Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do the crime rates in each surrounding area compare? That could be a factor. You get visitors who suppor the opposing team coming into town, and you want them to have a good experience here.

nope, not a factor

Yeah. But going to the middle of the suburbs is not really going to be an exciting experience. It doesn’t have a vibrant feel around there.

There’s just not enough density in the area to support a bunch of new restaurants and hotels.

I guess you have not been to Potomac Yard lately.

Potomac Yard Current
The big box dominated North Potomac Yard, as it exists today.
CITY OF ALEXANDRIA

https://media.bizj.us/view/img/1565171/potomac-yard-current*900xx560-315-43-0.png

The (not very bright) Alexandria Mayor and city council are now upset with the deal they helped negotiated.

https://www.alxnow.com/2024/02/08/alexandria-city-council-unanimously-unhappy-over-proposed-makeup-of-virginia-stadium-authority/

Keep in mind that the Mayor is a self described transportation nerd (with a low level political patronage job at Amtrak) and never thought that maybe Metro should be included in the discussions.

They are excellent representatives of the people who overwhelmingly elected them. And who will elect the all again (except the Mayor who for some reason isn't running again).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the upside here for anyone, except Ted. The teams will suffer, the fans will suffer, the local residents will suffer, the VA taxpayers at-large will suffer.

Cutting the rest of your post because the whole point is that there's upside for Ted.

+1

His teams are already crap as they are (not that he cares), so he decided to get into commercial real estate and try to get lucky in that arena.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do the crime rates in each surrounding area compare? That could be a factor. You get visitors who suppor the opposing team coming into town, and you want them to have a good experience here.

nope, not a factor

Yeah. But going to the middle of the suburbs is not really going to be an exciting experience. It doesn’t have a vibrant feel around there.

There’s just not enough density in the area to support a bunch of new restaurants and hotels.

I guess you have not been to Potomac Yard lately.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the upside here for anyone, except Ted. The teams will suffer, the fans will suffer, the local residents will suffer, the VA taxpayers at-large will suffer.

Cutting the rest of your post because the whole point is that there's upside for Ted.

Disagree. The whole point is that Virginia taxpayers will suffer. Virginia is on the hook for the bond payments.

Yep. If the economists Ted pays to insist there is not way that Virginia tax payers will ever be on the hook, they and Ted would agree to indemnify tax payers. For some reason, that has never happened in the history of stadium construction even though owners and economists say there is zero risk of the revenue not covering the bond payments

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the upside here for anyone, except Ted. The teams will suffer, the fans will suffer, the local residents will suffer, the VA taxpayers at-large will suffer.

Cutting the rest of your post because the whole point is that there's upside for Ted.

Disagree. The whole point is that Virginia taxpayers will suffer. Virginia is on the hook for the bond payments.

Anonymous wrote:I don't see the upside here for anyone, except Ted. The teams will suffer, the fans will suffer, the local residents will suffer, the VA taxpayers at-large will suffer.

Cutting the rest of your post because the whole point is that there's upside for Ted.

I don't see the upside here for anyone, except Ted. The teams will suffer, the fans will suffer, the local residents will suffer, the VA taxpayers at-large will suffer.

Virginia residents are put on the hook for bond payments that clearly will not be fully covered by whatever revenues are generated by team.

I'll eat my hat if this gets through VA legislature. I don't think it will.

If I had to guess, Ted is doing this to increase the value of Monumental by getting a sweetheart land + arena deal backed by taxpayers. He's then going to sell Monumental to an ownership group with deeper pockets who are willing to "invest" in the teams' personnel.

His teams' value is actually declining the longer he stays in DC because a big part of the value is predicated on the sweetheart rent he pays for CapOne arena. That lease is up within 5 years and then he will need to pay market rate. Those teams are worth a lot less without the below-market rent on the ground lease.

In short, DC has him by the nuts once that lease expires.

LOL have fun with that Alexandria taxpayers (and if you believe that is the upper limit...)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do the crime rates in each surrounding area compare? That could be a factor. You get visitors who suppor the opposing team coming into town, and you want them to have a good experience here.

nope, not a factor

Yeah. But going to the middle of the suburbs is not really going to be an exciting experience. It doesn’t have a vibrant feel around there.

There’s just not enough density in the area to support a bunch of new restaurants and hotels.

Anonymous wrote:How do the crime rates in each surrounding area compare? That could be a factor. You get visitors who suppor the opposing team coming into town, and you want them to have a good experience here.

nope, not a factor

I am beginning to think that Mark Cuban is the smartest of all the .com millionaires from the late 1990's. He created vaporware and sold it to Yahoo for a billion dollars. Leonsis went to work for Steve Case and they lucked into a craptastic deal with Time Warner right before the market crash...totally lucky with the horror that was AOL.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seems like Ted might’ve been better off to locate his stadium complex on the OR/SV line, maybe in the same place in Tyson’s where they are proposing that casino complex. Virginia season ticker holders could park at the Herndon, Reston, Vienna, East Falls Church, and West Falls Church metro stops, and Maryland season ticket holders could drive in across the American Legion Bridge, which is a mess now but will improve with the VA 495 expansion and the bridge rebuild/expansion. That would put the stadium 15-20 minutes away from the most affluent parts of Virginia and Maryland, and a 15-18 minute metro ride from much of DC after the planned speed increases (59mph to 65mph and 75mph) are implemented on the OR/SV lines (https://wjla.com/news/local/metro-dmv-transportation-board-of-directors-leaders-discuss-plans-to-increase-train-speeds-in-some-areas-of-dc-maryland-virginia-public-transport-community).

Being close to a broad spectrum of fans who can afford season tickets makes sense to this fan. PY is not one of those areas, whether for fans in DC, nearby Md burbs, or Mclean/Great Falls. Capital One Arena is one of those areas.

This. The whole plan is idiotic and if he goes through with it (which it seems he is determined to do), it's just going to hurt both teams, Alexandria, AND DC. He is an idiot.

The problem is that he is an idiot with a crap ton of money so there are not enough checks on his idiocy.

This plan is delusional.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:He’s such an out of touch dumb@ss

It continues to astonish me how these fools are able to make so much money.

But he’s got that arrogant rich guy thing where he thinks if he just keeps saying something everyone else will agree with him.

It worked with the Alexandria mayor, the city council, and the electorate. That is an easily convinced group of people of course.