Reply to Wizards and Caps could be moving to Potomac Yard

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Well I'm in Del Ray and U can say that most of the area isn't that impressive.  However, considering surrounding area like Vienna, Falls Church, Burke..  we could do a lot worse in the area!!!  Arlington is def cool but really you're only looking at Clarendon.  The restaurants are just OK.

DC in general I think is more interesting but compared to NYC, Chicago, Miami, you are joking that it's a top city.

It's all relative really, around here I couldn't be happier geographically living elsewhere because of the proximity to Old Town Arlington DC.  But if u has a choice, I'd be in an actual city.

On the topic of the stadium, I think it's a bad move for us locals but a practical decision by Ted.  Not sure how much $$ he'll make but if the teams are good, I think people will show up.  There's a ton of mediocre restaurants and I'm always surprised how people flock there.  I really think that people will do the only thing they can if no other choices.

I think it's a huge devastating loss to DC but they messed up. I think this will ultimately happen in PY though I don't have every confidence it'll be awesome, I do think it will work for Ted.

[/quote]

Ted is making the value of the 70 acres as well as the 2 billion dollars in cash he is being given to develop those 70 acres. He is also being given the value that someone (Alexandria? Virginia?) will need to spend - estimated at $300 million - to upgrade the metro station.

The debt service that the taxpayers of Alexandria and Virginia will be paying is another billion.

And for that, the region gets an entertainment complex on an already crowded Route 1 with double track metro access that cannot be expanded.

I am not sure how DC "messed up" - they don't have 70 acres to simply give to Ted Leonsis. They offered up the money he asked for to renovate the arena. they also gave him, a few years earlier, $80M to build a Wizards practice facility in Southeast Washington.

It is clear this deal was in the works for months, if not years, given how far back Ted and Glen go in Northern Virginia business circles, but to suggest that DC messed up when there was never going to be a comparable offer is misplaced.

The question now is if Virginia and Alexandria taxpayers are going to accept the liability on 2 billion in bonds and another billion in debt service should the ticket sales and concessions on a hard to reach arena don't pan out.[/quote]

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