has never had a vision for the city and is in way over head. She can no longer coast on the success of her predecessors.

Scandals, corruption, crime, dysfunctional agencies. I never voted for her and we get three more years.

Buckle up as she seeks to blame anyone but herself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the Mayor actually trying to retain for the city? The government stuff is slowly leaving. Billionaire sport teams are leaving. What is coming? Why don't we want the FBI in DC?

The Mayor just seems lost.

Frumin trying to take Intelsat off the tax rolls to turn it into a DCPS school. One of the potential Crown Jewels of economic development off the books in perpetuity. These clowns are not just stupid they are dangerous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser presser was a three-ringed circus and a disaster.

Was she prepped for the conference? She seemed unprepared. How is she claiming that this was a surprise?

Because she is incompetent and not a leader.